Living with Latex Allergies: Understanding Treatment Options and Hypoallergenic Products

Posted by Katelyn Mitchell on May 03, 2018

Perhaps you’ve known since you were a child. Maybe you were just recently diagnosed. You might just have a sneaking suspicion and not yet have had the chance to confirm it with your doctor or a specialist.

Regardless of the circumstances, you might be one of the tens thousands of people around the world currently suffering from a latex allergy. Well, friend, you are not alone. Scientists currently estimate that about 1% of the global population suffer from some form of latex allergy. That number has been increasing every year since the 1990s, when the use of latex gloves in the medical profession first became popular.

If you do have a latex allergy, we know what you’re probably thinking. What am I doing browsing this site? All they sell is latex products! There’s nothing for me!

Well, friend, we are absolutely delighted to tell you that you may in fact be wrong.

None of the staff here at Laidtex are certified doctors or allergists. None of the advice given in any of our articles is legally verified medical advice. As always, we recommend consulting with your doctor or an allergy specialist before taking any actions regarding your latex allergy. However, we can provide advice based on solid scientific research to further educate you regarding the topic.

In this guide, we’ll look at ways of treating and maintaining your allergy, as well as how to identify products – such as ours! – which may be hypoallergenic and safe for you to use without risking a reaction.

So I've Been Diagnosed with a Latex Allergy - Now What???

Your doctor has run the skin or blood test and it’s official – you are allergic to latex. It might be mild, it might be severe. You might only ever experience a small, mildly itchy rash or you might have to take extreme care to avoid more dangerous symptoms like throat swelling, nausea or vomiting.

Regardless of your situation, there are actions which you can take.

First of all, you should go back and read our previous article Understanding the Latex Allergy? if you haven’t already done so. That article discusses the different causes of a latex allergy as well as the difference between a severe allergy, anaphylaxis, and a more minor one, contact or irritant dermatitis.

If your allergy to latex is anaphylactic in nature – meaning that it presents any risk of causing anaphylaxis – it is recommended that you carry an injectable supply of the medicine epinephrine with you at all times. This medicine is sold in an easily portable, single use form known as an EpiPen. You should carry at least two of these with you as well as keeping them easily accessible at your home and place of work.

In addition, it is recommended that individuals with an anaphylactic latex allergy wear some sort of medical identification jewelry, such as a bracelet or dog tag necklace, as frequently as possible. Doing so could possibly save you in the case of a medical emergency. If you become injured or ill and need immediate medical treatment, such identification jewelry will alert doctors to your allergy and allow them to avoid using latex gloves or other medical equipment which could possibly make your condition worse.

While its effects are more mild, dermatitis is in fact more difficult to treat, as no epinephrine equivalent currently exists. There is in fact no single medicine currently available which can successfully treat a latex allergy. However, it is possible to treat the individual symptoms of dermatitis in order to weaken their effects on your body and shorten their duration.

If your symptoms are primarily topical or skin-based, such as rashes, hives, or red, itchy or scaly patches of skin, a number of soothing creams can be purchased to treat them. Usually, these creams can be found over-the-counter in drugstores or pharmacies and do not need to be prescribed. However, it is still recommended that you consult with your doctor for recommendations on the best creams to use.

On the other hand, if your symptoms are more similar to those of asthma or hayfever, such as coughing, wheezing, congestion, runny nose or shortness of breath, they may be able to be successfully treated with antihistamines. These usually come in the form of pills that are taken orally. They are also used to treat various pollen, tree and flower allergies, so they can often be found in pharmacies or drugstores sold under the generic label of “Allergy Medicines”. As always, consult with your doctor regarding recommended brands.

A Life Without Latex?

Of course, no medicine is perfect, and even effective remedies such as epinephrine and antihistamines will usually be administered after you have already had an allergic reaction and the symptoms have already started to show. Therefore, it is obvious that medicine is not the only solution when it comes to an allergy such as latex – the other, and some may argue far more effective, solution is to avoid coming in contact with the allergen during your daily life.

In the case of latex, this may be difficult to do. It is used in a surprising number of products, including some which are a lot less obvious than you might imagine. Sure, you’re probably aware that gloves and balloons are made from latex, but did you also know that Band-Aids contain a high percentage of latex as well? What about basketballs? Tennis racquets? Even the soles of your sneakers?

It’s all true! Today, latex is found in a large number of common household items, which even those of us without a specialized profession might encounter in our daily lives. It would be completely impossible to provide an exhaustive list of everything that contains or might contain latex in your household. However, we have endeavored to provide a list of commonly found latex products which is as thorough as possible.

