If you have been a reader for awhile or know me in real life, you probably know that Chase is allergic to peanuts. A friend of mine that has a son with peanut allergies told me about doctors in the area that are doing oral immunotherapy for peanuts. My first thoughts were this has to be a crock. No way would we be doing this to Chase. We did a little research and saw that people were dosing twice a day and there is a mandatory rest period after and we didn't see how we would be able to keep our child resting twice a day especially once he was in school.
We did discuss with our very well respected allergist and decided to wait for the patch that is probably going to be released in the next few years.
But we kept seeing more and more and joined facebook groups and started asking questions and finding out more. When we found out the local doctor was only dosing once a day and spoke with one of her oral immunotherapy patients we scheduled a consult.If you have no idea what I'm talking about, here is a news article about the doctor we are seeing.
We know two other peanut allergic kiddos that see this dr. I expected the dr to want to get Chase's asthma under control or do a few things before we started oit. Chase's asthma has been pretty controlled this cold and flu season. He currently is on no medication and is doing great. Chase is only allergic to peanuts. His peanut IgE is 56.6 and most of it is Ara h 2.
I was shocked at how well the appointment went. He had his environmental allergies tested again (which was a little traumatic). He is still allergic to dogs and cats, but that's it. Our doctor thinks he is a good candidate for oral immunotherapy and has had pretty good success.
We have a start date scheduled and I don't see any reason why we would not start. When I was driving home I was thinking more people need to do this!
Showing posts with label allergies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label allergies. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 9, 2016
Friday, November 1, 2013
Passing out candy advice from an allergy mom
Chase is 2.5 years old and this was his first Halloween trick or treating. This was also the first year we knew about his allergy to peanuts. We talked about the rules for trick or treating before we left. You ring the doorbell once. You say trick or treat and thank you. You don't eat any candy. I brought the bendryl and epi pens with me.
Hubby went up to the door with Chase most of the time or he was with one of his aunts. We weren't too worried about what kind of candy he got because we didn't plan on giving him much, if any. Hubby said he mentioned that Chase was allergic to peanuts at one house when they asked what kind of candy Chase wanted. Let's be honest, Hubby and I love us some peanut candy and were totally ok with him getting it so we could eat it.
Most of the stuff Chase got was candy that we don't plan on giving him. There was a variety of suckers and non peanut items. I just don't like giving him sugar. He was so excited about a capri sun that he got at one house. We thought the capri sun was a good idea but it did make the buckets heavy. Besides candy he got fruit snacks, pretzels, and a cool mini coloring book and crayons.
As a mom of a 2.5 year old with peanut allergies I thought this was great. I'm guessing the high school kids probably wouldn't be excited about it. My cousin said some houses saw that Chase and his cousin were younger so they gave them fruit snacks instead of candy. So I guess you could get the little coloring book for younger kids and have candy for older kids.
There was a discussion on twitter today about kids asking for nut free candy. As a mom of a child with a peanut allergy I thought I could give my opinion on the topic. Personally, I don't think it is the job of the people passing out candy to provide nut free or gluten free choices. My plan as a passer outer is to usually get like the 150 pack at Costco and try to hand out the stuff I don't like first. I think as an allergy parent it is your job to educate your child on what they can and can't eat when they are old enough to go up to the door on their own. In the past, I would just grab a candy and put it in a kid's bag because letting them pick sometimes they take more than one or take forever to pick. Maybe now as an allergy parent I would let them pick.
I know a lot of allergy parents have candy or toys at home that their child can trade candy that they can't eat for. I also saw on twitter and heard on Ellen today about the switch witch. I just told Hubby about it and I think that's our plan for when Chase is old enough to care. Have you heard about the switch witch? Of course there is a cool poem on pinterest.
I hope you all had a safe and happy Halloween!
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
allergy update
I was going to do a post with funny pictures today but for some reason emailing the pictures to myself is taking awhile. So I thought I would update you on Chase's allergies.
Monday we took Chase in to the allergist. I have a friend that has a child with allergies and sees the same allergist so I asked her what to expect at the appointment. From the paperwork and instructions they made it sound like he would be getting a skin test. I had heard from someone else and my friend confirmed my thought that they don't do the skin test until they are older.
Well, they did the skin test. I expected complete torture. He had several pricks on his back and then we had to distract him from itching for 15 minutes. Once again my little man blew my expectations out of the water. He was amazing.
The peanut allergy had been confirmed with a blood test right after his first encounter and reaction. He has no other food allergies. The skin test let us know he is pretty allergic to cats. He had a reaction to dogs and dust as well but I think we will be able to treat that with allergy meds.
Before the peanut encounter we thought Chase had seasonal allergies. Pretty much every time he went outside he would sneeze once or twice and then he was fine. Now that we know what he is allergic to there was probably dust, cat hair, and dog hair in the air. He usually had worse allergies when we went to visit my in laws but I always assumed it was just the pollen or weeds in that area. Nope, it was their dog and cats!
We take Chase back in September to discuss his tight airway. We are praying and don't think he has asthma but he does tend to get coughs and is taking a medication to help with his indoor allergies and cough.
In a year we will take him back to have his blood tested again to see what his peanut butter number is. It was 22 this time. We are praying it stays the same or goes down which might indicate he is growing out of it.
