Living Allergy Free

Background
Our journey started when Bella was 14 months.  She ate a dime size piece of cookie that I made that had peanut butter in it. (Insert guilt).  It was not my intention to feed her peanut products until age 3 because of all the allergy research out there.  Plus she had ezcema that that was a predisposer for food allergies. So much for good intentions.  I laid her down for a nap and when she woke up her eyes were swelled shut and her cheeks swelled up.  It was extemely frightening.  After a trip to the doctor's office and a blood test to confirm she was indeed allergic to peanuts.  Our allergist in VA said that she probably wasn't allergic to tree nuts, but I stayed away from them for good measure.  I'm glad I did because our testing when she was 5 confirmed that she was allergic to tree nuts with almonds being the worst.  At 6 she was confirmed to be allergic to shellfish and now at 7 it is soy.  On the good side, it was confirmed that she was not allergic to fish.  So now she is allergic to 4 of the top eight major allergens.  The remaining 4 are wheat, dairy, eggs and fish.  Besides having food allergies, she is allergic to grass, trees, dogs, and cats plus she has asthma like symptoms (diagnosed at 2) which is also a  predisposer to food allergies.  I am asked if she will out grow these allgeries.  My response, "We will test her every year until she is 16.   If she hasn't by then, she probably won't.  If by the grace of God, He decides to heal her that would be amazing; however, I still need to teach her how to live like she will have to deal with this her whole life."

Our Life with an Allergy Kid
There is no peanut butter or peanut products in our house.  This is a sacrifice for me because I really like peanut butter.  Ohio is know for their buckeyes.  Very yummy, not really good for you.  It is basically peanut butter, powdered sugar, and butter mixed together and rolled into balls.  I have very few products mostly granola bars for Dan and I that have tree nuts in them.  They are individually wrapped and not eaten in our house.  Dan takes them on trips or at work or I eat them when I am doing errands.  I don't cook/bake with tree nuts or use almond extract.   I buy Trader Joe's chocolate chips because they don't have tree nuts or peanuts in them.  We have 3 granola bars that she can have because all others either have or may contain nuts.  I  am still in the process of rechecking labels to check for soy products.  Supposedly most people allergic to soy can have soy lectithin, and soybean oil.  This is true for peanut oil too because it doesn't have the peanut protein in it that triggers the allergy.   The soy allergy is a struggle for Bella because she is sacrificing food items that she likes: soy butter, soy bacon,  soy meatballs and teriyaki sauce.  The good thing about the soy allergy, at this point it is not life threatning.   This compels me even more to eat naturaly (no dyes, pesticides, and no ingredients I can't pronounce) because that is what her allergies need us to do.   I am even exploring non-soy vegetarian recipes for our family   Through all this I am contstantly thankful that although it is a lifestyle and a day to day issue we deal with, Bella is a healthy, happy almost 7 year old.  In the five and a half years that this has been a part of our lives, we have not had to use the epi pen or had any trips to the ER due to allergies.

I wrote this for my friend over at the farmer files.

Xandersauras is 3!

Xander's Dino Party with his playgroup friends.  Two of them are not pictured because they had not arrived yet.  The group totalled 11 2-5 year olds.

Xander specifically asked for a braciosauras. This was my best attempt to make that happen.  I know technically speaking, the neck and the tail should have been longer.

Proud Birthday Boy.

During the singing of Happy Birthday he covered his eyes.

The best part of the party, eating cake.

If you must bring a gift, please bring a book.  Dinosaur Detectives and Danny and the Dinosaur were big hits.

The Slacker Has Returned

Many of you maybe wondering what I have been up to the last 2 months and the answer is a lot. My last post was March 8th. The craziness started two weeks later when Xander got a virus that caused high fevers. That lasted for a week then we went off to Chicago to see my Cousin's daughter get baptized.

Once I returned from Chicago, I started gearing up for the biggest MOPS meeting all year. It consisted of 5 differnt activity stations and 2 rotations plus our meal all in 2 hours. I was getting ready to host a baby shower for 2 moms as well. What was I thinking scheduling back to back. Oh, the date of the baby shower was the only day I could do it.   For some time I have suspected that Bella may be allergic to soy. On 4/18 we went to the allgerist for our annual prick test and sure enough soy tested positive. She is now allergic to 4 of the 8 top allergens. I wasn't supprised although deep down I hoped that she wasn't. Soy is her biggest adjustment.  She doen't remember eating peanuts, she has not eaten tree nuts because of the peanut allergy, she has not eaten shellfish although she desperately wants to try shrimp. But soy was an intregal part of her diet.  I am still in the process of figuring it all out.   Then Easter weekend rolled around and my mom came out for a visit.

The following week I went on Bella's first grade field trip to the zoo. This last week I have been preaparing for Xander's 3rd Birthday. Oh, and during the last 2 months I have aquired some new hobbies. Like I need anything else to do. I will post more about later.