New Allergies/Worries

Last week, I took Marino to the allergist to go over his updated labs for food allergies. We had agreed to avoid shellfish and nuts until he was 3 and then do a blood test before giving him those foods, since they are such common allergens (I have a shellfish allergy myself).

Honestly, I was less concerned about nuts than I was about shellfish.

Unfortunately, we found some new allergies.

The most surprising was a moderate allergy (RAST score of .8) to sesame. Marino has been exposed to sesame on a regular basis - he eats hummus several times a week. In doing some research on it, I found that sesame allergy symptoms can be insidious, sometimes manifesting as unexplained eczema or asthma flare ups. Obviously, I am now removing that from his diet and keeping tabs on hidden sesame oil other foods (like the Vietnamese food we love).

The other new allergy is a severe allergy to peanuts (RAST score of 6). While I feel like peanuts are the most well know of allergens, it still gives me another food to worry about. The allergist felt confident he would likely need an epi-pen shot if exposed to peanuts, so we will have to keep a close eye out for them.

Perhaps the most disappointing was that his RAST score for eggs jumped from a 44 to an 84. Now, keep in mind that his allergy to sesame with a RAST score of .8 is a moderate allergy. A RAST score of 84 is astronomical...the measurements stop at 100. The allergist tried to reassure me by saying the testing just captures a moment in time, and his score could be somewhat more or less if we tested another week. But he also said that with a score that high (and increasing rather than decreasing), if he outgrows the egg allergy it won't be in the near future.

This visit coincided with Marino's starting a new preschool next week...one without nurses and with 3 times the number of kids in his class than where we were before. I am definitely concerned.

So, This Egg Allergy

is apparently more serious than we thought. When we had Marino's scratch test in July (he was 1), the doctor thought he had a moderate allergy to eggs. He wanted to attempt to do a food challenge in 6 months, where they would have him come in and eat a small amount of egg in a controlled environment. We had blood work done on Monday to test his RAST number, to see if a food challenge was a possibility. Well, the PA called us today and said that Marino's RAST number needed to be 5 or less (and it gets down into the decimals, so even a number of 5 is a moderate allergic reaction) to do the food challenge. His RAST number is 44!! She said that is an unusually high number for someone his age so we need to carry an epi-pen with us at all times. There is also a greater possibility now that he won't outgrow this allergy. ::sigh:: I think I am going to start looking into ways to make egg-free treats so he isn't left out of things. We have numerous birthday parties coming up, and I'm not sure how much longer he will notice he is the only one eating clementines while everyone else is eating yummy cake. Poor guy.

My buddy Rachel at http://allergenfreeplease.blogspot.com/ (excellent blog about dealing with childhood food allergies) recommended Ener-G egg replacement, so I am going to hunt that down over the weekend (our grocery store doesn't have it).

Allergy Testing Results

On Wednesday, we had Marino's allergy testing done. If you're unfamiliar with the process, they have a serum for each allergen, which they scratch into the skin next to where they have marked the skin with a number correlating to the allergen. They check the results in 15 minutes. I had Marino tested for the most common allergens (milk, wheat, eggs, soy, dust, mold and dog) and some other things I was moderately concerned about. They don't generally do the full panel of testing on babies, since it's difficult to find room on their skin (they use the back, so the baby can't scratch it and there's only so much room on a baby's back!). Marino was great - he didn't even flinch during the test. And the results were.....he's only allergic to eggs (we already knew that, of course). I was relieved. The doctor told us we should also get a blood test, but after discussing with our pediatrician, we're not going to do that. We know he gets sick if he eats eggs and we know that the histamine appeared during the allergy test - there's no clear reason why we need to subject him to a blood draw when we know we can't feed him eggs right now anyway.
We will likely have him retested at age 4 and also tested for nuts, shellfish (which I am deathly allergic to) and pollen at that time.

Wednesday night, Marino and I met my friend Megan for dinner. Megan and I met when we took a social planning class together and she discovered I didn't know what decoupage was. She took me under her wing to teach me about the world of crafting:) Megan makes really cool jewelry and she made a beautiful necklace for my birthday (thanks, Megan!). If you're in the market for affordable, handmade jewelry, check out her etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5191888.

Marino loves "big" kids and they seem to love him, too. At dinner, these two adorable random children arrived and entertained Marino. They were so sweet! The little girl (she was 5) kept using Marino's bib to wipe the drool from his mouth (she is an experienced big sister). She kept telling me "he keeps looking at me like this" and imitating Marino's "cheese" face. It was very cute and Marino was eating up the attention.

When we got home, we had a special visitor waiting for us on the door frame. Isn't he cool? How often is a praying mantis waiting for you at home?

Friends, Marino has a true addiction. Seriously, he needs an intervention. His drug of choice? Peach flavored Puffs! He could eat about 800 of these in a sitting if I let him. Evan tried them and he concurred they are delicious.

This last picture of him makes me very sad. I know, I am totally neurotic, but doesn't he look very toddler-ish in this picture? His favorite teacher, Sherry, told me today she thought his face was looking very different in the past week and I really see it in this picture ::sob::