Girl with severe allergies has to try new food outside A&E

Seren had her first anaphylactic shock when she was eight months old

A two-year-old has allergies so severe that her parents have to get her to try new food in hospital car parks in case she goes into anaphylactic shock.

Gemma Whatling said she and husband Nick have tried food, including almonds and prawns, with Seren outside hospital after having to wait for an ambulance after bad reactions to food at home.

"It gives us that reassurance because we know we can get her quickly to the hospital if she experiences anaphylaxis," said the 42-year-old from Vale of Glamorgan.

The Welsh government said it was conducting a "scoping exercise" to understand the quality of service for people with food allergies.

Gemma said she and Nick first suspected Seren had allergies when she was three months old as she had "very sore skin, widespread eczema and it was hard to get under control".

On the advice of doctors, they introduced different food with Seren "cautiously", and her first anaphylactic shock came when she was eight months old after having cow's milk in a meal.

Seren has now required treatment with an EpiPen six times, Gemma said, and there are some food they must try in a hospital setting, but others – such as almonds, prawn, chickpeas and lentils – the family have been told they can try at home.

"It's not always easy to identify food triggers, so we're very nervous about introducing these at home as it's a long way from the hospital," she said.

In some instances, she added, the couple have tested food with her in a hospital car park "because we know we can get her quickly to the hospital if she experiences anaphylaxis".

She said NHS staff who treated Seren had been "fantastic", but there was "limited" services for people with allergies and they vary between health boards.

In Wales, there are two specialist NHS allergy services led by members of the British Society for Allergy & Clinical Immunology (BSACI), both in Cardiff.

In contrast, there are more than 100 in England listed on the BSACI website.

The family hope to undertake an "oral food challenge" – which helps to determine if a food allergy exists – for Seren, but are on waiting list at a neighbouring health board as the service is not available in theirs.

Seren's mum, Gemma Whatling, says it is "extremely frightening" to have a child with severe allergies

Gemma described having a child with severe allergies as "extremely frightening".

"Just because there are situations where she's tolerated a small amount once, it doesn't mean that the next time she will," she added.

"It's frightening. Our anxiety levels are extremely high."

Seren goes to nursery several times a week and her parents are "trying to give her as normal a life as possible".

"We have to prepare everything she has there – we're thinking ahead and planning, and we're trying to make sure she's not being left out," she said.

The Natasha Allergy Research Foundation said allergies were "a serious medical condition that can be life threatening".

Founder Tanya Laperouse wants a UK government-appointed allergy tsar to "champion the one in three people living in the UK with allergies".

She said their role would be to tackle the "allergy epidemic" and increase the number of specialist clinics "so that people don't need to travel sometimes hundreds of miles to receive the care they need".

The Welsh government said health boards were responsible for planning and delivering allergy services in line with the National Institute for Clinical Excellence.

It added: "However, we recognise that provision across health boards varies and we are currently undertaking a scoping exercise to better understand the gaps in provision, access arrangements and the times people wait to access services."