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Any experience with nut allergies?
Last Sunday, my wife and I had the scare of our lives. I actually was supposed to be at work that day and wound up being on call instead. Thank God I was with my family. We had kept our twin boys away from nuts and have just passed the 2 year mark. We've been discussing introducing peanut butter and last Sunday decided to let them have some that was in a rice crispy type of treat. Only a bite or two each, and 30 minutes later no bad reactions from either one.
But about 15 minutes after that, one of the boys started to cough, then wheeze and then his breathing started to sound horrible. Long story short, he got some benadryl, rushed to the ER where they gave Epi, more benadryl and a steroid. At that point, his breathing was becoming better, but still some wheezing. But then he started to break out in hives from the top of his forehead down, spreading to his eyelids. That's when he got a 2nd dose of epi and we were admitted for overnight observation. We were worried that his identical twin brother would react too, but he never did.
Later that night I asked my wife if she would have let the boys have the peanut butter if I wasn't around and she said she probably would have. It would have been a much worse experience for her on her own and for me as well not being there.
So now we are starting our journey learning about nut allergies and how to protect our boys as best as we can. We now have Epi pens everywhere the boys go.
Obviously we've learned a couple things, if the parents have allergies (food or environmental), the kids are at higher risk for allergies. If the kids have shown any signs of allergies (environmental or food, sometimes shows up as eczema in babies), best advice is to wait until they're older to introduce the common food allergies. We will definitely never go anywhere without children's benadryl (or our epi pens).
Just wondering if anyone out there has any experience with this sort of thing. How do you deal with wanting to protect your kids all the time? We can't possibly watch them every minute of every day, especially once they become school age.
Mark
Re: Any experience with nut allergies?
Hi there Mark2x2,
We had a similar experience with peanut allergy. Our son had actually had peanut butter before, with only a very minor reaction (a little splotchyness on his face) ...but a few months later, we gave it to him again and he reacted. After 15 or 20 minutes, his lower right lip started to swell up. He began to caugh & stammer, and finanlly he broke out in a rash..not quite hives, but a splotchy red rash. When we saw the lip swell, we knew it was time to head to the ER. On the way, he lost his lunch...heavy...but he was still breathing fine, just upset & crying, so we knew he wasn't in peril. BTW, we also hit him up with the Benadryl, to no avail.
Going forward, we take several precautions. We always keep the Benadryl, and more important, epi with us...and I mean always. There's an extra one we kept at my daycare too, before I became a SAH Dad. We make sure all people watching Sam are aware of the epi, and know how to use it, e.g. gransparents, siblings, godparents and the occasional sitter.
Additinal steps we take include 1) always reading all labels and not giving him anything that was made on equipment containing nuts, or that (obviously) has nuts in it..and this includes all tree nuts as well 2) never letting him eat food (including ice cream or bakery cakes) that we can't be sure don't have nuts in them and 3) always having extra cookies and/or cupcakes (that we made at home, and therefore are assured to not have nuts in them) on hand (typically, frozen) to give him, if he ever goes to a birthday party or other place where he'd otherwise have to go without. This way, he's always included, but able to eat a safe alternative to what's being served.
I hope these hints are helpful, but I'm guessing you already have these covered. It's a scary thing, no doubt...but with the proper precautions, you and your son will be fine.
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