Grants allergies

Our sweet little light weight. :)

We officially found out the week after Christmas that Grant has

severe allergies to peanuts & moderate allergies to eggs.

In food allergen ratings there is a scale of 1 to 5. One being the least

reactionary & five the most.

Grant is a level 4 (severe) on peanuts & a 3 on eggs (moderate).

I first had an inkling that he may have an allergy to peanuts

when I gave the twins cut up pieces of a PB & J sandwiches for lunch

a few months back. Which was the first time they'd had peanut butter, being

of course, after they were one year old.

Neither of the boys were fond of the sandwich's so didn't try them again.

I noticed that Grant's skin around his mouth was red & splotchy, which I

knew could be a sign of an allergic reaction from past doctor visits

when I inquired about Grants rashes on his arms & neck to find out

whether he had eczema or if his skin was just getting irritated by something.

It turned out he had baby eczema & as he's grown, it has almost completely

stopped showing up on his skin.

After a couple of hours it faded away, so wasn't too concerned but made note

to self to watch for it the next time he had peanut butter.

So a few weeks later, we were eating waffles for breakfast & I love putting

peanut butter on them, & was also sharing bites with the babies, which they loved! And sure enough the rash appeared again.

I watched his behavior afterwards & he acted just fine, with the redness disappearing

soon after.

They had their 15 mo. check up mid December coming up & decided to def.

ask our pediatrician about it & have him tested for any allergies.

At their appointment they checked out healthy & growing well.

I talked with the doctor about it & we decided to have him tested to be safe, because

he said yes, a skin rash could def. be a sign of an allergy.

I wasn't too alarmed since I know that some foods can just irritate peoples skin

& nothing else.

So Grant had his blood drawn & of course was non too happy about it.

Then Thursday after Christmas, I got a call that morning telling me the results of

Grants tests & was surprised to have them tell me that he also was allergic

to eggs since he'd not shown any negative signs towards them.

They wanted us to come in that afternoon to talk with the doctor about

the details & what to do & expect from there.

Jace met the kids & I down at the doctor’s office & were educated a bit more on

food allergies, pertaining to Grant of course.

We now have an epipen (epinephrine) shot that we keep on hand at home

for in case he ever has an anaphylactic episode, which our doctor told

us is extremely rare (maybe 1 in billion)  in babies & toddlers,

but wanted to take precautions.

So we asked, if  his allergy towards peanuts is so bad,

how come it only showed up in a light rash?

He told us that his immune system is too immature to strongly

show signs or react against it. He used the example,

if there were a chain saw sitting in this room, we wouldn't worry

about Grant figuring out how to start it since he's doesn't have the

physical or mental capacity to know how to.

He explained that peanut & egg allergies are finicky ones where

the persons reaction to it can be more or less at times.

For instance, he might be ok with eating peanut butter

2 or 3 times without any real issues & then the next time

he reacts very strongly to it.

Grant will be tested again when he's around 4 yrs. to

see if the scale of his allergic reaction has gone down.

He will prob. never become completely non reactionary,

but if we avoid him eating peanut products & anything with

egg in it as the main ingredient then as he gets older his body may

become stronger to handle those foods & when he's tested again,

if they come back as a level 1 or 2 than he will

be ok. to have them every so often. Up to 20% of all kids with

peanut allergies do outgrow them, so we'll cross our fingers

for that. :) And majority of kids with egg allergies will outgrow it as well.

It's amazing that only 1.5% of kids even have egg allergies. And since my

kid is that 1.5% , it makes me feel so grateful for modern technology to help us find these things

out to keep our kids safe & healthy!

The likelihood of an anaphylactic reaction being triggered

in Him is very, very unlikely until he's about 4 yrs. & up.

So, now we have to meet with an allergist to have more

detailed testing done to make sure no other allergies were missed.

I asked the doctor, "how come we are seeing so many kids

these days with peanut allergies? I don't remember nearly

so many kids that I grew up around having peanut allergies

& it being a problem in being brought into schools

& other public places." (Many places with kids

around do not allow any sort of tree nut to be brought

in, in case there is a child with that allergy).

He said it's true that it is on the rise, & that there are a couple

of possible reasons, one being that we are just merely exposed to so

many more food types than we were many years ago & two

that there are many more preservatives & such in our

food that some bodies can't digest it well or react negatively to it.

And some can be genetic or just happen to be allergic

for no apparent reason.

In ruling things out, neither Jace nor I are allergic to anything

besides pollens, the peanut butter we use is "natural" meaning with

out any hydrogenated oils & the eggs are natural.

I think as the mom I feel more badly for Grant then he does of course, because

he doesn't even know really what he's missing.

I thought of all the things that I enjoyed eating growing up like,

the classic peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, peanut butter cookies, peanut butter & honey toast, scrambled eggs, sunny side up eggs,  French toast, German pancakes, cookie dough, quiche,

 & anything else with eggs in it that he won't be able to have. Although,

in reading further about his allergies, I’ve found that eggs can be replaced

in baking with a small mixture of natural ingredients such as water, oil, & baking powder.

 I fully realize & am so very grateful that his allergies are not worse

& that they are not something more major such as wheat or dairy which

would make things quite tough.

I tip my hat off to you moms that go through great efforts

in making healthy meals for your kids specifically with allergies.

Our little Grant-Grant is healthy, happy, & loving life

just as he is.

And we as his parents will be just fine too while

making some minor changes to how we cook

 around our house.