aller-geeze

let me set the scene.  i am rusing around late last week trying to get us all out the door. the j-man has baseball and i am barking orders (find your cleats! where's your glove?) and trying to him a sandwich made and the baby ready...  i give monkey girl a few bites of the sandwich because i know she is coming up on wanting a snack and we don't have much time.  we get loaded, strapped, buckled into the car with all of our accessories and off we go.

it's about a six minute drive to the ball field. we pull into the parking lot and i make sure j-man has all of his stuff and send him off ahead of us.  then i look at monkey girl as i start to unbuckle her.  hmm. she must have rubbing her eye, i think as i glance at her face. then i see more red.  blotches. everywhere.  the eye that was red is also swelling. she has what appear to be hives all over her face. as my anxiety about the poor girl's face mounts, it hits me. maybe it was something she ate?  what did she eat?

scanning my brain, i think of the last thing i fed her. bread with peanut butter. maybe that's what it is?! ***

i strap her back in, fly home, calling hubs on the way and saying "there is something wrong here. i think we might need to take her in"...

we stop back to the ball field and let the coach know that we are going to urgent care and one of us will be back by the end of practice to pick up the little slugger.

at urgent care, the doc says "yep that's probably what it is. get her some benadryl and make an appt... and watch her breathing. if she has ANY respiratory issues bring her in immediately."  monkey girl is a little fussy and appears uncomfortable.  it took about two hours for everything to return to normal. poor baby!

*** i am going to insert a bit of  defensiveness here, because i've heard it a lot already from people. before you go all "bad mommy" o nme... please don't say "i thought you were supposed to wait until they are two or three to give them peanut butter".... i have talked to her pediatrician and he says that as long as there are no similar allergies in the famiy, we're good to go after a year. in fact, before all the peanut allergy stuff was so prevalent, j-man had peanut butter at a year, also upon doctor clearance. there is no confirmation anywhere  that giving peanuts or peanut butter to children before any age can cause allergies.  even the doc (not our regular doc) we saw said that we could not have avoided it if this is what it was.  either you are or you aren't.

we have an appointment tomorrow morning to see what's up. it's just with her regular doc, who will likely have to give us a referral to an allergist. they can draw blood at the clinic but that's about it. ugh.

so, against all odds, please pray for us, cross your fingers, send good thoughts that it's a fluke. something else. because the allergy thing, that would be just not good.

Comments

[Hilary]

Glad all is ok for now! I always wonder why the nurses ask at well-baby checks "Is he allergic to anything?"...I dunno...I mean, are we supposed to test these things at home and see how they react? Shouldn't they just draw blood from every baby and find out ahead of time, saving us parents from panic attacks?! Hope the test goes well! Maybe it was heat rash?

[anne]

Other moms and I have often exchanged "doctor advice" after visits to the pediatrician, and I swear, no two doctors ever give out the same advice about any one medical issue. For example, at Ryan's 1 year appt. our doc said "no peanut butter till at least two." I find it very strange, the variations is recommendations. Hope the little lady turns out to be okay, and it was just a weird fluke or something. You're right- the peanut allergy would NOT be fun.

[Miranda]

I agree every doc is different i have been feeding aubriee peanut butter since before one and she did fine!! I really wish you all the best Peanut allergies are not fun because surprising enough they are in alot of stuff! Maybe she will be one of the kids that out grow it too!! LETS HOPE!!

[Chanley]

Oh man, so sorry to hear all that. But your right, it would have happened at any time. Either now or if you waited to give it to her at 3 years old. We gave both Jake and Casey PB at 18 months old. We heard that if there isn't any major allergy issues in the family that it is okay to give it.

I do question though why all these allergies (peanuts, eggs, milk etc..) are all coming out so strong now a days. Is it that there are more people in this world so there will be more cases, or is there something else that our kids eat or are infected with that makes them more prone to allergies. What is up? I don't think I even knew a kid growing up that was allergic to anything? Or maybe I just cannot remember that well.

Good luck with the appts. To give you some hope, Casey was allergic to milk from age 5mths to 1 year. She outgrew it quickly and now all is fine. We knew this because she got hives from the milk based formulas and had to be on soy formula and wasn't allowed to eat yogurt or cheese until after her first birthday. When she turned 1 we introduced whole milk and other dairy products and she was okay. She went through the skin testing, it wasn't too painful for her. Hope your little girl does okay.

[heather]

Yikes, I know how scary that can be! That's pretty much exactly the story with Sawyer, it happened once last summer coming home from a picnic... his eyes and face were swollen, blotchy and itchy, he couldn't stop rubbing his nose and he was coughing and wheezing a bit. We took him in and the dr said it was probably something in the air at the park. We gave him Benadryl and he calmed down pretty quickly. I doubted it was hayfever like the dr said because it had never happened before... and has never happened since. UNTIL last fall, right around his second birthday, I absentmindedly gave him a peanut butter granola bar on our way out the door for shopping (I had held off on peanut butter before that because my husband had a million allergies when he was a kid and Sawyer is already known to be allergic to berries and dairy products.).
The exact same thing happened as happened before... and just like you described with your little monkey. This time we simply stopped by a drug store and picked up some Benadryl and dosed him up. He calmed down after about an hour. From then on, I made a note to schedule and appointment with a pediatric allergist, but in the meantime just pretended like he is allergic. I tell caregivers no nuts/peanut butter. I don't pay attention to labels, as in traces of nuts in the ingredients... just no peanuts or peanut butter flavoring, and he's been fine. I haven't stressed too much about it as his reaction, although an obvious and uncomfortable reaction, wasn't compromising his breathing and got under control easily with the Benadryl. We do carry it with us in the diaper bag now though, just in case.
I finally did make and appointment with an allergist (the scheduling wait was months long!!) and we are actually going in this Wednesday. It is a sigh of relief to at least be on the way to knowing for sure what I need to look for, what the severity of his allergy really is, and if we need more of a solution than Benadryl on hand. I'm hoping it's a relatively simple one... that it's wouldn't be scary breathing issues and a life threatening allergy. I'll let you know how it goes!
Keep us posted on your little one too!! Good luck!

[Robyn]

Oh I hope it was just a fluke thing. I'd hate to see Monkey girl allergic to Peanut Butter, Ha Ha!! Seriously, I hope she isn't. I gave Mags strawberries and stuff they said not to, so I'm a bad mommy too.

[Jan]

I'm impressed with how fast you acted. Good for you. One of my daughters had food allergies, that went undiagnosed for a long time, no typical symtems. no hives, etc. She was allergic to milk products, p-nut butter, chocolate, and tuna. Life was rough for her until she outgrew these alergies, at about 18.

[jenny]

oooh! i hope that she is feeling better! i have heard both things too - if there are no allergies in the family you should be safe and/or wait until after they are two. i hope she doesn't have a peanut allergy - sucky!

[gina]

OH! I hope she's OK and that it is just a fluke. I've heard this year is really bad for pollen too. I'm pretty sure my sisters gave their kids peanut butter at or before one. I hate people that have all of the answers! Good luck!

[Kristi S]

That is so scary! Glad the reaction wasn't worse....

[Hyphen Mama]

I agree that pediatricians never give the same story. We were ok'd for peanuts and such after 12 months. My kids have been doing peanut butter since they were little and I'm lucky they haven't reacted. I, also, wonder why so many allergies these days.

I hope you get it figured out!