Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Oh, nuts!

Moses might have a peanut allergy.

I can't even fathom that sentence since there's no family history of food allergies (although the lengthy history of hay fever doesn't bode well for him) and well, Dave and I love nuts.

Last night, Dave fed Moses some peanuts. I told Dave that I didn't think Moses had had an actual peanut before, only foods that have been in peanuts' proximity, so he stopped. About fifteen minutes later Moses' eyes were itchy and red with a rash, his voice was raspy, and although his breathing wasn't labored, it was noisy. I called our doctor's on-call nurse and she said to give him Benadryl and take him to the ER. On the way to the ER he vomited but seemed better afterwards.

We hung out in the ER for an hour-and-a-half before we decided to go home and call his pediatrician in the morning since his eyes were looking much better and he was playing vigorously. He obviously wasn't experiencing anything life-threatening, and we thought he was probably just picking up more germs there anyway.

I called his pediatrician this morning and they are in the process of getting Moses a referral to an allergist. We should hear something about an appointment in the next few days.

Dave and I are both hoping it was something other than the peanuts that caused his reaction since a peanut allergy is lifelong, potentially life-threatening, and requires a lot of food scrutiny, but I think our optimism is just hope. Maybe we'll get lucky...

-Lindsey

5 comments:

Growing up said...

Okay Dr.James Herman, he is wonderful with lily. She had her first reaction at 8 months and he had no problem doing a full food test then to make sure we wouldnt have any other problms. She has severe food allergies to eggs, and peanuts. We carry 2-3 epi pens with us every where we go and well I know just were we can't go! also if you ever have a food problem like that again, when you run into the er start screaming food allergie! They seem to get you in really fast!

More and more kids are having bad reactions to peanuts, and it very strange but the rates are not as high in other countries and it has a lot to do with how we process our peanuts! And don't worry you can still have some nuts it was very hard for us at frist too because we LOVE peanuts, and peanutbutter. But now we love almonds and almondbutter and you come by that so much more now! If you ever want to talk about it just let me know I'm well schooled in the food allergies!

Mother Ring said...

Thanks Misty! I thought about Lily last night when this happened since I remember you mentioning her allergies once. I hope we get a pick of allergist because I'd love to go to someone I've heard it good with kids.
I'm glad to know that it's easier than we thought to function with an allergy. I'll definitely contact you once we know the ins and outs of his case!

Anonymous said...

Oh man! For your whole family's sake I hope this isn't the case... :(

Anonymous said...

My husband's sister has severe nut allergy- all nuts, not just peanuts. I have always been astounded that she has never experienced snickers or hershey bars, or reese's (okay, there is more to life than chocolate, I know). She is always kinda like, ehh, I can't miss them because I don't know how they taste. Also, she is 30 and perfectly healthy, so little Moses will surely be fine. I know you are worried sick, though.

lfhcreative said...

Agh. Sorry you had to go through that! Micah has a peanut allergy too, although not as severe as Lily's. They make great playmates because of that! Hopefully, it will be nothing or really mild. Let us know what happens.

And it was could to run in to you the other day! How crazy that we live so close!