Leah’s Allergies

I feel like I just typed a post just like this.

Oh wait… I did: Hannah’s Allergies

At Hannah’s appointment when he was asking me allergy questions about her I kept thinking – that sounds a lot more like Leah than it does Hannah…

When Leah was about 11 months old she had her first allergy attack. Her eyes would not stop running for a day or so. Just constantly streaming. That was the first time I gave her Benadryl (which is only recommended for 1 year and up. I went online I researched and found a “by weight” chart for dosages). It instantly dried up her eyes but holy moly. She went BIZERK. She was very literally bouncing off the walls. As in she was running AT the walls and bouncing off of them.

Leah was allergic to red dye.

Thank heaven they make dye free Benadryl. That always worked.

In later years as Leah would have accidental exposure to red dye (it’s freaking everywhere). She would have night terrors that night. It was hideous.

Most children out grow dye allergies and Leah can now have all the red dye she wants with no reaction. Whew.

However.

She was still congested a lot. Still sick a lot. Still with the runny eyes. I tried Claritin for children – no luck. I tried Zyrtec – yay! That worked. In the winter… In the summer it just takes the edge off. She would be fine and then go outside to play, then come in and her eyes would be all swollen.

Oy.

So, I took Leah to get tested. I answered a lot, lot, lot of questions.

And then the took us to another room with a bed for her to lay on her tummy. She had been so brave up to this point and finally the fearful anticipation got the better of her and she wrapped herself around me and just cried. I finally coaxed her onto her stomach and we started the test. She realized quickly the poking was not  a big deal but as you’ll see with the pictures she started to itch and be uncomfortable right away.

She cried. I was sitting by her head and we were forehead to forehead, nose to nose and she had her arms wrapped around my neck. We just stayed like that until the poking was over and she could relax a little bit. She was still uncomfortable but not anticipating the poking anymore. (62 pokes in all. Poor baby.)

ONE minute in (this stuff is supposed to stay on for 15 minutes. The nurse stood back and said: oh man.)…

3 minutes:

5 minutes:

10 minutes:

At the 10 minute mark the nurse had, had enough. She started wiping each and writing down the results. She didn’t want Leah to have to wait 5 more minutes.

All wiped off and waiting for some cream:

At this point the nurse left to go talk to the doctor again. He wanted her to have 6 more tests. Each of which involved a shot into her arm to put a little of the allergen under her skin and see how she reacted.

This… was not fun. The also wanted to draw blood. I looked at the nurse kind of horrified and she said – we can put that one off. You can refuse to do it this time.

Excellent because Leah was going through quite enough for one day!

A minute or two after the shots:

10ish minutes after:

That’s cat, dog, mold, a couple of tree ones and the bottom right is grasses. She is wicked allergic to everything (except the mold. That’s not so bad. Seriously? So what! She’s gonna rub her face in mold? LOL!) but the grasses was the worst reaction of them all. That one kept swelling through the day. I gave her some Benadryl before we started the 120 mile drive home and it stopped swelling but it’s still swollen some today.

So. She’s allergic to most kinds of trees, grasses, weeds, pollens, cats, dogs. She also has a mild allergy to wheat (no that is not celiac or gluten intolerance. Wheat allergy is a histamine response to wheat. Celiac is a gut issue.)

And she has a mild allergy to peanuts. Oh and house dust/dust mites. Both more mild than Hannah’s but still there.

The peanut thing is relatively “easy” since we’ve already prepared for that for Hannah. Hannah can’t have things that say “processed in the same facility or same equipment” but Leah can. She just is not going to have straight peanuts, peanut butter, etc.

The wheat is another issue – it’s mild and she’s not going to have an anaphylactic reaction ever but I want to get her where she feels really great and then introduce things and see where her threshold is, etc.

So for now we go wheat free.

Clearly I can not do everything for all of us. We can’t all be corn free, peanut free, wheat free, diabetic friendly eaters. There will have to be some double prep going on some things but I’ll do as much common food as I can. Wheat free (and/or gluten free) foods are much more expensive so I don’t want to feed all 4 of us wheat free all the time.

I will, however, do everything in my power to make sure my 6 year old foodie in the making still enjoys her food. She has some wheat free toaster waffles today and we both decided they taste better than the ones she normally eats. So that was a happy find for her! (If only they weren’t 4 bucks for a box of 6… I’m going to make some from other flours and freeze them because GEEZ. She eats 3 in a sitting.)

Congrats to you if you made it to the bottom of this post. Sorry about my long windedness. It helps me process all this to write it down.

I was feeling very crazy and helpless until I went to the store. I know about allergy shopping from myself. I can do this for her. I have the cooking know-how so I’m not freaking about that. I just need the supplies and some time and I can make it all fantastic for her.

We’re gonna make pizza tonight or tomorrow with some wheat free dough! She’s really excited about that.

Whew!

I should write another blog post about my own health but I’m waiting for some test results. It can wait. And frankly, my brain can only take so much!