Peanut Allergy Confirmed

Poor little Madison is officially allergic to peanuts. This post is meant to inform family and any friends that may watch Madison so they know what to avoid and how to handle any situation if she accidentally eats anything that may cause a reaction.

She has had about four incidents where she reacted after eating something with peanut butter that led to us getting her in to see an allergist. We think the first time she had a severe reaction was back in Feb. after a party with some friends at our house when I let her eat some scotchoroos. She woke up not to long after going to bed and was struggling to breath. Jake, who is usually the calm one actually called 911 because of how scary the situation was. Madison started to calm down not too long after the firetruck arrived and she seemed to be fine the next day. We thought she had just woke up with croup, looking back it was probably the peanut butter but we hadn't made any connections then. The second reaction was at church after I had let her eat the crusts of my peanut butter sandwich. We were sitting down at the meeting and noticed she had hives all over her face and hands. The only thing we could link it to was the p.b. After the second incident she had a blood test and it came out negative. We thought we were in the clear and so while traveling home from our D.C. trip I let her have a little pretzel that had p.b in the middle. She immediately started crying and developed the hives again. So we decided to avoid peanuts until we could get it figured out. She had one more accidental situation which caused her to cry and scream for little while and by the time I got to her it looked like she had been scratching her throat, her face was a bit swollen and she had developed a few hives. Last week we were finally able to get her in to see an allergist (they book six months in advance, luckily Jake was able to use his doctor power to get us in early) and they were able to confirm that she has a peanut and almond allergy.
The allergist said that there is a 20% chance she could grow out of it, so cross your fingers, but in the meantime we are to avoid all peanuts and tree nuts. The more she is exposed to peanut products the more likely it is her reactions will continue to intensify. This is because her immune system will continue to build up more antibodies causing a more severe reaction. We will always carry the EpiPen with us for an emergency. The allergist said there is no way to know if she eats (blank) amount... she will have (blank) type of reaction.

For those interested here is a list of foods that we need to avoid. Some are obvious however there are some things you don't quite think of.
Artificial nuts, Beer nuts, peanut oil or Aarchis oil, ground nuts, mixed nuts, Goobers, Mandelonas, Monkey nuts, Flavored nuts, peanut butter, peanut flour.
These foods may contain peanut protein: African, Chinese, Indonesian, Mexican, Thai, and Vietnamese dishes, Baked goods, some chocolate candy, chili and sauces, egg rolls, enchilada sauce, almond flavoring, marzipan, nougat, pesto, sunflower seeds, all tree nuts since often they are manufactured on the same equipment, Bakeries and ice cream parlors because of cross contamination.

I have been reading labels more carefully and find that it is pretty common for food to be manufactured on equipment that processes peanuts. We have still made visits to the ice cream shop, we just ask the server to wash the scooper with hot water and soap before scooping Madison's ice cream and I don't imagine us never letting her eat another donut again:) She was fine at Wixey:) We will just be careful and hope she will outgrow it. We will test her about once a year to see how things are going. About 1% of the population has a peanut allergy and there continues to be research done on the causes. They may even develop a vaccine sometime in the future. Here is a great document for family and friends about peanut allergies http://www-tc.pbskids.org/arthur/parentsteachers/lesson/health/pdf/Binky_Peanut_Allergy_QA.pdf . Also here is a website with information http://www.foodallergy.org/