Chatting With The Gorgeous Binky Felstead & Her Frightening Health Experience with Her Son, Wolfie, That Lead To THIS Important Campaign...

0:03We're Life of Mummy's best friends with five kids between us. I'm Holly and I'm Sophie and welcome to our podcast where each week we will be chatting through everything life after kids throws at you. Unfiltered and unapologetically honest ranting. A place to feel seen, heard and laugh along with. We are really, really excited to welcome to our... We are so excited. I've got baby brain, pregnant. Here we go. So this is going to be interesting. We are really excited to welcome Binky Felster to our podcast, Life Mummy's podcast. Hi, Binky. Hi, guys. Thank you for having me. And we've been following your journey from Made in Chelsea to motherhood and everything in between.

0:45And I know you've got three kids, haven't you? Yes, I have. India, Wolfie, Wilder, you've got three, I've got third on the way. And I think you had India the same time that we had our first, Zach and Delilah. So we've been following you.

1:00Binky Felstead:Yeah, she's eight. So, yeah, I mean, I had her when I was, gosh, I was 26. And it feels like a different lifetime ago, honestly. I know. How much fun are the eights? I know. It's fun and it's challenging as well. Hormonal, I'd say. are you so yes i was gonna say india's kind of feel like she's eight going on 18 the the teenage kind of speckles i can see her happening and i can't and i can't uh my mommy says my mom used to say to me when you have children you will know what i went through and like yeah i will i'll be laughing when you tell me what happens because bless her she's she's so mature for her age in so many ways but those little little i can i can see that she's gonna she's gonna be challenging I always I don't know about you but I found that when we like when I had my first I called up my mum I was like I'm so sorry I am so sorry I'm apologizing for everything I get it now but imagine like raising I wouldn't want to be my parent that would be horrific do you know what I mean amazing like us as teenagers horrific but we both so we've both got eight-year-olds and I've got a boy who's obviously it's very different me and Holly talk a lot about like the difference between like the hormones and the boys and he's very witty and sensitive and lovely and then I forget that he is eight sometimes when I see his friends and they look so little I think oh my god I'm really hard on you sometimes I expect so much from him because he acts like an adult yeah that's so true that my my boy Wolfie the little one middle one is incredibly sensitive and sweet um very cuddly and but you know it hasn't hasn't but you know I feel like they are all just a different wilder i named him perfectly he is my wild one and he is just full-on hectic heavenly so cheeky but gets away with it they're all just so different but they all kind of complement each other so well and it's just been so amazing the last few a couple of years watching them integrate play together of course you'll have your moments when you're going to rip out your hair and then everyone wants to share anything or they all want the same thing um but it's just that's just It's going to be like that now, isn't it, for the rest of our lives?

3:05Yeah. Ups and downs. What is your age gap? How old are the two boys?

