I have mentioned this before but it bears repeating. My daughter is NOT a fan of the doctor's office. ANY doctor's office. She panics, becomes antisocial and throws fits. I have the teeth marks on my shoulder to prove it.
Again, I recruited my mother to join us if for nothing else but moral support for me. She is always happy to help and I love her dearly for it. After speaking to the doctor for a few minutes and sharing our history, he suggested that we do a skin test for milk, egg yolk, soy, almond and peanut. The reason for the soy was due to the fact that she is strictly on soy milk and it seems to upset her stomach when she drinks large quantities. I was sure that because anytime I eat or drink a lot of soy I get an upset stomach that this would be negative but we wanted to rule it out. The reason for the almond test was so that we could have an alternative to soy should we need it. And because her exposure to egg yolk was limited, they wanted to test that one too.
Luckily they do not scrape the skin any more so after removing my daughter's shirt, they wrote numbers in ink and applied drops of the allergen to her skin and we waited. She fussed but did not have a total melt down which was a relief.
Almost immediately, the area where they were testing for peanuts had a strong reaction. Milk and egg yolk were growing as well but not at the rate that peanut was. The nurse checked the areas every 5 minutes and after her second check decided to remove the peanut allergen as that was clearly positive. Almond and soy were negative, leaving us with peanut milk and egg yolk to discuss. Her results are below. I have been trying desperately to figure out how to interpret them with not much luck yet. I am able to however deduce that the larger the numbers the more severe the allergy. It was an overwhelming experience so in the moment I didn't take the time to ask the doctor to explain the numbers.
Peanut: Wheal = 7, Flare = 20
Milk: Wheal = 4, Flare = 5
Egg Yolk: Wheal = 4, Flare = 5
So clearly she is extremely allergic to peanuts, and mildly allergic to milk and egg yolks.
Wednesday, November 30, 2016
Cow's Milk Experience
We had always known that our 2 year old daughter had some food sensitivities if not full blown allergies. Cow's milk had been a problem since about 7 months of age. She had reacted to milk based formula in powder form but not premixed. Same brand, same type. Baffled that she could react to one and not the other we closely examined the ingredients. Horrified to find out that high fructose corn syrup was the first ingredient in the powder formula, we quickly switched back to premixed and assumed that was the issue. Maybe she had a sensitivity to the corn syrup? After talking to our doctor he said that we should step way back and try one food at a time again and maybe corn would come up on the radar. Needless to say we chose to keep her on the premixed formula until 12 months.
At about 9 months we were at a friend's house and I gave her a small taste of ice cream. I know, I know, you are saying, "How could you?", but keep in mind she was doing fine and had no reaction to the premixed milk based formula. AND, our doctor told us that no food was off limits with the exception of honey. Well, lesson learned, after letting her taste the ice cream, her face immediately broke out into a strange rash. We couldn't tell if it was hives so I immediately placed a call to our doctor's office while my friends went to the pharmacy to grab infant Benadryl. The nurse told us to give her the Benadryl and take her to the nearest emergency room. The emergency room doctors gave her a steroid and sent us home to monitor her. She bounced back and had no issues in the days following. No more ice cream, no more issues. For now.
Once trying good old cow's milk from the carton at 12 months, she would react but only after having a bowel movement. Her rashes would be so bad that they would leave welts (later believed to be hives) on her bottom and cause her extreme pain. It was then that we decided to stop all milk. But new to the allergy game, we were slow to cut off ALL milk, including any products made with milk. We started checking labels and it became our obsession to keep her from anything dairy. Sadly her favorite yogurt was out of the question. We were successful for the most part but neglected to check the items we were SURE would never contain milk. One of those items being Ramen (my son's favorite unhealthy snack). Who knew?
Obviously we are way better about it now, but it was not easy coming.
At about 9 months we were at a friend's house and I gave her a small taste of ice cream. I know, I know, you are saying, "How could you?", but keep in mind she was doing fine and had no reaction to the premixed milk based formula. AND, our doctor told us that no food was off limits with the exception of honey. Well, lesson learned, after letting her taste the ice cream, her face immediately broke out into a strange rash. We couldn't tell if it was hives so I immediately placed a call to our doctor's office while my friends went to the pharmacy to grab infant Benadryl. The nurse told us to give her the Benadryl and take her to the nearest emergency room. The emergency room doctors gave her a steroid and sent us home to monitor her. She bounced back and had no issues in the days following. No more ice cream, no more issues. For now.
