July 10, 2008

No Peanuts for me

Well we found out that Mayson is allergic to peanuts. A couple weeks ago she had a little bit of peanut butter and broke out and started swelling a little. We gave her benadryl and it went down immediately. I took her to the doctor the following week. They ordered a blood test so the next day we went to a lab to have that done. A few days later the results came back that she was allergic. The blood work results were in the low end of the moderate level. Her pediatrician referred us to an allergist. We went there on Monday, he said the blood test is very inaccurate so he did a skin test where they poke her with a three pronged needle thingy (technical phrase I'm sure) One prong is a positive, one negative and one peanut. If the peanut grows it means she is allergic, as you will see in the picture below it definitely grew. The Allergist said she is definitely above what the blood test indicated.
So we now look very closely at every label and carry an Epi-Pen with us at all times. We are blessed that we found out and are able to take some preventitive measures. She won't be able to eat a lot of prepackaged foods like cookies and candy bars b/c most of them share machinery with peanut products. There are definitely worse things to deal with in life so we will be greateful for her being a beautiful, smart and otherwise healthy baby! Hopefully we will never have to use the Epi-Pen.



She got welts and red splotches all over her face, her eye started to swell a little as well


It also went in a line down her stomach


This is the skin test. Top left is positive, top right is negative, and bottom is peanut. We had to wait fifteen minutes for the results. I had to keep her from touching it which wasn't easy b/c from what I hear it stings and burns a little.


The nurse was brillant and brought Mayson in a lollipop, she was thrilled as you can see

3 comments:

Malisa said...

That stinks that she is allergic to peanuts, but such a good thing that you found out early so you are prepared.

Holly said...

Poor thing! I'm glad you found out before it was a serious reaction. We can't wait to see you guys this weekend.

Fuqua said...

so sorry you guys are dealing with this too! We went through the same thing with Trey...peanuts, eggs, and several others. We get to do the whole skin testing thing every six months and also carry an epipen, which fortunately we have not had to use! So far Parker is showing no signs of food allergies so hopefully it doesn't run in the family!!!