Somewhat Disappointing

Last week E had to have several vials of blood drawn so they could run tests on his food allergies. As you might imagine, the blood draw did not go easily and kind of traumatized E. It was worse than last year because now E has a much better idea of what’s going on and he’s a lot stronger (it took two techs and myself to hold him still). Anyway, yesterday I took E in to get the test results and to see his allergist for his annual check-up.

Sadly the test results were not encouraging. The tests measure the amount of antibodies in E’s blood that react to specific allergens. Last year his results for milk were already quite high and since then they have doubled to being super high. His results for peanuts doubled as well and eggs and most nuts stayed the same.

All of which means that E is very unlikely to outgrow any of his current allergies. I’ll admit that I was pretty disappointed. From year one to year two it looked like E might outgrow his nut allergies and maybe his egg allergy. But this last year everything just looks worse.

I was feeling kind of down as I drove home. It just hit me again that my son will most likely never be able to eat like a normal person. Right now making sure that he only eats food that’s safe for him is solely my responsibility (and N’s) but what’s it going to be like when he’s in school or away from home? It’s a lot for a little kid to handle.

On the positive side E’s allergist said that there is hope that this new baby won’t have allergies/or will have less severe allergies. She said it’s a combination of genetics and enviroment and that when nursing moms cut allergens out from their diets (like I’m going to do) sometimes kids only end up for a few milder allergies that they outgrown within a few years. I don’t know how much difference it will make since I eliminated allergens from my diet when I was nursing E once we found out about his allergies but he was already seven months or so old at that point.

So while there’s nothing really concrete to go on I won’t be eating dairy, eggs, and nuts after the baby’s born because I will do anything in my power to lessen the chance that another one of my kids has to go through this. On the plus side, this time around I’m a lot more knowledgeable about what our food options will be (and it will probably help me lose the baby weight).

After spending a few hours at the doctor’s office, getting skin tested to see if he could get a flu shot, and then getting the flu shot itself E was pretty wiped out and hungry so on the way home we stopped into a Chik-Fil-A that recently opened near our house.

As I watched E eat his waffle fries and chicken nuggets (his doctor okayed food fried in refined peanut oil) and then run around the playground I felt my spirits lift. While there are a lot of things E can’t eat and he’ll most likely have to be careful of them his whole life it’s not as though he has a serious or terminal illness like some kids do. He’s still a healthy little boy for which I am deeply grateful.

4 thoughts on “Somewhat Disappointing”

  1. Oh Faith! I'm sorry! That really is disappointing. On the up side- I didn't know Chick-Fil-A chicken nuggets were kosher. Yay! I think we need to bake Christmas cookies together this year.

  2. Wow, I am really surprised that the doctor okayed refined peanut oil. Our allergist says to avoid 100% all peanuts including refined oils. It is so hard when even the doctors can't agree on what to do about allergies.
    It is so hard to hear the results year after year that your child will still be MFA. I fully understand your disappointment, casue I see my son's dairy, egg, peanut & tree nut numbers rising every year.
    Allergy Mum – http://allergymum.blogspot.com/

  3. Jenn, I just double-checked the ingredients and the nuggets actually do include a milk wash so you probably don't want to give them to F. E didn't have a visible reaction to them but now he won't be getting them again.

    Ugh, now even that nice memory is tainted by fact that I should have been letting E eat those nuggets! Excuse me while I go drown my sorrows in a slice of vegan pumpkin pie.

  4. Hey, how did I miss this important post? I was a slacker on blog-reading while we were traveling. Just wanted to say that I am sorry the results weren't what you were hoping for, but E is a great kid and you are a fantastic mom. You are so careful and conscientious about what he eats – I am always so impressed. You are awesome! And thank heavens kimchi is vegan… and spam and kim and rice!

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