OH NUTS!!

Actually just peanuts!!

We waited until Isabella was two years old to ever even try giving her anything with peanuts. Shortly after her 2nd birthday, I made her a peanut butter and grape jelly sandwich on wheat bread. She did not like it and spit out the only bite that she took. Within the next few minutes she broke out with a few hives around her mouth and also across her forehead, where she had wiped her hair out of her face. I quickly washed her hands and face and the hives faded within a few minutes. At her next pediatrician appointment I told Dr Whitehead about it and he suggested that I try to figure out of it was the peanut butter, jelly, or bread that she reacted to. I narrowed it down to the peanut butter, but hoped that it was a fluke! I decided to try it one more time and the same thing happened. We took her off of anything with any kind of nuts in it!

Mother's Day weekend, while I was busy feeding Elisabeth, my grandmother gave Isabella a cracker with peanut butter on it. She quickly broke out in lots of hives around her mouth and came to me and told me that her tongue was "itchy"! We rushed to the store and dosed her with some Benadryl, and praise the Lord she got better quickly!! Scared me too death!

At our next appointment with Dr Whitehead I discussed the Mother's Day reaction with him, and we decided together that it was time to officially get her allergy tested! Thanks to a connection of my Mom's we were able to get in to see Dr Stone (an allergist) the next week! They tested her for 24 different allergens, foods as well as environmental allergens. Thank you Lord, she only reacted strongly to peanuts. They do a skin prick test, then come back and read it after 15 minutes. After 7 minutes the peanut spot was so large and traveling around her side so I went and got the the nurse. She quickly gave her Benadryl and applied Benadryl cream to the skin reaction. They prescribed epinephrine pens and told us to keep one and some Benadryl with us at all times!

My cousin Emma has a 6 year old daughter (Madison) who is allergic to Cashews and wears a Medic-alert bracelet all the time. With the suggestion of both doctors we have ordered Isabella a bracelet too, she got to help pick it out and is so excited for it to get here! She is also excited that it looks just like Madison's!!

We are trying to (age appropriately) teach Isabella about her allergy. We, so far, tell her that she does not like peanuts and peanut butter and she can not eat them!

We are becoming a peanut-free household, and have learned how to use an epi-pen correctly! I pray everyday that we will never have to actually use it and that she will grow out of this allergy!