Oral challenge is what they call it when you give by mouth a small amount of something that has previously caused an allergic reaction, to see if you will still have an allergic reaction.
Today Lukas ate a peanut.
As you might recall, he was determined that he wouldn't have peanuts until he is older, like my age, so I had to figure out how to get him to eat one. On Saturday, Jean and Jewelee brought egg-shaped milk chocolate M&Ms inside Easter eggs. The important thing about these M&Ms is that even though they are solid chocolate, they are a similar size to peanut M&Ms.
Today when Lukas asked for one of his Easter eggs to share with Tom after lunch, I put a blue peanut M&M in with the other milk chocolate M&Ms and said, "the blue one is for Lukas." Lukas ate that one first, then said, "peanut!" I said, "do you like it?" Lukas smiled and nodded and didn't spit it out! I was betting he would spit it out.
So the first part of the oral challenge was completed: actually getting him to consume a peanut. Then Tom and I watched him carefully all afternoon and evening...and no reaction!
This is good news, but it is definitely not the end of the story. We still have to give him small amounts of peanuts quite a few more times to see if he has really outgrown the allergy...and each time, we have to be as careful to watch for a reaction.
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