When life tosses you lemons...or a food allergy

The week Jacoby came down with H1N1 is also the week he had a couple of serious reactions to some food. We made an appointment with an allergist and our pediatrician armed us with Benadryl and epi-pens to have on hand until food allergies were confirmed.

The Appointment

We had our appointment on Wednesday this week, and I first just have to say that we are so blessed to live in a community with such excellent medical care. Our allergist is wonderful. She spent about 30 minutes with us discussing our observations on Jacoby and the foods that seem to bother him. After our discussion, he was tested for about 25 different allergies.

The Allergy Test

I'll be honest, the testing portion of our appointment was awful. Jacoby was scared and upset and throughout the test he tried to come up with every way of saying "No", "Stop, please", "No thank you" he possibly could. I think in his little mind, he must have thought he was getting 25 different shots. It did not take a trained eye to see that he had allergies. Over the course of the 20 minutes that we had to wait until they would come back in and "read" the results on his back, Justin and I watched nearly all 25 marks fill up with hives and redness. Now, we both knew that some type of allergy would be confirmed at the appointment, but it was still very distressing to see just how many we might be dealing with. Jacoby finally settled down a little but when they came back in to read the test, he got upset all over again. The only way I was able to distract him somewhat was to talk with him about our upcoming visit to Zoo Lights. We talked about the animals we'd see and which ones might be sleeping while we're there (it's a night time visit to the zoo to see a fabulous array of christmas lights throughout the zoo).

The Results

Jacoby is allergic to peanuts, tree nuts, sesame and sunflower seeds, fish, and eggs. It was no surprise about the nuts and seeds, but we were surprised about fish and eggs. As I've been trying to process all of this over the past couple of days, I've been thinking about both the positive and negative implications. In some ways, I think Jacoby has been trying to tell us that some foods bothered him. We all know how picky toddlers can be about food, but I think we interpreted pickiness (like with eggs, some baked goods, peanut butter) when really Jacoby was trying to say "Mommy & Daddy, this stuff makes me feel really icky!". As a result of his "pickiness", he hasn't consumed a lot of the things that would make him sick. Looking back over the past year, there are situations that have come up that I can now attribute to a reaction to food. Another thing that I think has been a blessing, is that Justin and I for some reason have never been completely comfortable feeding Jacoby nuts. He was exposed to peanuts and nuts sometime after his first birthday, but I think Justin and I both felt like we still needed to be really careful. And because of that, we have really kept our home nut-free for the most part. Back to the results, Jacoby developed a hive that measured a little over 5 cm to pistachios (a nut we've never given him, thank goodness) and a hive right around 5 cm to peanuts. The other biggies were sunflower seeds (which is what he reacted to in October) and sesame seeds. Fish was surprising to us because he generally enjoys tuna if I bury it in casserole. Eggs were also surprising but also somewhat less worrisome because he'll likely grow out of this one by age 5. He is able to tolerate eggs if they are really well cooked. A few environmental allergies that he tested positive for were cottonwood trees, cat hair and dander, and dog hair and dander (although not has much as cats). He was given Benadryl after the test because they were worried about the strong reactions he had to pistachios and peanuts.

One Step At A Time

Since the appointment I've been busy filling out paperwork, making follow-up appointments, getting prescriptions filled, and talking with his teachers, the school program director and health liason about our situation. Another huge blessing is that his school is nut and seed-free, and they provide an alternative for Jacoby when they serve eggs or fish. On Thursday they served quiche for breakfast and gave something else to Jacoby. I talked to him about why he couldn't have what the other kids were having. A little while later while he was playing trucks, he stopped and looked at me and said "I'm allergic to eggs. They make me sick". And thus begins the process of teaching Jacoby about his allergies and the foods he'll have to avoid. He can now list off everything he's allergic to. We've cleaned out our cuphoards and have a few things to give away to friends and the food bank. We're doing a lot of reading and research and are quickly becoming experts on food allergies and how to read food labels. It's amazing how well-disguised some things are that we're going to have to be careful with. For example, his favorite cereal bars are made with sesame seed flour. And sunflower oil is often found in the ingredients list of things we have in our house. We also have to stay away from things that say they are processed in a plant with tree nuts or peanuts, which will be really challenging since that's on almost every label you read. We'll be ordering him a medical bracelet to wear when he's not with us. Morgan has to be tested for dairy when he turns 1 before he starts consuming dairy. He'll be tested for the rest of the things when he's a little older.

That's where we're at right now. For the most part, we're doing ok with all of this and know that it's manageable, and we're hopeful that there might be new treatment options on the horizon by the time Jacoby enters kindergarten. I've probably felt the whole spectrum of emotions from sadness, being overwhelmed and fearful to relief that we know what we're dealing with and determination to handle this as best we can and live a normal life with it. There are a whole array of life-threatening, chronic illnesses we could be facing, and we actually feel really thankful that food allergies are what we've been given. And we also know that Jacoby is going to be able to manage this as well. He's very verbal and very smart, so we're going to be able to teach him about his allergies and how to help us manage them. Jacoby is still Jacoby, and he's still a very healthy, smart, caring little boy.

Our sweet, sweet boy