The Allergy Journey

I thought I was only going to write about books on here, but I need a place to process the allergy journey, so I figured I'd try this.

On Father's Day we gave Nathan a bite of a peanut butter cookie. He hadn't had peanut butter before, but now he was two, so we figured we'd let him have a bite. He threw up and threw up and threw up and then broke out in hives. So I ran up to Rite Aid, bought some benadryl, and thought He's probably allergic to peanuts. The rest of the summer I've been watching pretty close what he eats and how he reacts, and started to wonder if he's allergic to fresh fruit, especially strawberries and melon. So, finally, when we got home from our summer vacation I took him to the pediatrician and asked if we could have him tested for a peanut and potentially fruit allergy.

At the pediatricians office, everyone seemed pretty laid back about it all. Yeah, we'll test him. He's probably not allergic to fruit. He might be allergic to peanuts. Go get this bloodwork, when you have a chance. So I took Nathan that day. A week later, a nurse from the pediatrician's office calls with the cheerful statement-- You can feed your son cod, carrots, and rice. He's allergic to just about everything else. We'll call in a prescription for an epi-pen to your pharmacy.

For the record, that's an overwhelming conversation. Especially since she called me at 5:00 as I'm getting ready to make dinner and not having any cod in the house I start wondering what on earth I'm supposed to cook. I decided to pretend I didn't get the phone call.

The next day I called the allergist and they couldn't get me in for an entire week, so I asked what I was supposed to do. They, kindly, told me to avoid peanuts, but otherwise to feed him whatever he was willing to eat until I could come to the office.

So, this week we went to the allergist. The pediatrician had faxed me his test results, so I knew which allergens were the highest: peanut, egg, tree nut. I also knew I was scared to find out what they would determine. Either he was really going to be allergic to everything and I was going to have to make some dramatic cooking changes, or maybe he wasn't going to be allergic to much and life wouldn't change all that much.

I got something in the middle. After doing scratch tests-- except with peanut b/c apparently his blood test results are so high they are all shocked he hasn't had some severe reaction yet, the allergist determined Nathan is allergic to all nuts, eggs, and wheat. Not bad compared to the initial news from the pediatric nurse, but still fairly significant.

Now, though, I knew that I had a definitive result and I had to start cooking accordingly. That night I looked at my pantry and thought, what to make for dinner. No pre-made rice side dishes-- they all contain wheat. Why? Who knows why rice should contain wheat, but it does. So decided to make spaghetti and make rice noodles for Nathan. His response... spaghetti no hurt mouth.... spaghetti no hurt mouth. My poor boy had been in pain almost every time he ate! I knew he never wanted to eat bread, but I thought he was a picky eater, I didn't realize it actually caused him physical pain to eat one of my favorite foods.

I am not enjoying being the neuritic mother who looks at all the labels and asks the workers at the cider mill if there's a chance there is peanut in the cider (which there is), but I am enjoying the happier boy who is my son.