3:09Binky Felstead:So India's eight, Wolfie's four, Wada is two. Oh, wow. Yeah. So we're similar. So I've got almost two, a five, and an eight. And I've got an eight, five, and then new boy in Feb, another boy in Feb. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, bigger age gap. So exciting. Yeah. Very exciting. I mean, it's a lot of fun. There's no dull moment in the house ever. Yeah. And I like it like that. I like the hecticness. I like the hexing nuts as well I do you know what I used to love I used to love it growing up because I was from a massive family but now I'm in charge of the hexing nuts it's slightly different because I was like what no more the merrier come on let's have another one now I'm in charge of it I'm like I'm not that fun anymore find myself like trying to micromanage everyone but I also think the jump from two to three was way easier than the jump from one to two I think mum guilt kind of I felt just so scared and worried that India was going to feel like I loved her less or I couldn't give my time to her as much as I should do but of course you know when you've got a brand new baby you need to be there with that baby constantly and and I had all this pressure I put so much pressure on myself whereas when I had Wilder I knew well hang on it's going to be absolutely fine you know Wolfie's got India now but also at the same time like they don't care they're just so excited they've got another sibling to play with um but for me it was more just the kind of overthinking everything going from one to two and she was absolutely fine so they always are and by the way my third is a real third child like he this morning he opened the company he had a chocolate cornflake and I was like my husband's like you're going to give him that I'm like absolutely yeah because yeah it's kind of a cornflake pick your battles pick your battles yeah you just you're just much more chilled you don't put as much pressure on yourself I think that's the big thing that's that's a nice part of motherhood at this stage isn't it that you can just everyone's going to be fine and people make mistakes and we just it's all fine yeah and I feel like I was the third child so I can't I kind of get it um but we have got you know I'm quite strict in so many ways I'm really hot on manners I want my children to go to a birthday party and me not worry what they're going to act like and I'm hoping they're going to they I know I want to make sure they have their say their please and thank yous but that's how I had my parents like that growing up you know I they were so hot on manners and I think my mum used to say to me look if you're not nice you're not gonna be invited anywhere and that's just not great for any of us really is it because it's embarrassing for me it's not great for you you're not gonna have anyone you're not gonna ever be invited anywhere so and actually it kind of stuck with me um because no one wants someone else's child that doesn't want to behave at the end of the day and that's funny because I remember that from my childhood I remember so much about table manners how to hold a knife and fork please and thank yous and look you in the eyes one thing that stuck with me over anything else that I was taught so yes and good and good you know we want to raise lovely children that have that are polite and you know have manners otherwise you know this is not it's not good for anyone and and today especially we're going to talk about something that me and Holly actually don't know that much about which is really interesting because we love to talk about things that appeal to everyone that everybody's going through um and that is allergies so our children had like very mild milk allergies when they were babies but like nothing that's really you know sort of got in the way of them going to parties or functions or that we have to be worried about um and and yeah that's what we're really here to talk about because your son wolfie's got a severe sesame allergy is that correct yeah and so we were sorry i was gonna say it's really i think it's really important to educate our audience as well because as people that don't have allergies we might be as careful as we should be as well which is but and also what why would you be why should you be i was exactly the same before i had um you know what before what happened i had no idea what an allergy was or how how would an anaphylaxis to look like because I didn't need to um but yeah he he's got a severe sesame allergy he was I think 18 months when we were all in the country having lunch and the car was packed ready to come back to London he was having he was eating hummus as he had done many a time before I'm gonna ask you that so he had had it before yeah he'd had hummus before then that's the thing with allergies it can just develop so you don't know if it's not going to ever happen um but you know eating hummus shoving all over his face and he then started to get really upset big red um rashes were appearing all over his body and he was itching and there are white dots on these rashes so I was running him to the loo trying to wash his face and his hands from the hummus um and then he just got inconsolable but then went then and then kind of went a bit quiet so we just shoved the kids in the car, drove to the nearest pharmacy we could find.

