No Nut Allergies!

We took Lilah the other week to meet with her Allergen Specialist that we have been waiting 6 months to see. Emmy spent the day with Auntie Lia because the appointment was suppose to last a long time and it was in the city so I really needed to have only one child to concentrate on and to really make the most of our doctor visit.

The doctor laid out a check list in front of us and told us to tick off each thing we'd like to have her tested for. We picked all the nuts, shell fish, tuna, and egg. She took us into another room and pulled out all these little bottles that looked like essential oils and started numbering Lilah's back with a marker and dropping drops of oil on her. Next she pulled out a pile of needles that looked like diabetic blood testing needles and I was so worried of how Lilah was going to handle being pricked all over her back 15 times! After the first one I realized I had nothing to worry about because the needle was so fine that she didn't even feel it. She just sat on my lap and let the doctor do her thing....great! We then waited 15 minutes to read the results. I was so happy when all the nuts were read as NEGATIVE results!!! Meaning NO NUT ALLERGIES!! Egg tested positive but she doesn't have an anaphalactic response to egg so we need to keep her from having it but if by chance she does have some then we need to take immediate action but it's not life threatening. Such good news!

Lia brought Emmy home later on that day and she had such a busy day playing with her cousins they were all asleep by the time they made it to Gawler. Check them out.....

Sleeping in order of age too! Bethany 3 1/2, Emmy 2 1/2, and Jade 23 months.

Easter Eggs

We dyed Easter Eggs this weekend! It's a little bit early, but we wanted to do them with Auntie Abby and she's only here on the weekends and next weekend we're so busy with birthday parties and a wedding so we planned a head just a little bit and did them sooner rather than later. It's better this way because now Emmy will get to play and admire them for two weeks instead of just one!
Lilah sat in her high chair with us snacking on a crayon while she was coloring. I was afraid to even let her touch an egg since she's allergic to them in case one had a crack or if she were to smash one. When she's older and understands I don't think it'll be a problem and she'll be able to join in!!

When we were doing with the eggs and it was time to let them dry Emmy had a total meltdown. She was so sad and upset that our craft time had come to an end. I ended up getting her a handful of small smooth stones to dye in her cups. It actually stained them a bit...I was surprised. She gave up using her dipping tool and went in for them with her hand and by the end of it she had 100% blue avatar hands lol!! It's nearly all gone now from lots of hand washing and playing in the backyard.

That face cracks me up!!

Check out that frown! haha Emmy is serious about her art!

Pretty Painting!

They came out so pretty! I was worried that the eggs wouldn't go pretty colors since they are brown eggs but we got really pretty rich colors and this picture really doesn't do them justice on how pretty they really are! They also have glitter sparkles on them that doesn't really show up in the picture.

Egg & Nuts

On Tuesday I took Lilah to the doctors office for the results of her blood test. It came back that she has a moderate to severe allergy to both eggs and nuts. Most of you know that I want to raise the children vegetarian/vegan so it's not been too much of a problem with them being lactose intolerant and staying away from egg if we have to, but it's a little scary now that it's gone from something I choose to not feed them to something that can seriously harm her if she eats it. Also nuts are a great way for vegetarians to get protein so that's a little disheartening to know that she may not ever have that protein source as an option. From all the reading I have done it seems like she'll eventually grow out of the egg allergy, and I'm so happy about that as then she can have that as a source of protein. Our doctor said that we shouldn't carry an epi pin right now because she's so little that the pin can be more harmful that helpful if she truly didn't need it and we had given it to her. He says it's best to call an ambulance and let them administer one. I think it's wise to get a second opinion so next week I think I'll book her into a different clinic and see what they say about it. She was given a prescription of the antihistamine Redipred and that can be given to her at the first signs of a reaction or given before a trip on an airplane in case the peanut dust effects her any.

When I really stop and think about it I can't believe how lucky I was when I was little to never have to worry about things like this. I'll be able to do all the worrying for her and make sure all the things in the house are safe, but you never know what can accidentally happen outside of the house. We just have to be prepared to act fast and not panic.

ER Trip #2

Today I had to run Lilah up to the ER. She was cranky all morning because of her teething, so her crying wasn't unusual. I scooped her up and went to go change her diaper and clothes and saw a few hive welts on her tummy and that her ears were very red on the inside. I went to go show Kim and thought we should take her up right away and I agreed. In the time it took me to change my clothes super fast, grab my purse and get her a water bottle she had double the amount of redness and welts. By the time we got to the ER which is just a 2 min drive from here it had doubled again. Her poor little ears where completely red and double their size; also her face was swelling and she stopped looking like herself. This is when I started to get scared and freaked out. I couldn't believe how fast it was happening. They took us back straight away and started asking questions. She had breast milk, banana, teething gel and pain medicine that morning. They figured something must have bitten her. I gave Kim a call to update him and he mentioned that he had given her a bite of Emmy's egg. I had forgotten all about it. She had a bite of Emmy's egg before that as well. Egg is a known allergen and is not recommend to children under 1. The doctor told us that the next time she has a reaction it will more than likely be worse and happen faster since this reaction was so bad. We'll have to carry some allergy medicine with us at all times in case she has an reaction. He also stressed that we should stay away from nuts with her until at least age two. In the reading I've done today I have not come across any correlation between egg and nut allergy, but I don't want to see her have a reaction like this again so we'll be staying away from them! They gave her an oral steroid which started to work pretty soon after and I was so happy to see the welts starting to go away. Next they gave her some non-drowsy antihistamene and two hours after we had got to the hospital they let us go home to monitor her there. By the 4 hour mark most of her swelling was gone and once she woke up from her nap another 2 hours later she looked 100% normal. Poor little girl! Can you believe it. No Milk. No Egg. I sure hope we don't find out No Nuts!