Ah, nuts!

It's been 2 1/2 years since we learned the hard way that Miss Alayna's little bod couldn't handle peanut butter. I remember sitting at my parents, on Memorial Day 2009, and watching her lips swell until they were touching her nose, eyes nearly close, and body slowly become covered with hives. We reacted quickly that day with Benadryl and prayed that nothing would swell on the inside of her precious mouth. The months following consisted of needle pricks and blood tests until we got the confirmation that she had an allergy to peanuts. It was hard to determine if she'd live with it for the rest of her many years, or how severe it really was. And after lots of reading and research, the suggestion was that we steer clear of any product of the nut family.

She has since had outbreaks of hives from amoxicyllin and other random items. And we've dealt with it until a couple weeks ago. I picked her up from school on Friday and once again she was covered in welts from her neck to her toes. Benadryl finally kicked in after an hour, and even then it took two doses to clear her up. The school and I investigated every piece of what she ate that day, and couldn't make the connection.

We decided then to have her fully examined by a local allergist. On Tuesday, we spent two hours determining what the best step was for her, and decided to perform a skin test. Look at this peanut just minding her own business while we talked about the situation.

Before pricking her with 44 different allergins to identify her sensitivity, the doctor warned us that many kiddos get pretty worked up during the process. So, I held her tight in my arms, and the test was quick. And what did she do? She GIGGLED!!! She thought the pricking on her back was someone tickling her! The nurse was shocked, and with just a few stickers and a blue sucker, she waited 20 minutes for the reactions to take place.

Happily for Jar and I, we learned that she is only allergic to peanuts. Whew! A relief really.
The Doc also fed us Peanut Allergy 101, which was eye-opening.

• Grocery items produced near peanuts are not clear for her.
• Just because a food is safe one day, doesn't mean that it's okay the next time you shop. Often brands will change the factory where food is produced to (or from) a peanut-free factory.
• Therefore, every label needs to be evaluated, every time you shop.
• Only 15% of children will grow out of a peanut allergy compared to 85% who grow out of other food allergies.
• Your immune system completely shifts every 7 years, so she should have a full skin test at least that often to be knowledgable of new allergy sensitivites.
• We should have an action plan at the school in case she comes in contact with peanuts.

So, we have our work cut out for us to keep her healthy. Like I've said before though, there are a million other diseases, sicknesses, problems, and scares that we could be dealing with. We are blessed that it's just peanuts.