Stewie loved Halloween! He remembers little from last year, but had been looking forward to wearing the awesome dinosaur costume Grandma got him. It was cold, rainy, and snowy. So we layered up. He quickly removed his costume at the restaurant where we had dinner and gathered with friends before going to the kids party at town hall and went trick-or-treating. Trick-or-treating was awesome! There was one house that perplexed him... they were all dressed up in scary costumes and had their front hall decorated. It reminded me of the tricks my mom would play... like having a spider drop on your head when she opened the screen door and having dry ice float through the pumpkins down the yard (and having to track down the dry ice from Baskin' Robbins!) ... he stood there perplexed, but with coaxing and "its okays" from Dad, accepted the candy. He said his "trick-or-treats" and "thank yous." Then we were back to the kids part at town hall where the kids mowed down sugar and boogied on till past their bed times... nine o'clock! Eliza was also perplexed. She wore her costume, sucked her thumb as she shivered in the stroller with her multiple layers under her costume, under the blankie. Wouldn't keep her gloves on! Can't suck a thumb with those things.
And then... Monday morning he had a few little blisters. We worried maybe we had bed bugs. Tuesday there were more. But by Wednesday night he had evolved into full blown hives. I thought at first they were Chicken Pox. But we figured it was most likely an allergic reaction. Over the summer he had accidently eaten a friend's peanut butter cereal pops... but nothing had happened immediately after, and we mistakenly assumed he had poison ivy, or just some random rash. It went away soon enough and hadn't really bothered him. But this Monday he had had peanut M&Ms, and then Tuesday had some more, and Wednesday had a Reece's Peanut Butter Cup. And today we finally put the pieces together after almost going to the emergency room at 3:30. He was itchy at 3:30 and couldn't sleep, his hives had grown to the size of quarters... so still thinking it was an allergic reaction gave him Benadryl. These photos were taken this morning. At the doctors this afternoon she confirmed our thoughts that it was a nut allergy. We have an appointment with an allergist in December. Lots of thoughts as to whether or not we should put him through such a trial at this age. I want to do it, but I haven't done any research... our pediatrician is sending us information to help us make the decision. Mom says kids allergies can change so much at this age its not worth it, yet. Who's got thoughts?
1 comment:
I am only an occasional reader when I click thru Liz Tigan's site.
I think you've already done allergy testing... he's eaten peanut butter and had a reaction. So avoid peanut butter. My kids went thru the allergy testing and were allergic to everything. It wasn't too painful for them so you could go that route. But we found out they were allergic to everything -- even things that they had never had a reaction too. Grass? seriously, am I supposed to avoid grass? No we only treat what they are having a reaction too, or avoid other things.
I think food allergies are trickier. Sometimes allergies get worse as they are exposed to it, so just make sure you teach him to tell you about them. Especially itchy armpits or itchy throats as that could lead to a scary reaction. Make sure you have benedryl stashed in your purse or car and can give that if a reaction happens. There have been some studies that are showing that small doses of the allergic item can build up immunity -- much like the allergy shots. So you could start with peanut butter and give a very small top of toothpick amount each day for a month and slowly increase and see if there is ever a reaction.
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