Tagalongs

My son has a reaction to peanuts.   I don’t know if it’s technically, “allergic” or that he doesn’t tolerate it well.   I would lean on the allergic side because he used to break out in hives around his mouth when he ate them followed by a rough outbreak of eczema a few days later.     Now, several years later, I’m not sure how bad the reaction is anymore.    I think it’s lessened, just like all the other food allergies he had that have gone away.    It’s hard to tell though.

It’s hard to tell because he doesn’t want to eat anything with peanuts.   Hell, I wouldn’t want to either if I’d had a reaction to them in the past that was unpleasant.    We’ve been able to find out some things by working in things which contain nuts and seeing his reaction.   For instance, he has eaten things with almonds on/in the mix and not noticed it.   He’s had things cooked in peanut oil, which is somehow not related to the allergic part of peanuts for some people, and had no reaction at all.    But he’s also been very upset about eating things he knows have nuts in them.

That’s the trick though—not letting him know.    He will immediately know if there are peanuts, that’s been tested a number of times.   What I don’t know is if or how the reaction is changing.   Is it lessening or getting worse?   My son just spits it out and won’t get near that item again.

We’ve tried the other “butter” options since peanut butter is right out.   Almond butter he didn’t like, sun butter he said was yucky and Wow Butter he thought was dreadful.   These aren’t one-off tests either.    I am sneaky and will insert some of the above ingredients with his other, preferred choices but he noticed every time.  

Still though, he’s not allergic to any of those things.  Today he served us and then proceeded to eat tagalong bar he made with his classmates that had a full slathering of almond butter in the middle.   He never even looked twice to see if it was something he might not like.

Getting him to try things again without pre-judging the experience is something we’re working on.

The Big Boy Update:  We joined my son for a pizza lunch and piñata party to help wish his graduating classmates off.   My son set our places including plate, utensils, napkin and glass with water.   He cleaned up the table afterwards and then had a good time hitting the piñata with his friends on the playground.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:   I forgot her gymnastics suit what with the second to last day of school and a pizza party to attend in my son’s class.   My daughter did gymnastics in her dress, which didn’t bother her at all.   In fact, she was particularly pleased at how it fanned out when she jumped on the trampoline.