In addition to the widely known gloves and balloons, latex can be found in any and all of the following:

Rubber erasers, including those found on pencils
Hand grips, such as those found on tennis or badminton racquets and bike handles
Vehicle tires
Rubber cement
Contraceptives, including condoms, diaphragms and dental dams
The adhesive on the backs of stamps
Underwear elastic
Stress balls and other “squishie” toys
The soles of tennis and running shoes
Band-Aids
Mouse pads
Pacifiers and the nipples of baby bottles
Rubber bands
Swimming caps and goggles
Hairnets
Women’s sanitary pads and tampons

Latex also has a high rate of appearance in many medical supplies. Visits to a hospital, doctor’s office or other care facilities may present a particularly high risk to sufferers of latex allergies. If you have a latex allergy, make sure to let your doctor and any other health professionals know before you are treated or examined in order to avoid anything which might cause a reaction.

Besides gloves, latex may be found in these common medical items:

Blood pressure cuffs
Stethoscopes
Intravenous fluid (IV) tubes and bags
Blood bags
Syringes
Electrode pads (for restarting hearts)
Surgical masks
The stoppers of vials used to store fluid samples

We get it. It’s overwhelming. There is a huge number of latex products which you must avoid in your daily life in order to ensure that you stay happy, safe and healthy and experience as few allergic reactions as possible.

Luckily, as the world becomes more and more aware of the rising number of latex allergy sufferers, and latex manufacturing methods become more and more sophisticated, an alternate solution has begun to emerge in the form of hypoallergenic products. Read on to learn more!

Hypoallergenic Latex Products

The term “hypoallergenic” refers to a product, material or substance which fulfills one of the following two conditions:

Does not contain an allergen that it would otherwise be thought to
Has been manufactured in such a way that the allergen is rendered ineffective

Examples of the first are relatively common. One would be a banana-flavored dessert which is made only with artificial banana flavoring and contains no actual banana ingredients. Another would be any breed of dog or cat which does not produce dander, and thus would allow sufferers of pet allergies to be around it without the risk of inhaling allergen particles.

If your allergy is to the chemical additives frequently found in synthetic latex, you will have the most success in looking for these sorts of products. Synthetic latex items which have not had any flame retardants or insect, mold or mite repellants added to them are often hypoallergenic and can be safely used even by allergy sufferers.

Do keep in mind, however, that some of the chemicals inherent in the makeup of most synthetic latex products are capable of causing allergic sensitization, meaning that you can become allergic to them over time due to frequent exposure or use. It is possible that, even if you seek out hypoallergenic synthetic products only, you may develop an allergy to the substance later in life.

The second, however, is a relatively new idea which is still being perfected by scientists and manufacturers. Fortunately, latex proteins is among the allergens which can be successfully removed from a product during the manufacturing process.

Does it sound too good to be true? Well, we promise it isn’t!

Manufacturing latex involves both spinning it, still in liquid form, at high velocities and then exposing it to extremely high temperatures via the process of vulcanization and then by baking it in a mold to produce the final shape. The spinning causes the proteins which trigger allergic reactions to rise up and separate themselves from the rest of the material, while the high heat by which the molded product is solidified either evaporates or cooks away the proteins. Many manufacturers also wash the product before it is shipped off and sold in order to further ensure that no proteins remain. The resulting product does not in fact contain any of the allergens which cause such misery in affected humans.

This does not mean that every product made from natural latex will be hypoallergenic or safe for use by sensitive individuals. In particular, gloves and balloons are not made using high enough temperatures to remove the offending proteins. It is for this reason that they are considered some of the worst offenders for frequently provoking allergic reactions in sufferers. (Medical and cleaning gloves in particular should be avoided no matter how mild your allergy, as they are treated with a nonstick powder that causes them to release particles into the air when they are put on or removed).

Luckily, clothing, such as the fashionable items which we offer in our catalog, is more often than not hypoallergenic in nature. Individual clothing items are produced via molds, typically made from metal such as aluminum, which are heated to several hundred degree Fahrenheit during the process. Even the clothing items which are produced via cutting and gluing latex sheets are thoroughly washed before they are shipped, sold or advertised on our site in order to make sure they are safe for any and all customers to wear.

Again, we are not medical professionals and recommend that allergy sufferers contact their doctor or a specialist before purchasing any of our products. In addition, you should also seek medical advice before purchasing if you suffer from any of latex’s cross-reactive allergies – banana, kiwi, avocado, or chestnut. (See Understanding the Latex Allergy here for more information about cross-reactive allergies.)

However, if you do decide to purchase any of our products, they can all be found in our catalog here. If you have any questions regarding whether a specific product is hypoallergenic, feel free to contact the Laidtex staff at any time. We are completely dedicated to making sure that as many people as possible are able to enjoy our high quality, super adorable and sexy suits and outfits!

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