I Don't Know What to Expect

This is not the post I had planned for today. I just saw this article on Janeen's website. It also came across my Google alerts. It is a tragic story of a man who lost his life from a bite of a cookie. All it took was one bite and 90 seconds. Unfortunately he chose not to carry an Epi pen and the life saving measures they did take were not successful. You can read the story here.

This story has got me thinking about my own kids. My son R. has a severe peanut allergy (98.9 IgE on his last RAST,) but I have no idea what kind of reaction to expect if he were to be exposed to a peanut. He has only every had one reaction almost 3 years ago. He ate some of my peanut butter toast and broke out in hives. He had eaten peanut butter before did not have a reaction. We do not have a history of allergies ,so I was surprised he reacted. I knew immediately what was happening so I gave him Benadryl and took him to the pediatrician. He was fine and we have been carrying an Epi pen ever since. I guess we are doing a good job avoiding peanuts ever since. But, I have this huge fear of the unknown. What would happen if he were to eat a peanut? Is he one of those kids who will drop right away? Or will his reaction be gradual? Not knowing what will happen really has me concerned. I do not think he is contact sensitive, but I can not think of a time he has even been in a room with a pure peanut product.

Does anyone else have this same concern?

I also wish I had insisted that he have a RAST test done as part of the initial diagnosis. I did not know anything about food allergies then, and figured that the scratch test was enough. I would love to know what his initial IgE levels were. Have they increased over the last few years? I suppose one piece of advice I would offer moms who are just starting on this journey is to get a RAST done. It may not mean much right away, you need to avoid the allergic food regardless. However, it can be useful to track the progress of the allergy from year to year.

RAST Test Can be a Good Way to Track Progress of Allergy

I am currently awaiting the RAST results for C. Hopefully I will get a call in the next day or so. In the meantime I have been thinking about the importance of having this done on a yearly basis. When R. was first diagnosed with a peanut allergy we did not have a RAST done. I really did not know anything about them. Since we did a good job of avoiding nuts, we went through 2 1/2 years not really knowing the severity to R's allergy. I did not really worry that much about his allergy. Our pre school was already peanut free and the nanny at the time totally "got it."

Looking back I think I have been a little too liberal in allowing him to have some baked goods. He has never had never suspicious cookies or brownies ,as they often can hide nuts. But I let him have birthday cake and sugar cookies. I guess we are lucky we have not had any accidents.

After my baby was diagnosed with number of allergies I started to really educate myself. When R. turned 4 I decided to have a check up with the allergist and get a RAST test. That is when we found out that his peanut allergy is a 99.8 . The only problem is that I have no previous test to compare. I wish I had - so I would know if it is the same or has gotten worse.

I would advise anyone to get the RAST test done in addition to the scratch test. It is a good way to track the progression of their allergy from year to year. This information will not necessarily tell you what will happen if there is an accidental exposure. Every child is different and reactions can vary each time. We need to be prepared for everything from eczema and hives to full blown anaphylaxis.