8:02Binky Felstead:Thank God. I dragged the pharmacist out. I was like, can you tell me what's going on? He's like, yeah, he's going into anaphylaxis because Wolfie's face was all swollen. His eye, whole of the half of his face, his eyes, his mouth is swelling. He's like, yeah, he's called an ambulance now. And thank God there was an ambulance on their lunch break around the corner. So they came within, I heard the sirens within seconds. and they took one look at him got him in the back of the ambulance and he got rushed hospital and was under superveillance for seven hours but you know the thing is no one knows what the well a lot of people don't know the early signs of an anaphylaxis and it is that kind of the red rashy face and the swelling but when the face does start to swell then it's really serious because of course then the tongue starts swelling the the airways get smaller they're unable to breathe and then the unthinkable could happen um so it is so important and that's why this we've got this campaign to be reaction ready like we we don't i now speak to my friends and family um before any you know family function or birthday party to be fair they now do ask in the groups these days are there any allergies that we should be made aware of and of course you know i'll take wolfie and he's at the age now being four where he will always ask because there's got sesame in mummy or has this got sesame in and he's able to kind of ask now which is really sweet but heartbreaking at the same time that he has to even think about that and he now does know those early signs but he'll start coughing he'll say his throat is itchy he will start probably probably most of the time being sick and of course you just can't although we've got nothing that has sesame in the house you just don't think I gave him a burger bun on the beach at the summer didn't even think that's got sesame on top of it burger buns have these little sesame i don't even know what sesame looked like at the beginning um so i was so naive and clueless to all of this but of course you don't normally think have to think about that kind of stuff if you're not in that position to have to think about that kind of stuff and does it does it affect this is what i find it really interesting as well which obviously everything that that you went through must be firstly heartbreaking because especially when i've got an 18 month old and he eats hummus and he eats peanuts and you wouldn't even think that it was that because you'd be like it's definitely not that because he's had that before but if he's in a room with it can he be affected by it or is it no no thank goodness no um it's only if he actually eats it um and then does he have to have the pen the the adrenaline straight away like immediately so we have to kind of just see if the face does start swelling like it did the first time then the adrenaline device has to be used um he has had it before my mistake where he has just gone a bit red around the mouth and and he's still like he's he's still able to breathe and he's still able to talk um he might be sick a couple of times and then he'll just be you know we'll just keep him back on the sofa and we'll just kind of monitor him but if the swelling happens on the face then he needs to react quite quickly that's what i was going to ask how do you know when to do it because i feel like people that are like listening watching interested yeah yeah is that key said obviously you watch for the sign that you said the rash and the swelling when is it that you suddenly think i need to intervene when it's the breathing gets when the breathing starts um you know when he's finding it hard to breathe and that is you know when he'll start coughing you know he had it actually fairly recently we um we have to get we're microdosing him on tahini because we're going through this program and they have to be well enough to have their dose and you know he he then kind of sort of going mommy it feels funny it feels itchy in my throat instead of coughing so we gave him periods straight away and you know called the ambulance they were around in seconds and they actually gave him the device um because they said right it's time to act um look all we can do knowledge is power all we can do is just as as friends and family even if your child doesn't have analogy is just educate yourselves on those early signs because you could potentially save a life yeah and it's so good that you did go to a pharmacy because by the time you would have called an ambulance god knows that you know by the time you would have sat there and waited to see what was going to happen or try to work out yourself or try to go to a doctor i guess that's a really good thing to to think about obviously if you're in doubt call an ambulance but if there's a pharmacy nearby do they have any of the adrenaline devices in the pharmacist no well you have to have a prescription but puritan right we got puritan which kind of i think um i'm not a doctor so i can't give any advice but yeah in our situation we did give him puritan which the pharmacist told us to do and then we called the ambulance straight away because obviously that is what you need to do first and foremost is just get someone to come and assess and make sure that they can do what they can yeah and obviously like being in the festive season as well like with parties a bit like i I know you said that you know even in my school mum groups now like whenever there's a party they'll always say are there any allergies but you can never and there are a few kids in my children's classes that do have severe allergies but I feel like as a mum it's really stressful and quite frightening because you don't know how seriously yeah it's being taken so how do you navigate that like especially with Christmas as well how do you navigate like and how do you teach your son I know you said like he now is very aware and he's like oh is this got sesame and how do you teach such young children to be careful when you're not with them the whole time because you're not I think I don't think you can teach it I think obviously he now knows the feeling of having an anaphylaxis he