It's 10:45 p.m. and I should be asleep except that Barrett woke up about an hour ago crying and very disoriented. We finally got him to open his eyes and he started saying "Ow ow." So we started checking him over and I realized that his top lip is swollen. So I checked our food allergy action plan and according to it if it's only his lips and even his tongue that are swollen we only have to give him Benadryl and not inject him with the Epipen. So I gave him one of his Benadryl quick dissolve strips, which he loves fortunately because getting the liquid kind down him is a nightmare. So now Justin and I are waiting up to make sure that this reaction doesn't get any worse. We were actually at a Love and Logic parenting class tonight and my Mom was here watching the kids. So I called my Mom to find out what he ate while we were gone. He had some Dreyer's Thin Mint ice cream in a Keebler ice cream cone, that's all. Both are foods that I'm pretty sure he's eaten before and I thought were safe. Although, I know that there are some mom's of kids with nut allergies who won't give their children any commercially prepared ice cream because of the risk of cross contamination. Justin LOVES ice cream and we haven't had any problems with it in the past so I haven't tried to ban it . . . yet. The other possibility is that he fell asleep on my Mom's shoulder and she eats nuts and maybe she had some nut residue on her clothing that his face came in contact with.
This is the thing that is driving me crazy right now: I think I'm doing everything I can to keep my child safe and he's still having reactions. Although I'm praying that this one stays minor. Most allergic reactions occur within minutes of a person coming in contact with the allergen. This has not been the case with Barrett. His last episode when he ended up in the ER for 12 hours happened hours after he had last eaten. He woke us up at 11:15 p.m. that time. This makes it so much harder to try to pin point the cause of the reaction. It also makes me afraid to go to sleep if he's coughing at all because that's how his last and worst reaction started. I'm actually surprised that I haven't posted about Barrett's nut allergy before now because it's become such a major part of my everyday life. I have to carry his Epipen with me where ever I go and make sure Justin does the same when he has Barrett. I have to read every label, every time I buy something at the store or before he eats it. We've severely limited where we feel comfortable eating out with him and I could go on and on.
There's a little 4 year old boy who goes to our church who also has nut allergies in addition to milk and egg allergies and I heard tonight that he was at a friend's house and somehow ingested a nut and is in the hospital. It is so hard for me not to be scared all the time. My friends who are also dealing with nut allergies in their children keep telling me that it gets easier when they get a little bit older and understand about their allergy and can take on some of the responsibility for what they eat. I sure hope it's true.
So here's a photo I took of Barrett a short while ago. It's a little out of focus but you should be able to tell that his lip is swollen.
For comparison, here's a photo I took of him
yesterday with two of his Easter eggs.
One more with the eggs just because he's so cute
and I forgot to put it on my previous post.
5 comments:
Oh that's so awful. poor little guy. I sure hope that what "they say" is true and it starts to get better, or more manageable. What a nightmare!
I hope he is OK. There is nothing like that panic in the world. I have been freaking out about Nathan. I hope Barret is back to 100%. I didn't know he was allergic to milk and eggs too?! You guys are amazing.
Yes, he is fine. I gave him a second dose of Benadryl in the morning and he was totally recovered after that. He's not allergic to milk or eggs. Sorry if I was unclear. I was worried that the ice cream might have been cross contaminated with nuts from processing a different flavor of ice cream on the same equipment.
I can't imagine having to worry about that every day. For my part, I will always try to be extremely careful about what I feed Barrett! Nate had lots of fun playing with him the other day. I'm glad they are really starting to play together and almost get along!
I hate food allergies, too!! Especially the scary nut kind! I wonder if his lip had started swelling before bedtime, and your mom just didn't notice it. Seems weird that the reactions take so long, yet really, really good too.
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