Food Allergies...Again

Well, last weekend turned into an adventure, of the bad sort. Molly had an anaphylactic reaction to something she ate and ended up at the emergency room. She broke out in hives all over her body, vomited, and her tongue was tingly and maybe swelling. Nothing to fool around with. Daddy and Grandma, who were with her, did all the right things and got her to the ER as soon as they could, but it was definitely a scary time for all of us. Molly is fully recovered now, but we're back in the food allergy camp again.

After today's appointment at the allergist, we have confirmed that the culprit is cashews. She had a majorly huge wheal on the skin prick test at the doctor's office -- enough so that all the nurses and doctors were commenting on it as they were passing by the exam room. She is also reactive to pistachios, which are closely related to cashews. Sesame seeds cause a bit of a problem for her as well -- skin reactions around her lips -- so we are avoiding those as well. We are getting her an Epi-Pen to inject her with epinephrine should she ever have the anaphylaxis again. All of Molly's caregivers -- daycare, grandparents, babysitters -- will need to be trained and familiar with how to use the injector.

We're discouraged that we're back in the food allergy world. We really thought we had put it all behind us after she outgrew her milk allergy and seemed to be fine with everything else we gave her. But we feel better prepared to deal with it this time around and we hope that with vigilance and preparation we will be able to keep her safe.