Allergies and The Week Ahead... 12/3/12

My husband had allergies as a child - most of the top eight and some others. He outgrew all of them except fish (not shellfish). So, it was no surprise when my son started spitting up every time we gave him carrots. His allergist determined that he had a sensitivity because the skin test was negative and the reactions were delayed. We had a few run-ins with carrots that were hidden in things like chicken stock, and some random reactions at daycare that we attributed to carrot contamination. Our pediatrician did prescribe an EpiPen, just in case.

His first series of skin tests were positive for peanut allergy, but his next one showed negative. We decided to wait until he was two to introduce peanuts. Around his second birthday I had my son lick a spoon of peanut butter. After five minutes his lip started to swell so I gave him some Benadryl and we considered him sensitive to both peanuts and carrots.

We had gone about ten months without any reactions, so we were hopeful that he had started to outgrow the sensitivities. But, Friday evening he landed in the ER with an anaphylactic reaction. Luckily, when we realized what was going on we were about two minutes from the hospital. When we were about one minute away we realized we should use the EpiPen, but opted to drive the extra minute instead of stopping to administer it. The pediatrician in the ER informed us (politely) that we should have used it as soon as we noticed his lip swelling. If there is a "next time" (which hopefully they're won't be) we'll know. He was discharged three hours later and was back to his normal self (despite the fact that it was 11 PM and way past his bedtime.)

I've witnessed one of my sister's anaphylactic reactions, but they looked different from my son's reaction; perhaps because he didn't really know how to tell us what was going on. Here's how my son's played out:

• We finished dinner and after about 20 or 30 minutes he had a dry cough.
• A few minutes later his lip started to swell so we figured we'd give him Benadryl when we got home.
• About a minute later we were putting him in the car and my husband asked if anything itched. He said his tongue and started to get upset. At this point we decided to head for the hospital.
• A minute later he started wheezing and we arrived at the hospital shortly after.
• Within three minutes we were in an exam room and the nurse was administering epinephrine. He received a few other medications, including a breathing treatment, while were there.
• He was on Benadryl and an oral steroid for the next two days.

So that was our <insert sarcasm> fun and relaxing Friday night.

Menu for the Week of December 3, 2012

Monday: Curried Spinach and Chickpeas (yes, we do eat this a lot)

Tuesday: quinoa with stuff (pan-fried halloumi, butternut squash, peas)

Wednesday: spaghetti squash with veggies

• prep meatloaf and cut potatoes

Thursday: meatloaf, mashed potatoes, wilted chard with onions and dates

Friday: holiday party #1

Saturday: We are celebrating my mother-in-law's birthday and I'm thinking about making a pork tenderloin with sauce (she loves sauces!), quinoa salad of some sort, and a veggie. Dessert will either be a pie or a cake made with almond flour (I just bought Elana Amsterdam's cookbook.)