Lucas's Allergies

Lucas's Allergies  (Beware of Peanuts!)
October 23 +

When we were on our vacation this month, one of our family members handed Lucas a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  For some reason I happened to be standing right there and had a feeling, so I jumped in and said he hasn't had peanut butter yet, let's not test it when we're so far from home.  It's funny that I even worried about it because none of us have food allergies, I just follow a pretty good schedule when it comes to introducing food to my babies, and he had barely turned one.  It was definitely a good thing that he didn't eat peanut butter while we were away.   A few weeks after we got home, I was getting ready to leave for the weekend on a girls' trip.  I felt like I should be the one to test it before I left him, so I gave him a quarter of a piece of bread with a little bit of peanut butter on it.  He loved it!  He ate the whole thing.  I was so happy that I had found something else he would eat because he recently started refusing to eat any baby food and a lot of the other things that I was offering him.

After he finished I wiped his face and noticed a rash appearing all over where the peanut butter had been.  Within minutes the rash was much worse and spreading.  He was breaking out in hives and started to swell.  He is such a happy guy, and didn't seem affected yet.  I was on the phone with my sister in law, Megan, and told her, I better get some Benadryl I think Lucas is allergic to peanuts.  By the time I got back with the medicine (I'm so glad I had some on hand), his lips were swollen, he was swallowing repeatedly and his breathing was becoming labored.  Megan said, call an ambulance, which I was very close to doing, but I decided to try the Benadryl first.  I'm not sure how he choked it down, it was obvious that his throat was closing and he was having trouble breathing and swallowing.  I somehow stayed calm, but I was so relieved when within a minute he started acting normal again.  His hives even started looking better.  I called the doctor's office and they just told me I would need to come in in the next few days to get an epi pen and that I had done what needed to be done in the situation.

A half an hour later I realized his hives were getting worse, he was turning bright red all over, and he was swelling again.  When I changed his diaper he had diarrhea, and hives swelling all over his diaper area.  He looked HORRIBLE!  I called the doctor back and said I'm on my way.  My friend Leah had just dropped Emilyn off from dance, so I knew she was home.  I dropped both girls off with her and headed to the doctor's office.  I reached back and held his hand the whole way because I was so scared since I couldn't see him that he would stop breathing and I wouldn't know it.

When we got to the office Lucas received lots of attention looking the way he did.  The nurses were coming out from all over to see "The Little Tomato" as they were calling him.  He seemed to get worse and worse looking, but still was able to breathe thankfully.  His ears were so swollen they looked like little blobs instead of ears.  He was still so cheerful, even looking the way he did.  The PA said that this was such a bad first reaction and that she didn't want to scare me (too late!), but if the first reaction was this bad, then they next one could be be even worse.  She said it was a systemic response.  She looked him over, and said he didn't need an epi pen now since he was breathing fine, but she wanted him to take a course of steroids to strengthen his lungs since his reaction was so extreme.  I didn't love the idea of having him take steroids, but we didn't notice too many side effects, and I definitely didn't want him to have problems breathing or swelling again.  We also kept giving him Benadryl for the next few days.  It took about 24 hours before he looked back to normal, and we continued the course of steroids and Benadryl for the next few days.

The whole thing was very scary, and so unexpected.  We carry around an Epi pen and Benadryl now everywhere we go.  They also had me schedule an appointment with an allergist.  The allergist had me take him to get a blood test done so we could test for other allergies.  He said he didn't want to do a prick test because he is still so little and because he had such a severe reaction it could send him into anaphylaxis again.  The blood draw was a whole other experience because even with three of them and me helping, and after they called in someone from another office that specialized in babies, they couldn't get enough blood.  They had to prick him four times, and we still only had enough for one panel, and we need one for peanuts and tree nuts and one for a general pediatric allergy panel.  He was so good for the first prick, but by the last one, I couldn't blame him, he was hysterical.  They said I would have to come back to do it all over again.  I told Matt I couldn't do it again, so he took him before work one morning.  They were able to get enough for the other panel with just one more prick.

The following week we got the call that he was definitely allergic to peanuts, but also to wheat and egg whites.  The wheat allergy came back as severe, so they said they thought it could be Celiac disease.  She said for some reason they didn't test for some of the other main allergies so we might need to get more blood again to test for those things as well as for a Celiac panel.  I was relieved when they called back and said they had enough blood in the lab to finish the testing.  We soon found out that the list of allergies was growing.  I was so happy that it wasn't Celiac disease that the rest of it didn't seem as bad.  If it isn't Celiac, then there is a chance he can outgrow these allergies.  The final list came back as this:

Mild Allergy to Egg Yolks
Moderate Allergies to Egg Whites, Peanuts, and Corn
Severe Allergies to Wheat and Oats

They said since he hasn't had tree nuts or shellfish yet, they wouldn't show up as allergies in a blood test, so we are supposed to have him avoid those as well until he is at least three since we don't know how he will react to them.  It has been overwhelming and life changing to avoid all of these foods in his diet.  It is amazing how many foods contain corn!  There is a list with over a hundred items that are different names for corn.  I have had to learn a lot, and experiment with different foods.  The whole thing is a process.  I have thought if only he could eat one of these foods, it would make things a lot easier.  Lately I think, if only he would eat what I offer him, it would be a lot easier!  He won't eat baby food, bananas, yogurt, or many of the great options he has available to him.  Also, he'll eat something one day and refuse it the next.  He has thrown a lot of food off his tray this month!  It makes feeding him frustrating, and like figuring out a new puzzle at every meal.  Going shopping for foods is interesting as well.  I cried my first time in the cracker isle after I found out!  It sounds silly, but it was overwhelming how many things contain his allergens.  Peanuts are just plain scary because he can die from a bite of something with them in it, and the rest are overwhelming since they seem to be in everything.  Even the gluten-free area can be frustrating.   All the foods there do not have wheat, but instead have corn or oats.  And if they don't have corn, they have eggs.  You get the idea!  It is one day at a time with this new diet, and we continue to learn and find new things to try.  I'm thankful that our scare was only that, and that now we know what to avoid to keep him healthy.

Since the whole peanut experience was so crazy I wasn't able to capture how bad he looked, but I did try to take a few pictures with my phone, but they do not do how bad it was justice!  Matt also took a few when he was changing his diaper because he couldn't believe how bad it looked hours after the reaction.