My son has allergies. It took us a while to figure out he had them and then when we got him tested he was positive on about everything food-wise you can throw a stick at. Over time, his immune system became more mature and many of those allergies faded or went away altogether.
One of the pediatricians seemed concerned about the allergies some time back. Then, the next wellness check when we saw our favorite doctor, she said, "the levels he tested at just weren't that high. I'm not that concerned." I decided I liked the, "let's not be too worried about this" attitude. I wanted to do the reasonably safe thing, but I didn't want to exclude all sorts of foods he had a mild, non-breathing related reaction to only some of the time.
And that's how we proceeded. Over time his food sensitivities (which may be a better way to describe them than "allergies") got better and better. He only had one real nemesis: peanuts. They would make his mouth an itchy mess and two days later his skin would show up with a bad case of eczema. We were told his type of allergies was not such that he would be at risk for an anaphylaxis reaction so we didn't have to worry about life-threatening breathing problems.
My son preferred to avoid nuts. I didn't blame him. He mostly did this by asking us if a thing had nuts in it. We could have used this to our advantage, telling him something we didn't really want him to have (candy) was nut-laden. But we refrained from the easy out of parenting though and tried to put nuts in a positive light, saying he wouldn't be allergic to them always and that some people liked nuts very much.
In the meantime, we had Biscoff spread and Sun butter instead of peanut butter. We avoided all the other things that come with nuts such as, breads, brownies, cookies, pies, cakes, salads, almond milk, etc. On occasion, I would do a little test to see how his reaction was faring. About eight months ago I gave him a piece of peanut brittle that didn't have a peanut in that part. He liked it. He didn't, however, like the next part that had a part of a nut in it and then wanted to make his mouth stop itching.
Of late my son has been asking me if he can have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He's been asking about peanuts and he's been interested in trying them when I talked to him about doing another test. Today we decided to do that test. I got him a large glass of water and explained that in this case, it was absolutely okay to spit his food out, especially if it made his mouth itchy.
I showed him a container of peanuts (something we don't normally have, but happened to get over the holidays.) His sister tried two and thought they were okay. He took one, took a bite, chewed it, put the rest in his mouth and then swallowed it...all while I was holding my breath.
He said he liked it. He said it didn't make his mouth itchy. He was happy. I was elated. We hugged and I told him how excited I was. Then he started making this funny mouth noise and I started to panic.
"Are you okay? Does it itch? Do you want some water," I said? He took the water and swallowed some and then told me, "the peanut is stuck in my teeth." Oh. Okay. I gave him a lesson on how to swish water around in your mouth to try and dislodge food from your teeth, which was amusing to watch him do.
I'm not done with the peanut tests, but I'm pretty excited about the results of our test today.
The Big Boy Update: My son told me, after eating the peanut today and having no allergic reaction that, "when I'm five-years-old I won't be allergic to cats anymore." I told him that sounded like a good plan to me. On New Year's Eve, we were at a party at a friends house where my son had had a bad cat reaction before. To prepare, we gave him a small dose of Benadryl. That night, not only did he spend time in the room the cats stayed in, he was jumping up and down and playing on the cat tower and was fine. So, his prediction may turn out to be true, who knows.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter has had this little scooter she rides around in the house all the time. It's never been outside so the wheels are nice and clean. My son isn't as good as she is, but she makes up for it in enthusiasm and total time spent on the scooter. What she hasn't mastered is how to press the brake and stop. Since we have only so far she can go before a wall or door or furniture gets in the way, she's never really needed the brake. Today though she became interested in the brake and spent a lot of time braking. She said to me, "I did the brakes, mommy!"
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