Hold the nuts and eggs, please.

I took Henry for his appointment with the allergist today.  They conducted a skin prick test to confirm his peanut allergy and to test for other common allergens like shrimp, sesame, and eggs.  Sure enough, he reacted to peanuts. I was a little surprised he also reacted to eggs.  Now I know why he refuses to eat them. They must make him feel bad. Poor guy.  He will most likely outgrow the egg allergy, but there is only a 20% chance he'll outgrow the peanut allergy. Luckily, his reaction last weekend was fairly mild in comparison, and hopefully will stay that way if he is exposed again.  The Dr. did not test for other nuts because that involves a lot more skin pricks and could make him even more uncomfortable.  He felt sure he would react to some tree nuts since I told him Henry had a very mild reaction on his face to pancakes that had pecans. So, we are just going nut free for now, and we'll do more testing as he gets older and can tolerate it a little better.

Now begins the vigilance stage. We have a prescription for EpiPens and will obviously be extra careful about what we give him.  I'm not really worried about exposing him at home, considering he has a limited diet at this point of fresh meats, fruits and veggies.  Aubrey even said she didn't need to have peanut butter anymore at home. So sweet ( I think she was just thrilled that the Dr. gave us the OK to have "Chick-Fil-A" even though they use peanut oil...a whole other story about that, but it seems filtered peanut oil is a different deal). It will be more difficult as he gets older, I'm sure.  We have to be very careful when we eat out, and he mentioned that places like Amy's Ice Cream are pretty much off limits (gasp) since cross contamination is highly. Good thing he hasn't had it yet, so he has no clue what he is missing.

We'll return again when he's three. Until then, I'll keep pushing the broccoli. Maybe by then he'll actually touch it to his mouth. How does he know he won't like it if he doesn't try????