I think I'm doing better not blaming myself for his allergies. I've kind of accepted that there isn't anything I can do to change my son. Yes, life would probably be simpler if he didn't have allergies but things could be a lot worse. I will continue to count my blessings and thank God he gave me such a wonderful child.
Monday we took Chase in to the allergist. I have a friend that has a child with allergies and sees the same allergist so I asked her what to expect at the appointment. From the paperwork and instructions they made it sound like he would be getting a skin test. I had heard from someone else and my friend confirmed my thought that they don't do the skin test until they are older.
Well, they did the skin test. I expected complete torture. He had several pricks on his back and then we had to distract him from itching for 15 minutes. Once again my little man blew my expectations out of the water. He was amazing.
The peanut allergy had been confirmed with a blood test right after his first encounter and reaction. He has no other food allergies. The skin test let us know he is pretty allergic to cats. He had a reaction to dogs and dust as well but I think we will be able to treat that with allergy meds.
Before the peanut encounter we thought Chase had seasonal allergies. Pretty much every time he went outside he would sneeze once or twice and then he was fine. Now that we know what he is allergic to there was probably dust, cat hair, and dog hair in the air. He usually had worse allergies when we went to visit my in laws but I always assumed it was just the pollen or weeds in that area. Nope, it was their dog and cats!
We take Chase back in September to discuss his tight airway. We are praying and don't think he has asthma but he does tend to get coughs and is taking a medication to help with his indoor allergies and cough.
In a year we will take him back to have his blood tested again to see what his peanut butter number is. It was 22 this time. We are praying it stays the same or goes down which might indicate he is growing out of it.
I think I'm doing better not blaming myself for his allergies. I've kind of accepted that there isn't anything I can do to change my son. Yes, life would probably be simpler if he didn't have allergies but things could be a lot worse. I will continue to count my blessings and thank God he gave me such a wonderful child.
Friday, May 17, 2013
Allergic to peanuts
I don't think I've talked about this here but our doctor advised us not to give Chase peanuts until 2 years of age. We have no family history of peanut allergies but we trust our doctor and peanuts aren't a food that a child "needs".
I gave Chase peanut butter for the first time this morning. I had benadryl ready to go but figured everything would be fine. I took pictures. He said yum. Then he started acting weird.
I couldn't tell if he was just acting weird because it is a new texture. It was a little like watching a dog eating peanut butter. I got nervous and called my dad. I told him I was freaked out and Chase was kind of acting weird. Chase stopped eating the peanut butter and kind of made his mama I'm not feeling good sound. My dad reassured me that he was probably fine.
Chase acted like he wanted to go outside but I was still nervous. He sneezed and acted like his nose was itchy. Then the hives appeared. I tried to call my mom but my stupid phone deleted a lot of my contacts. I think I called my dad and said he had hives and my dad said give him the benadryl and call the advice nurse. I gave Chase benadryl and called my mom some how.
Chase seemed a lot better after I gave him the benadryl. I called the advice nurse and she seemed a little freaked out. She was glad I had the benadryl and told me to give him more so he got the full dose for his weight. She said watch him and made an appointment for 4:45.
My friend was already on her way over for a playdate while all this was going on. I of course meet her in the driveway in tears. Luckily her hubby is a doctor and she's amazing and totally understands. So Chase and his friend played and we chatted and then I could tell he wasn't feeling well. Then he threw up. So my sweet friend got on the phone to the pediatrician and said my friend needs to be seen sooner. Got us an 11:15 appointment! My dad came over to go with us to the appointment.
The appointment was kind of uneventful. Chase was totally fine at this point. But we were prescribed an epi pen and sent to the lab for a nut panel. I had no idea what to expect. They draw the child's blood. Of course we got the trainee that couldn't do it right the first time but Chase was so tough got pricked twice and didn't cry.
I gave Chase peanut butter for the first time this morning. I had benadryl ready to go but figured everything would be fine. I took pictures. He said yum. Then he started acting weird.
I couldn't tell if he was just acting weird because it is a new texture. It was a little like watching a dog eating peanut butter. I got nervous and called my dad. I told him I was freaked out and Chase was kind of acting weird. Chase stopped eating the peanut butter and kind of made his mama I'm not feeling good sound. My dad reassured me that he was probably fine.
Chase acted like he wanted to go outside but I was still nervous. He sneezed and acted like his nose was itchy. Then the hives appeared. I tried to call my mom but my stupid phone deleted a lot of my contacts. I think I called my dad and said he had hives and my dad said give him the benadryl and call the advice nurse. I gave Chase benadryl and called my mom some how.
Chase seemed a lot better after I gave him the benadryl. I called the advice nurse and she seemed a little freaked out. She was glad I had the benadryl and told me to give him more so he got the full dose for his weight. She said watch him and made an appointment for 4:45.
My friend was already on her way over for a playdate while all this was going on. I of course meet her in the driveway in tears. Luckily her hubby is a doctor and she's amazing and totally understands. So Chase and his friend played and we chatted and then I could tell he wasn't feeling well. Then he threw up. So my sweet friend got on the phone to the pediatrician and said my friend needs to be seen sooner. Got us an 11:15 appointment! My dad came over to go with us to the appointment.
The appointment was kind of uneventful. Chase was totally fine at this point. But we were prescribed an epi pen and sent to the lab for a nut panel. I had no idea what to expect. They draw the child's blood. Of course we got the trainee that couldn't do it right the first time but Chase was so tough got pricked twice and didn't cry.
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