Peanut Allergy GONE!

If you aren't into reading about Lauren's food allergies- skip this post. I want to document it for myself, it has been a journey.

So, I will start at the beginning. At 9 months of age Lauren was tested by her pediatrician and had an allergy to egg and dairy, nothing to peanuts. But we were wary because of my allergy to peanuts and the fact that she had not yet been exposed (you cannot have titers against something you haven't had a chance to build immunity to). We followed her doctor's advice and treated her as if she were peanut allergic until we had repeat testing when she was older. We brought her to an allergist in May when she was about 2 1/2 yrs old to have the peanut testing done and evaluate if she was outgrowing her other food allergies. I went to the appointment totally expecting good news. Upon meeting with the allergist (prior to the testing) he lifted my hopes higher, and anticipated she would be eating eggs and dairy in no time. Well, it did not go well. I was crushed when I saw not only the egg and dairy tests reacting, but also the peanut. There it was - my huge fear unfolding before my eyes. So, the egg and dairy are kid allergies most people grow out of. The peanut it not- you typically have it forever and it can threaten your life. I actually have about 3 draft posts about that day, that I just couldnt bring myself to post. I actually didn't even tell many people about it- it was hard for me to talk about. My daughter had inherited an awful and potentially dangerous food allergy from me. So that is what I have been living with since May....

Incidentally, I did not like the allergist that we saw, and refused to do follow-up testing with him. (Mark Ebadi, MD- not a fan). So I promptly got on the waiting list at Children's for Lauren to see an allergist there- Excellent choice!

Fast forward to October.... I brought her to the allergist and they wanted to draw blood and repeat a few of the skin tests. I wasn't keen on drawing blood, but thanks to EMLA (numbing cream) it was a breeze. She tolerated the skin tests without issue, and they gave her a giant bear (a Build-a-bear) as a gift. The peanut and all of the nut tests were absolutely negative!! She sat perfectly still and watched the blood draw and said "that is cool!" when the pulled the blood tube off the butterfly needle and popped a new one on. She wanted to know if that was her blood coming out- and also thought that was cool when I told her it was. When we were done, I asked if that was usually how blood draws went with a 2 year old, and I got a resounding NO! from all three people in the room. OK, so she is a rock star! The blood tests were a good idea, because they showed she is completely not allergic to nuts and we brought her back a couple days later to eat peanut butter with no problems! Her dairy allergy levels were also getting pretty low, so this Thursday she is doing a challenge at the hospital with baked-in milk and *maybe* cheese. I asked pretty please about the cheese, and they are considering a skin test first and then maybe a bite of cheese!!!! Jeff and I really have our hopes up about that one- keep your fingers crossed.

So there it is- all of the emotions of the last few months spewed out and gone- we are free of the peanut allergy once and for all (well, for Lauren anyway!!).