There are so many things that I am behind on reporting on about the kids, but I can't flood you with details all at once, so here's an important update on Lukas' peanut allergy.
Last Friday, right before his birthday party started, I got a call from his pediatrician with the results of his recent blood test. She said that on a scale of 0-4, with 0 being nothing and 4 being impending anaphylactic shock, Lukas went from a 1 at his last blood test almost two years ago, to a 0 on this blood test! And for egg whites, he went from a 2 to a 1. This is SUCH great news! We have worked hard to keep him from being exposed to any peanuts or eating eggs (by themselves) for about 2.5 years now.
So the next step is to test him on eating a small amount of peanut to see if he reacts. And the doctor said it might not be the first time that he eats peanut that he has a reaction...we need to watch him for 5-6 times before breathing more easily (and not having Benadryl in our right hand and the epi-pen in our left hand).
But unfortunately, we have taught Lukas so well that he gets sick by eating peanuts, that he doesn't want to eat them now. He always says "I'll eat peanuts when I'm older," which is a variation of what I have told him a couple times: "You might be able to eat peanuts when you're older." I'm probably going to have to give it to him without telling him, in order for him to eat it. Today at Target I bought peanut M&Ms, intending that I would give him one as a test. But he doesn't want ANY kind of M&M (even plain) because he knows he got a slight reaction 2 years ago from a bag of plain M&Ms that we were giving as treats for potty training.
This is our strong-willed son...once he gets an idea in his head, it is very hard to convince him otherwise. But we also need to know if we have to be constantly guarding against peanuts.
3 comments:
Your child should be probably be tested at a Pediatric Allergist's office not at home in case of a severe allergic reaction. I have never heard of a parent conducting a food challenge without the help and knowledge of an experienced doctor. This is very dangerous advice and contrary to everything I have learned.
hi - I'm a mom with a kid with PA who surfed in via google alerts. Congratulations on your test results! Did the doctor provide the actual concentration of the IgE? Here's a useful site on interpreting allergy blood tests:
http://www.oregonallergy.com/id17.html
Note that even if the IgE levels are below 0.35 KU/L, anaphylaxis can still occur. I would personally also be more comfortable having an oral challenge done where medical help is immediately available.
If you'd like to talk with other families dealing with PA (including some who have recently outgrown PA), this message board has been very helpful:
www.foodallergysupport.com
Again, congratulations on your good news and best wishes to you and your family!
Thanks for your advice. Our pediatrician said we could do it in her office, or we could do it at home, I think because his levels have always been low. I'm comfortable doing it at home because Lukas' only previous significant reaction (at 15 months) was controlled immediately with Benadryl. There was a recent instance where we know he accidentally ate a small amount of peanut, and in the space of 10 minutes there was no reaction, but we gave him Benadryl to be safe...and there was never a reaction. We have Benadryl and an Epi-pen, and the hospital is 15 minutes away (if we lived in the country, I would have a different perspective). Thanks for the message board...I'll check it out. I don't have any more info on IgE than what she told me: "his blood levels are zero."
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