April 27, 2010

Peanut Allergy

I didn't realize we hadn't updated everyone on the major health news in our family until I mentioned it recently and they had no idea- Abby is "deathly" allergic to peanuts. Remember way back when I discussed her poor face breaking out from wipes.... yea, it wasn't the wipes there were a byproduct of the mess she made eating peanut butter! I thought all the wiping on her cheeks made her red since I had to wipe extra hard to get PB off her face. We had given her a spoonful here and there and she didn't seem to like it. About a month ago, she loved it and ate a lot of PB. Afterward she went down for her nap and come up covered in red hives. We called the doctor immediately and since she wasn't experiencing swelling of the throat, we gave her Zrytec and she recovered over the next 24 hours. This past week she had blood work done and of the 80 things they tested (mold, cedar, every nut, corn, milk, etc.) she is only allergic to peanuts. I'm happy she doesn't have other food allergies- we can control nuts.
So, at the doctor yesterday we developed her food allergy plan for home and school and learned all about the EpiPen. We will have 4 pens- school, home, diaper bag and my purse. If Abby were to get a hold of peanuts and exhibit certain symptoms, we would have to inject her thigh with a strong dose of Epinephrine and go to the emergency room. Scary stuff! They will retest her at age 3 or 4 to see if she has outgrown the allergy.

Poor thing was scared to death the moment she saw the nurse- we have entered the "I know where I am and you hurt me" stage.

I love our local pediatrician and after her appointment we walked around for a few minutes. This is my favorite art work in the attached hospital. I love it!

It is so modern, yet rustic!

I'm off to Kansas City for the week for work, but I have scheduled fun posts to make it through the week! See you all on Saturday!

2 comments:

Lapiz de la Guerra said...

Oh my goodness! As someone who has a food allergy (mustard), I can totally relate to some of the frustrations you'll endure. Peanuts are easier than something like mustard though...I believe it's federal law now to list any allergen like peanuts and dairy, etc. (Mustard is a bit uncommon though; they don't ever list that, boo!) I'm so glad Abby's episode wasn't more serious and that you got it all figured out. Bless your little hearts! I sincerely hopes she outgrows it when she's older.

Being Billingsley said...

How scary! I don't like to hear that...and what is she going to do about missing out on Reese's peanut butter cups? That's a serious problem...

AB

LinkWithin

Blog Widget by LinkWithin