Kevin is allergic to peanuts. As I write that I'm having a hard time not crying, I've been trying not to cry all day. I never thought about him having the possibility of a food allergy. Ken and I don't have food allergies so I just assumed he wouldn't, it never crossed my mind. At his one year well baby check I asked the Doctor when we could introduce peanut butter and he gave us the go ahead. We did about 2 weeks later, just a small amount on a cracker. He developed a small rash around his lips. We didn't call the Doctor, we just decided maybe it was introduced too soon and we decided to wait a couple of more months and try again. So about a month ago, right after he turned 15 months, I tried again. It was just Kevin and I at home and he was eating lunch; mandarin oranges, a peas and carrots veggie mix and some peanut butter spread very thin on wheat crackers. At first he didn't want to eat the peanut butter crackers so I would give him bites with peas and carrots. Eventually he started coughing, then as he continued eating his coughing became worse. He started gagging and acted like he was having a hard time breathing. Then he stopped coughing and just acted like he couldn't breathe. My heart stopped and I immediately yanked him out of his chair and threw him over my legs and started doing palm thrusts on his back to get whatever was causing his choking to come up. He threw up everything he had just ate, took in a deep breath and starting screaming. The whole thing lasted about a minute but it was the scariest minute of my life. As soon as he started screaming I started crying. I couldn't believe that had just happened. I called his Doctor and set up an appointment for an allergy consult. My mommy instincts almost knew that's what it was that caused his reaction. Kevin is really great at being able to clear his airway if something is stuck, we have never had to intervene and help him. He almost immediately gags and is able to bring whatever is stuck back up. At the appointment his Doctor said it sounded more like a case of choking but because of the earlier lip rash decided it would be best to put in a consult to the allergist at the hospital. We had our appointment with the allergist today and I explained the same things I did with the Doctor, how Kevin has never had problems choking, the earlier rash and the horrible scary incident. He too thought the scary incident sounded like choking but decided it would be better to be safe and do some skin testing. He let me know that even if it was negative we could do blood testing to further make sure (I think he was convinced it would be negative). The skin testing was a little scary but the nurse was so nice. She turned on the t.v to Elmo and had a toy to keep Kevin distracted. I held him in my lap facing the t.v, his back facing the nurse, while she administered the scratch test. Kevin was a champ, even though he was pricked three times, a control, a histamine, and the peanut. I told myself I wasn't going to look until the required 15 minutes had passed, I didn't want to know until it was for sure. The nurse walked by and peeked at his back after about 5 minutes and said "Wow, that's a positive". I looked at Kevin's back and even though it confirmed my suspicions my heart still sank. Kevin's back was red and swollen. I wish my phone hadn't died and I could have snapped a picture. Where she had done the peanut prick there was a bump the size of a dime and the redness was about the radius of a dollar coin. Kevin started getting fussy and squirmy, and kept trying to rub his back against me. You could just tell his back was itching him. After the 15 minutes had passed the allergist came back in and asked how it was going, I turned Kevin's back toward him and he looked very surprised to see how bad the reaction was. He ordered some more testing of actual nuts (a peanut is actually a legume not a nut, guess who didn't know that?...me). The almond, walnut and pecan all came back negative thankfully. However, after the consultant with him we both decided that staying away from all nuts will be in Kevin's best interest. He also said that with Kevin's previous episode and with the way his skin reacted we should start carrying around epipens. He prescribed us two and showed me how to use it. Kevin is going to be that little boy, the one who can't have brownies made with nuts, will never be able to try peanut M & M's (my favorite), and will be the one who's allergy is the cause of the "peanut free room" signs in school and daycare at church. I don't know why it bothers me as much as it does. I guess it's knowing that such a small thing can harm my baby so much. It's knowing that from this point on it's constantly monitoring food wrappers and restaurant menus. Making sure everyone who watches him knows how to use the epipen, and knows not to give him peanuts or anything with them in it. It's knowing that his life is that much more precious and special.
