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| Jake and his "geen bawoon" |
Well, as most of you might already know from my post on facebook... we now have a peanut allergy we have to be on alert about! That little guy really freaked us out good.
He has never eaten a lot of peanut butter, but it is not something we've kept from him either. In the past, I've offered him peanut butter and he's mostly refused it. Since last night, I have learned that is a sign of a food allergy. Good to know, right? The first time I offered it to him, he wouldn't even try the peanut butter and jelly sandwich... he spit it out. So, I never really gave him anything with peanut butter on it. I assumed he just didn't like it. Now what I've been told is that each encounter with the allergen may cause a more powerful response from the immune system. We were super lucky that hives, itchy eyes and a slightly swollen throat was as bad as it got! He ate peanut butter on animal crackers because he saw me eating them. He ate gobs of peanut butter. Literally within minutes of having ingested it, the kid had welts all over his face, neck and hands. His eyeballs and eyelids were bright red and they apparently were itching him really bad. He was rubbing his eyes and crying, "eyes! eyes, mommy!!" :( The bottle of benadryl, like most other medicines, does not say what to give a child under the age of 4. It says consult with a physician. Well, I didn't have time to do that, so he got a half teaspoon initially. Once we found out he should have had a full teaspoon, he was starting to make funny noises with his throat and was drooling... these are signs of an impending closure of the airway. Not good. Anyway, gave him the second half and with very watchful waiting, he started to feel better. However, anywhere he touched (because he obviously had peanut butter on his hands) brought hives back. So, he was quickly put in the tub for an early bath. And to think, we were literally headed out the door to go to church! I am the "everything's fine, he'll be ok" parent (because that's how I was raised lol) and Derick is much the opposite, probably because someone usually did have something wrong with them in his family. Jake's aunt actually had/has a ton of food allergies and it is familial. It was something I was really hoping my kids wouldn't inherit. But, I didn't get so lucky. Things could be worse, though! I'll take a peanut allergy any day over some of the things some kids have to go through. :) Anyway, Derick was right in this instance, but my calm presence was definitely necessary too. I'm proud to say that my calm-everyone-down-nurse instincts took over instead of my mommy-panic mode. Thank you very much. :)
Last night, we began our journey into the world of allergies. I was hoping to scathe past this part of parenthood. Oh well, here we go. Let the learning begin!
Today, we saw Jake's pediatrician. She gave us the basic run-down on food allergies, a few prescriptions for some emergency drugs, and a referral to a couple allergists in town. Jake had a lab draw-just allergy tests, and the boy has definitely inherited the good veins his daddy and I possess. That little AC was a beaut if I do say so myself! He was absolutely hilarious while he got his blood drawn. I was super nervous. It definitely didn't help that the kid before screamed her ever loving little head off. That made me nervous. Jake had no idea, so that made me sad for him. We got back there and the lady was like, "You guys wait here, I have to wait on my co-worker to help me hold him down". Greaaaaaat. It's already sounding worse than I had pictured it. They sat him in my lap, had me hold his free hand down, strapped on the "big arm hug" lol aka the tourniquet, and bam... stuck his wittle AC vein and drew out 10mls of blood from my little brave boy. Jake, he just sat there and watched them. Didn't make as much as a peep. He really wanted to take the tourniquet off, so he was trying to catch it with his mouth while they were getting the blood. Haha! What that means is, that the lady drawing the lab was really, really good. I've had a lot of lab drawn lately, and I've drawn quite a bit in my time and the amount of pain felt during the draw is a direct effect of the phlebotomists skills. We got a good one today, thankfully, because my brave boy didn't hardly feel a thing! AND the best part... he got a Mickey Mouse sticker AND a Muno from Yo Gabba Gabba sticker too!! ;-)
We will follow up with the allergist next week. I'm anxious to find out what all we should be avoiding. I feel like I should only be feeding him vegetables and fruit until then! But I think we'll remain cautiously optimistic until then.
Jake is just as happy-go-lucky as he was yesterday afternoon. You'd never know anything happened. I love that wild kid so very, very much! And his new take-everywhere-friends the Epi-pen JR, Orapred and Benadryl. I think we'll all get along just fine. :)
Happy Thursday, friends!
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