Here's our history with allergies for Alex:
At ten months old he was diagnosed with a peanut and soy allergy. We've religiously kept all peanuts away from him and tried our hardest to keep soy away (which is extremely hard by the way, since it is in EVERYTHING from salad dressings, to chicken nuggets, to anything with protein in it) too.
Today we went in for retesting to see if he had maybe outgrown the allergies since they had initially figured he would. I had to wake alex up from his nap so that we would make it to the appointment on time, so he was SUPER cranky :( we got there and he's usually a champ at dr appointments; lets them listen to his back, chest, ears, etc willingly... but not today. he cried and kicked and yelled... and that was just the check in stuff lol. so i took his shirt off and he was allowed to lay against me while she did the skin pricks and put the oils on the right spots for the testing. Now let me say first off that alex has a very high pain tolerance, he typically doesnt even cry during shots anymore... but when she did the 20 pokes with the oil he screamed like a newborn :( it was really sad because i couldnt touch his back for 30 min while it sat there so i had to resort to rubbing his arms and bribing him with snacks lol. after about 20 min he FINALLY calmed down and after 30 we were finally done. the allergist came in and reviewed everything and gave us the results:
Peanut allergy= NEGATIVE!!!
Soy allergy= NEGATIVE!!!!!!!!!!! :D :D
Weeds allergy= positive :(
Mold allergy= positive :(
she said that molds are kind of hard in the northwest because its so moist here most of the year and then its warm the rest of it so mold grows freely. i went through his bath stuff and threw away his Diego bath mat and my shower curtain which both needed to be replaced anyways since they were starting to get moldy. then i used bleach water and hardcore cleaned all of his bath toys which actually disgusted me when i got to the rubber duckies :| fyi to all of you parents reading this, i suggest you take HOT HOT water and suck it up into the duck, shake it really hard for a min and then squirt the water out... if mold comes out either toss the duck or clean it. what i did was toss the worst one and then with the other three i sucked the bleach water up into the duck and shook the shit out of it, squirted it out, and repeated that until no more mold came out. then i filled it with the bleach water again and let it sit for a few min while i cleaned the other toys. then i rinsed it out. i never thought to go through like that and clean the bath toys!! wow. so anyways the allergist said we have to SLOWLY introduce peanut products to him since he's literally had no exposure to them before... so we were told to put a little dab of peanut butter on his back when we got home and leave it on for 30 min. if there was a hive there after we wiped it off then no peanuts for a few more months. there was no hive! :) so i put a little bit (like 1/8th of a tsp lol) on a spoon and gave it to him... a direct quote was "MMMMMMMMM!!!! I LOVE peanut butter!!!" hahaha so we did that a few more times and then monitored him really close this evening. so far so good :) yay!! i seriously cant explain how happy i am!! the soy is more tricky since salad dressings do make his face break out in hives so i have to find soy-free salad dressing products (aka the powder mixes) and be careful that soy isnt one of the first main ingredients. if it's further down the list then we're fine to let him have it. Phew!
ok that is all now.. i really need to write more frequently in here :)
-B
OMG the squirt bath toys are horrible! I haven't used bleach on them yet, but I definitely squirt that shit out all the time. Ew. But I'm so happy Alex has started growing out of some of his allergies. Did you just decide to have him tested for allergies one day or did he have a reaction to something that prompted the allergy testing? I'm just curious because we've never had Lilian tested, but Adam and I don't have allergies and she hasn't had any reactions to anything, so idk if that's something I should have done or if I kinda need a reason to do it....?
ReplyDeleteWell my brother used to be allergic to molds and dust, my mom has seasonal allergies, and i'm allergic to myself (literally) so when he started having eczema outbreaks (which are allergic reactions to stuff) we went ahead and got him tested. Insurance covers it all so i didnt have to worry about it costing more than a copay. He was on soy formula as a baby and never reacted to it so that one shocked us, and since he was under 1 he'd never had peanut products before. chris accidentally gave him part of a pb&j sandwich a few months ago and he didnt react so we assumed he was ok but i wanted to follow up with a second round of testing since it's been almost two years to see if he'd outgrown those two. I HIGHLY suggest allergy testing for all parents just to make sure things are ok; however if you both have no history of it and she's never had hives or eczema issues then i wouldnt worry about it :)
ReplyDeleteI'm so happy for you! His life is going to be a lot easier when he doesn't have to avoid peanuts! My bro Dallas is allergic to them and it's so limiting.
ReplyDeleteYay for Alex!