How Did You Know He Had Allergies?

On February 14, 2013 (yes, Valentine’s Day), my husband and I decided to give our son his first taste of peanut butter. At that time, he was 16 months old and we didn't feel there was a need to wait any longer to introduce this new food. Neither of us had any experience with food allergies prior to this day, yet we knew there was always a chance our child could have an allergic reaction to any new food.

We waited until a day when we were both home in the off chance that he had a reaction and I am so glad that we choose to do it that way. I introduced him to the new food by putting less than a teaspoon of peanut butter on a cracker. After he ate the cracker, I kept an eye on him but  didn't give him another bite. I was curious to see if he would like the taste and hoped he would enjoy it. One minute goes by…two minutes….we have a problem. He started developing a rash around his mouth, and little alarms go off in my mommy brain. We call the doctor and are told to give him Children’s Benadryl and watch him closely for 6 hours. If the rash didn't get better or if he started to show other symptoms, we needed to take him to the Emergency Room. So I worried, doubted myself, cried a lot, and got the medicine he needed. Then, we watched him like a hawk. He played on the floor with some toys like nothing was wrong, and the rash slowly faded over the next couple of hours. In the end, we did not need to rush him to the hospital, and we are so thankful that his first reaction did not affect his ability to breathe. Then, we waited two long months to see the doctor again, and she put in an order for blood work. We hated putting him through the pain and stress of testing but knew that we needed to know what we were dealing with here. We hoped very much that the test would end up being a “waste of time and money” and show that he was allergy free. Unfortunately, that did not happen. When I received a phone call from the doctor's office, I had no idea what they would say next. They shared the results with me over the phone and told me that he has a severe peanut allergy and a moderate allergy to wheat, egg whites, and dog dander. Immediately, we had to go to the doctor for a meeting, training, and epipen prescription. We had to change his diet right away (he never had a peanut after his first reaction but we had no clue until this phone call that we needed to remove wheat and eggs from his diet as well.) Life changed so quickly, and we still often feel like we are just trying to catch up.

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