Once trying good old cow's milk from the carton at 12 months, she would react but only after having a bowel movement. Her rashes would be so bad that they would leave welts (later believed to be hives) on her bottom and cause her extreme pain. It was then that we decided to stop all milk. But new to the allergy game, we were slow to cut off ALL milk, including any products made with milk. We started checking labels and it became our obsession to keep her from anything dairy. Sadly her favorite yogurt was out of the question. We were successful for the most part but neglected to check the items we were SURE would never contain milk. One of those items being Ramen (my son's favorite unhealthy snack). Who knew?
Obviously we are way better about it now, but it was not easy coming.
Egg Yolk Experience
Strangely enough our egg yolk experience is limited. Our daughter has never liked egg yolks so we were unaware of this allergy until the skin test.
Blood Testing for Food Allergies
My daughter's doctor suggested that we do blood testing for milk and peanut allergies some time back. I was reluctant to have her blood drawn as she couldn't even tolerate being weighed at the doctor's office. Knowing that it would be a bad experience all around, I avoided it. Looking back I realize that I was being selfish in not wanting to put myself through that, and doing her a disservice by not having it done. Her few minutes of discomfort were nothing compared to what could happen when exposed to the wrong foods. Shame on me. Lesson learned.
Still somewhat apprehensive, I wrangled my mom to accompany me to the blood testing. My daughter sat in my lap, I held one arm, my mother stood behind me and held my daughter's head and covered her eyes (sounds mean, but my daughter was very into head butting and bucking when upset or angry - so this was for my safety as well as hers). Covering her eyes (or any young child's eyes) during a blood draw can be very helpful as if they don't see what is happening it's most likely over before they can get extremely worked up.
The draw went okay and results took about a week. Peanut was positive, milk was negative, soy was slightly abnormal. All tree nuts were negative.
Strange. We were sure that milk should be on the list so we were somewhat confused by the results. Her doctor assured us that negative blood results could be false. Our next step was going to see an allergist.
Still somewhat apprehensive, I wrangled my mom to accompany me to the blood testing. My daughter sat in my lap, I held one arm, my mother stood behind me and held my daughter's head and covered her eyes (sounds mean, but my daughter was very into head butting and bucking when upset or angry - so this was for my safety as well as hers). Covering her eyes (or any young child's eyes) during a blood draw can be very helpful as if they don't see what is happening it's most likely over before they can get extremely worked up.
The draw went okay and results took about a week. Peanut was positive, milk was negative, soy was slightly abnormal. All tree nuts were negative.
Strange. We were sure that milk should be on the list so we were somewhat confused by the results. Her doctor assured us that negative blood results could be false. Our next step was going to see an allergist.
Peanut Experience
Our peanut experience was a one-time deal. Our daughter was about 14 months old and I was eating a protein bar. She took a peanut from it and put it in her mouth. Not liking the taste, she spit it out and I threw it away. As she didn't react right away I was unconcerned. A few hours later when I went to change her diaper, she was red all over her lower torso. I don't mean diaper rash, I mean her skin, ALL of her skin was bright red. Since she was at the park that day and on the grass I thought that maybe she was having a reaction to the grass (not out of the question as my son used to react to grass when he was younger). I went to put her in the bathtub to wash off any residual pollen and noticed that the redness was creeping up toward her head and a hive was forming on her back. A little freaked out I called out to my husband who quickly took my place while I called the doctor's office. As I raced to the pharmacy to get more Benadryl (ours was of course nowhere to be found), my husband continued to monitor her. Thinking back we were sure that it was not the grass as this was not her first exposure, that is must be the peanut.
We took her to the doctor the next day and based on our experience the doctor thought it wise to prescribe an Epi-Pen. At first we carried it with us when we remembered, but as she was not officially diagnosed and we kept her away from peanuts, we admittedly were pretty casual about it at first.
We took her to the doctor the next day and based on our experience the doctor thought it wise to prescribe an Epi-Pen. At first we carried it with us when we remembered, but as she was not officially diagnosed and we kept her away from peanuts, we admittedly were pretty casual about it at first.
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