Nuts! Allergy Alert

I was sitting at my computer when Colton came in crying saying he had eaten something "yucky" ... I had him show me what the offending item way, and it was a granola bar ... a peanut butter granola bar. Several years ago we had an allergy scare with baby, and ended up in the hospital overnight. Since then we'd managed to avoid all peanut butter and nuts for years (even at just four years old, he's quite aware, he ALWAYS asks before eating anything!). He was reacting, he got bumps all over his chin, and his tongue was swollen. He kept sticking it out and the poor kid was drooling down his shirt. I gave him some antihistamine ... I have an Epi-Pen, but it was old and for emergencies (difficulty breathing) ... the swelling did NOT seem to be moving back to his throat, so that was good. I snuggled with him and the medicine seemed to kick in and he was back to normal without too much incident.

When Keaton was little, he was allergic to a LOT of things. Milk, egg and he even had a reaction to steak! His worst reaction was when he was a little over a year old and got a nut at a Christmas party. It wasn't until we got Keaton diagnosed that I realized that Landon had nut allergies too. With the new perspective, I could look back at some times and put the pieces together (his didn't really show outwardly, but he would feel a "tickle" in his throat, he would ask for ice cream or a popsicle to "cool" his throat). Keaton outgrew most of his allergies, and he and Landon (and the other two) can have peanut butter, but we avoid all nuts for #1, #3 and #5. Luckily, it doesn't seem to be a life-threatening allergy, and usually the kids DO start reacting as soon as the trigger enters their mouth (they usually don't even swallow). So ... restocking the medication stores and hopefully, we'll be a little more careful!