is absolutely terrified of it because it's not a nice thing to happen I don't you know being on it being sick being itchy being sore being unable to breathe he does not want that to happen again so he's now so super conscious which is what I said earlier it's great in so many ways but it's so sad in so many ways you don't want your your child to have to worry about that when they eat anything and I guess as a parent I carry his adrenaline device wherever we go he's got it one in his school bag you know whenever we go out it's always in my bag especially on airplanes whenever we're going on holiday like I've got that device on me at all times and I haven't left him at a birthday party yet because I still think he's a little bit too young anyway but I've got to have faith in those people that look that are looking after him that they know how to use it and like he had a friend around the other day that has what different types of allergy and I was like what would you like for dinner he was like just plain noodles I was like okay with butter can't have butter okay like I would always put butter in noodles I wouldn't think about it I was like no of course no I can't have cheese and I'm okay and you know he just and I was like here are your plain noodles and he was in heat he's eight he was like make sure you don't use the same fork that you do with theirs with mine and but you know like I was aware and I was listening to him but had I not have asked those questions and just gave him butter with pasta such a simple thing you would never think a child would have like an allergy like that I don't know if you remember but you know if you agree but going to restaurants when you were younger you never had a waiter or waitress ask if there are any allergies at the table that is just such a new thing that I've only picked up on since well having Wolfie um and it's thank goodness that people are more aware this you know you can actually see if there's sesame and things just by looking at a packet because it will say has sesame has nuts contains nuts you know there's so many that they're making it quite um obvious now which is yeah some places are making it really obviously just brilliant um but yeah i mean to be honest i i think when you're also in that situation when your kid isn't breathing and they're going into an aphylaxis you you just panic right so you kind of have to remind yourselves of how to use the adrenaline device because you could just like pick it up and shove it in it's gone into your thumb rather than their thigh and you've got you've got a you know a shot of adrenaline instead and that's happened to loads of people oh my gosh they panicked they panicked they've gone oh i don't know what to do and they just shoved it into their thumb um so you do have to kind of and I have to remind myself I've got like a big uh piece of paper in the cupboard where the medicines are and just says this is how you you know if I kiss I have a friend over and I'm upstairs and they can look in there and see how to do it yeah it just must have been such a the first time it happened such a shock and so petrifying and it's sad that you have to go through that to know this yeah it's horrible it's horrible i mean obviously it's it's it's just what i said to you earlier is you don't think about it before it actually happens to you and you don't and that's where this campaign is so brilliant with the festive season and people having parties and getting together the one thing you guys can do is just have a little bit of of knowledge of how to react because you could save a life and it is it is just that those early signs are so important because you can act on upon it and get help as soon as possible it doesn't even have to it's not even a child you know an adult you know you could be at a bar or a restaurant and someone's going in and you know what to do no I completely agree absolutely and also when you're not when you don't have a child with an allergy unless you know someone or like you're we're educating people you're educating us and then our followers will an audience and you know see it through there but I don't think you really understand how serious it is either no do you know what I mean like I've been I've taken my friends kids to camp before and I'm like you know oh and here's the epi pen the mum gave me told me to give it to you but like do they really like do people really truly understand what it what it means you know like what could happen I think that that's why this education is really important for people yeah no it's true I know adults like my sister-in-law has a severe nut allergy but then you always think like she's an adult like she she she's in charge of her life she knows what to do she knows what questions to ask but when it comes to kids it's a whole it's definitely me it definitely would make me more aware like even listening to like wolfie's story and like even being more conscious of kids parties christmas all these little things having kids over like just being aware of the you just you just don't know i had no idea by the way you could suddenly develop an allergy i had no idea it's part because like when my um all of my kids were little they couldn't tolerate formula very well so i had them allergy tested really young and weirdly they weren't they weren't allergic to milk but they just would always cry every time they had it yeah i wonder if the if the allergy would show up then because if he didn't have a reaction until he was 18 months then well obviously you can't feed kids solids for however long so you can't give them anything like that until they are at an age where they're eating hot solids so I mean they always say you know give your child nuts make sure you're you know near a hospital or you've got you know an ambulance that you can call like nearby so you don't think about that with sesame um or like hummus like you know it's it's you just don't really put two and two together really with that but of course I think now people are going to be watching this and people will be kind of looking up and and it's um I don't know what It feels like it's even, it's more common than ever now.

