This is Nuts!!!

I took Caroline to the doctor today, the allergist to be exact. I had to have her tested for a few allergies to foods. As it turns out, she is allergic to all tree nuts, with the exception of pecans and walnuts, which Adam is allergic to.

It all started a little over a year ago. I bought a big container of cashews from Costco. I gave her a little bite of one. She liked it and so I gave her one half of a cashew. While eating that, she began to cry, cough, gag, and eventually threw up. Everywhere the threw up touched (and other places too) she had huge welts on her. Those welts were the size of the palm of my hand. I knew she was having an allergic reaction so I quickly dumped some Benadryl down her to lessen the reaction. I avoided buying all nuts for about the next year. Then Labor Day this year came along.

While Adam was recuperating in the hospital from his lovely intussusception, I took the kids swimming with my sister and her family and my brother and his family. As a snack for myself, I had previously purchased the new Nature Valley granola nut clusters, with cashews. As we were getting ready to go, I noticed Owen had the bag and was eating them. What I didn't see was how Caroline got her hands on one of the clusters. Not sure if she reached in the bag and got them or if Owen gave her one. Doesn't matter. What does matter is the immediate reaction she began to have. She was throwing up, crying, coughing, gagging, and the welts were returning. This time she was having trouble breathe and sounded very "croupy" and wheezy. Luckily, we were on our way home and we were close to home. I gave her some prednisone I had on hand and some more Benadryl and rubbed Benadryl on her welts. After cleaning up the throw up from the car and Caroline having a nap, I checked to see how her welts were doing. They took a second dose of both types of Benadryl to completely clear everything up.

After this incident, I realized I couldn't take a chance and needed to get Caroline an epi-pen, which I did. After having her blood work done (which showed a lot of allergies), her pediatrician recommended that I take her to an allergist. I did that today. Caroline is absolutely, definitely, positively allergic to tree nuts. The good news is that everything else her blood work showed she is allergic to (i.e., milk, eggs, corn, soy, wheat, oranges, peanuts - just to name a few) turned out to be false positives - THANK HEAVENS!!!!

In the days after this testing she has learned that she can't eat nuts and that they "make me sick." Now, I just have to get in the habit of telling everyone wherever she goes and may come into contact with those things that she is absolutely allergic to them and that she cannot have any of them. Until I can get that engrained in my head, she has learned that she needs to tell people "I can't eat nuts. They make me sick!"