Never did I imagine that watching my mom deal with my little brother's allergies would help me deal with my own child's allergies. Our youngest daughter, B, has mild food allergies. I say mild because my brother's allergies landed him in the hospital a few times, but B's allergies just need a dose of Benadryl. So far we know that she is allergic to dairy, peaches, and bananas. Thankfully those things are easy to avoid and making food for her is easy. The hard part is getting her to keep her hands out of everyone else's plate!
Our current plan of action is to just always keep Benadryl on hand and just be very careful. But, I'm still nervous every time she tries a new food or when I'm baking things at the same time. I used to read labels but now I HAVE to read labels. Having a child with allergies totally changes things and makes life more interesting, and scary. In the grand scheme of things though I'd rather deal with mild allergies than any of the other millions of things that could be wrong.
Do any of you have children with allergies? How do you deal with them? Are they mild or severe?
Leave a comment and let me know.
My daughter doesn't have any food allergies (that we know of), but I'm allergic to bananas and probably a couple of other things. I never had any allergic reactions to any foods (including bananas) until during my pregnancy and after Miss M was born. Most recently, I had an allergic reaction to some Trader Joe's sushi I ate (itchy eyes, trouble breathing, etc.). My sis-in-law is an ER doc, and she told me to take some Pepcid along with the Benadryl I had already taken. Apparently, Pepcid is not merely an antacid, but it's also an antihistamine. (It works with different receptors.) The Bendadryl/Pepcid combo worked well for me--so well that I avoided having to go to the ER. I don't know if they make Pepcid for kids--something you may want to ask your pediatrician about.
ReplyDeleteAlso, my husband's brother is severely allergic to peanuts, so we have never fed Miss M peanut butter. (I'm not sure if/when we will.) For now, we give her sandwiches with sunflower seed butter and jelly. :)
Pepcid, that's interesting. So far she's only had hives so I think the benadryl alone will be fine. I'm a little hesitant to get her allergy tested, because it's so intense, but I'm thinking about it. I also haven't given her peanut butter yet, better safe than sorry right? lol
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