18:56Binky Felstead:I was just... I never used to hear about allergies back in the day. My mum was saying that to me. I had a conversation with my mum this morning, so I was obviously talking about this podcast and what's going on. And my mum's words were, it's really funny, because growing up, even with our generation, their generation, this allergy thing was not, not that it wasn't a thing, it's always been a thing, but it wasn't so prominent as it is now. Has it always been a thing? My mum was saying the same. She was like, nobody ever had an allergy when you were younger. And I said, but didn't I cry all the time as a baby?

19:23she was like yeah yeah you were just annoying yeah with him to the pediatrician she was like you were just a whingy baby i was like maybe yeah we just had this literally this conversation this morning about something has been over the last range isn't it i don't know what it is like i

19:36Binky Felstead:i haven't done the research into if it's more um if allergies are more prominent now they have been for a reason or if no one has never used to talk about it before um because obviously allergies have been around for how many years but i don't know if it's now just being really well it's being really well documented now thank god it is um but my pet my mum would say the same what darling what do you mean an allergy what's an allergy like even she'd say that yeah nothing wrong with you yes we're looking for a problem exactly exactly just get on with it yeah but it's also strange as well I know everybody every child is different and we all have our own you know we all have our own things but for one child to have the allergy without any history of you just wouldn't even think you're so unprepared do you know what i mean yeah yeah yeah and wilder we we make sure now you know we give um interior and um wilder tahini because you don't want them to a develop anything you know you you want them to be able to be able to eat it of course so we can't not ever let them have it in fear of in fear of them having the same thing because obviously just because wolfie's had it just because wolfie's got doesn't mean the other two you know have it um a weird question as well because you probably don't know the answer to it but can you develop it that later in life like could india develop it now i don't know i'm i have like i said i'm not a doctor i don't know but all i know is that wolfie had definitely had humus a few times before and it was just you can't they can develop it i don't know what how old or anything like that but it is worth looking into for sure especially if you have got young children who else just starting to eat solids i'm gonna have all of this from next year yeah you do weaning again okay my gosh the weaning again oh yeah that was my worst bit was the weaning stressed me out oh my god the worst bit for me was just chucking it on the floor after i'd spent all that time cooking it and then that's why the dogs are so super useful now i've already got two cats i'm gonna end up with a dog now aren't i yeah you need to get a dog she got two cats instead of a third baby and then she didn't get rid of the itch of the third baby so now we've got two now i've got two cats and a baby perfect let's add a couple more in there get a few more animals running around some more pets in there but no that's something as well like even like talking about allergies and weaning it's actually um even for any of our listeners with this as well maybe they're pregnant maybe they've got a new baby maybe they're about to wean it's just being a real aware like being aware again of allergies and like now i'm going to start thinking about that i haven't thought about weaning for like six years so actually it's going to be on top of my mind now as well and i didn't even really with brodie with my third i don't think i really paid too much attention to it because i wasn't my others didn't have it so i think i just gave him whatever i didn't even remember one i didn't definitely didn't do it in a way that if he would have had a shock i don't remember where i was no means i think you really don't need to that's the thing you don't i think we're all kind of the same like if it doesn't affect us then we don't really need to look into it but this is where we're asking just you know just look into it just looks like you said you've got you've got people coming to your house that have kids with allergies can you imagine if anything happened on your watch it's just it's just not mad it's just unthinkable it's not even no it's a horrible it's a horrible thought so it's just you know that's what they're saying that the catchphrase is be reaction ready oh there's pedro there he is it's so sweet no reaction ready yeah true yeah and it's so important especially like you know and it sounds strange of like getting on busy trains and all this sort of stuff like time of year just to be aware of it all because i thought if a kid was at my house having you know a reaction i wouldn't i wouldn't think to call an ambulance until i really felt like i needed to in that moment yeah to know that definitely that should be something you should be thinking about absolutely and of course like i said wolfie's four and he's able to communicate and ask if there's sesame in something or he's able to communicate if he is feeling unwell or he is just being sick or you know the rashes on the body like that is all signs early signs that they are having anaphylaxis and that's such a key and they're quite clear the early signs did you say that it's a rash with white spots on it well he had um white spots in his rash right um and that is one of the signs it could just be a rash like he had all over his tummy um his mouth went red his lips were swollen i don't know if you've seen the photo but his eye everything was swollen on his face and that is when it gets really scary because of course it's the airways that then get affected and start swelling and then they aren't able to breathe and then you know the unthinkable may happen so that's when you need to make sure you call someone immediately and get get your adrenaline device out yeah no it's no thank you honestly thank you for bringing this topic to light because like we say that it's it's something that like we're aware of but don't really think about it honest so actually this is so important especially like like we keep saying we're in christmas period now yeah lots of parties going on yeah and with three kids grabbing food with three kids there are multiple like you say we're subjected to so many children um throughout our different portals of you know different age groups and stuff so no it's really it's a really important topic yeah and i'm thank you for allowing me to speak about it and and raise awareness through your platforms it's amazing really amazing it's so important and unlike we were saying i'm sure a load of our followers will relate as well and it's just educating those who don't have allergies in their family re-educating people that do that maybe like you said maybe they have a very young baby and they think oh that they're fine and they don't just just being very aware of the what ifs i think is really important like you said reaction ready so it is so important yeah well thank you so much really appreciate it thank you actually we needed to relearn some skills well it's like when you do like i remember when i had my first they were like we should do a first aid course and i'm like why yeah here's what happens if the baby stops breathing you don't know what to do and actually it was such an important you to redo that i really important thing to know yeah you know it's really really important yeah no thank you it's really it's very important thank you thank you so much guys and listen on a brighter topic have a wonderful christmas yes you too are you going anywhere nice are you here for christmas we're gonna be we're gonna be getting some christmas sun this year so i'm quite excited about that yeah but i do actually love a i love an english christmas as well actually my favorite get by go out for a long walk get cozy by the fire um my favorite time of year just it is everyone's just so happy yeah the kids are like literally i mean the only bad thing is elf on the bloody shelf having to find new things for that i've kind of given up now to be honest I've peaked too soon I always peaked too soon I'm so in last night I left I would just let my husband do it because I'm very like you know particular over it it's a thing and last night I was in bed and I was like you have to do it he just hung them off the shandles like please could you do something better he was like get up and do it yourself he threw a toilet roll and I was like it's fine yeah perfect that's what I would do I can't I've just given up they're just they're just eating different fruit bowls or like eating like hanging off different things in this house last time I run down in the morning and I put it in a cereal bowl I'm like yeah done there's so many amazing things I've seen on Instagram some like really good inspo or TikTok that I've seen um where and you can see a few of them where the dads have been in charge of doing it and it's just like hilarious some of the stuff the dads are doing that's I like all that stuff I like the stuff that the dads are doing that's a bit more me it's a bit more funny a bit naughty a bit naughty getting up to no good I love it there's like Barbie on on um on a one of those on a mixer yes naked and her legs like that like going around with Snoop with Snoop gold you see the Snoop elf it's the best we did one recently we made a reel of like different inspo and mine were all very PG and I'm not Pete and she was like getting Barbie's clothes off doing like bending him over the chair and I was like Holly please and there was a baby elf there they'd had a baby so I'm not that's teach them young I shouldn't be doing it I should not be doing it because I would definitely go I'm not PG so I've kind of had to give up but way more fun we can at least I'll laugh about it or it's saving for us for me oh no thank you so much Binky honestly thank you again hope you have a lovely Christmas thank you you guys too and congratulations I'm thinking about you until February exciting