Mom to the Screaming Masses: Food Allergy Week Celebration. Maybe. Possibly. Sort Of.

It seems like everything has a "week". Food Allergy Week is May 9-15, and it's always in the back of my mind. Never more so than this year.

When Gabriel was a baby, he had RSV several times. He also had these odd groups of random hives. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason - he'd just break out in hives. The doctor told me to give him Bendadryl. We went to a party when he was about 15 months old and he crawled around on the floor, and when I picked him up he was happy enough, but his entire body was one big welt.

Food allergy testing was ordered, and we skin tested him for many, many things. The screaming and furious clawing at his back and arms gave it away - the kid had multiple positive reactions. We followed with a blood draw and ultimately dropped peanut, all tree nuts and coconut from his diet. He was very mildly allergic to peanuts but a class 5 to coconut and pecans, brazil nuts, almonds, walnuts, macadamias - pretty much every nut there is.We practiced strict avoidance, carried epi pens everywhere, educated anyone that he was around, read labels, called food maunfacturers, bought him a medic alert bracelet, read books - and went on with our lives.

He visits the allergist every 6 months. We LOVE her. When you visit her, you'd better bring a long book and a lot of patience, for she's extremely thorough with her patients - but she's worth it. He's asthmatic, has eczema and all of that goes hand in hand.

So, now he's 10 and we retested. We skin tested and, oddly enough, things that we expected to pop positive didn't, and those that we formerly almost non existent blew up. This is his back - B 1 was the peanut. A 1 was cashews. B 2 was hazelnut, and D 1 was coconut and D 2 was almonds.

So, hmmm. What happened to coconut and almond? Why did peanut blow up so much?

We followed with a blood draw. He was uber nervous. The Children's Hospital Phlebotomy department rocks, though - she was totally amazing with him. From the time we walked into the room until the completion - 4 minutes.

We got the results back. His peanut level is very high, much higher than before. But coconut, Brazil nut and almond did not exist. So, the allergist called on Friday and went over all the results with me, and gave us the green light to challenge both coconut AND almond, on different days, with the following stipulations:

be able to watch him for 4 hours
make sure the former allergen was the only one challenged - don't mix
have epi and benadryl nearby
Maybe get a candy - make it fun for him

So we didn't do it on Saturday - I didn't want to mess up the prom if anything happened. He's a worrier, though, and he talked about it over and over. I looked all weekend for a coconut candy that wasn't cross contaminated with nuts, but everything had a nut warning. So Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m., I scooped him out a little chocolate ice cream and topped it with a pretty heavy sprinkling of coconut. He sat in front of it and stared at it until the ice cream was a puddle of goo. Finally, he screwed up his courage and ate a bite.

"What will an allergic reaction feel like? How will I know? What will I do? What will you do? Will the ambulance come again, like when I was a baby?"

We went over all of it again and I tried to make it seem like it was no big deal. I encouraged him to eat another bite and I did some dishes. I reminded him to try again and I straightened a cabinet. I scooped up a bit for him and made him eat it and then packed up food for the family dinner. It took him about 20 minutes to eat the ice cream, and then I meticulously scrutinized his back and chest, face and arms and hands. Nothing.

I checked again at the 30 minute mark. Nothing. One hour, two hours, three hours. One teeny tiny mark that may or may not have been a hive blossomed on his shoulder at the one hour mark but disappeared shortly after.

Are we in the clear?

We don't know. We have to try again. But, if we can add coconut back into his diet, I can't even tell you how amazing that might be. Coconut oil is in EVERYTHING.

Keep your fingers crossed. We test Almond this weekend. He's not the only one nervous.

Comments

Good luck! I hope you're able to add back coconut!

Posted by: Jayme | April 26, 2010 at 11:39 AM

Good luck on both challenges! That would make things much easier on so many levels. You aren't kidding about the coconut oil being in everything.

Posted by: Nicki | April 26, 2010 at 11:50 AM

It'll be great if he's not allergic to coconut. Hope the almond and re-test of coconut goes smoothly.

Posted by: Grace | April 26, 2010 at 12:12 PM

Good luck! I can't imagine dealing with a peanut allergy. My dad almost died several years ago from pine nuts, and that's hard enough to keep track of. Reading this post made me want an Almond Joy, I have to admit.

Posted by: Megan | April 26, 2010 at 01:36 PM

Food allergies stink! I was allergic to everything as a kid and still carry an epipen for kiwi fruit (of all things!) encounters. My daughter has eczema at 3 months. I'm terrified. I keep getting all these questions to my own site (www.drzibners.com) about how to prevent them and the answer is we don't know. One pediatrician says start food early, another says wait. This pediatrician Mommy doesn't know which camp is right. My thoughts are with you!

Posted by: Lara Zibners | April 26, 2010 at 01:55 PM

One of my daughters has horrible eczema, but so far no signs of asthma or any allergies. Keeping my fingers crossed for that one! My son however has horrible seasonal allergies (kind of like his mom :)) And the little one... she is either following in her brother's nosedrips or has a terrible cold. We go through tons of kleenex this time of year.

Good luck with the food challenges! I hope he gets to add both coconut AND almond back into his diet.

Posted by: Jodie | April 26, 2010 at 11:25 PM

Allergies are quite difficult to deal with especially with children. My 12 year old daughter apparently have a high allergic reaction to seafoods (shrimps in particular). I have gone through a long and arduous process of teaching her what to avoid and what to do when she accidentally has an allergic attack. As of now prevention is our greatest remedy. Good thing she her favoritye is a home cooked pork recipe of mine. I guess educating our kids is the best thing to do with regards to this.

Posted by: Howitzer | April 27, 2010 at 04:38 AM

Boy is this familiar. My daughter cannot eat potatoes. I'm allergic to everything - all discovered a few years ago (I'm 50). No fruits except for grapes. No raw carrots, celery. No soy products. No peanuts (and peas or green beans). I'm slowly testing different foods. It's a pain.

May God be merciful!

Posted by: Athanasia | April 27, 2010 at 09:27 AM

Man. Not fun.
I think my little has some too.

Posted by: hope smith | April 27, 2010 at 10:17 AM

Hope the next challenge goes well.

My son is allergic to Brazil nuts, which are fairly easy to avoid, but at 16 he now thinks that if he doesn't want to be allergic he doesn't have to be. (Just like everything else he doesn't want to do, so doesn't!!) He refuses to go to his allergy clinic appointments or to carry an anti-histamine. I have drilled his girlfriend in what to do if he has a reaction, but as he doesn't take it seriously, she doesn't really think she needs to either. I just have to keep my fingers crossed that he's actually more sensible than he seems.

Posted by: UKCraftySal | April 27, 2010 at 11:00 AM

I'll bet my Hubbie could describe exactly what it would feel like, he gets shots every 3-4wks of his allergens. This one time at the allergist office? he started scratching his hands, and was clearing his throat a lot, then he was coughing and that's when the receptionist hit the "we have a doozy in the waiting room" button.
It's very scary! His Co-workers love to test his Mushroom allergy, any potluck or pizza day? deadly!

Posted by: kyooty | April 27, 2010 at 04:15 PM