Nuts!

Peanuts, that is. Yeah, those tasty things that are so fun to crack open at baseball games, dropping the shells on the ground and eating the crunchy, salty goodness inside. Those things that make such a yummy, smooth, delectable spread that tastes good on bread, toast, celery, apples, bananas, and blueberry bagels as my hubby would tell you (yuck!). And those things that cause my sweet Caden to break out in hives when he eats or comes in contact with them.

I have a child with a peanut allergy. Nothing else, just peanuts. He had eczema as a baby, but it’s greatly improved. So much improved that I forget to put lotion on him most of the time. He had a couple of random reactions to dogs. One dog would lick Caden and he would break out in hives where he was licked. Another time Caden had rubbed his face on the blanket my parents’ dog sleeps on, and broke out in some hives. Both reactions went away in about 20 minutes.

We discovered his peanut allergy when I fed him a peanut butter sandwich when he was about 14 months old and noticed hives around his mouth when he was done. The hives went away after about 20 to 30 minutes so I didn’t think anything of it. Until he broke out again when I fed him another peanut butter sandwich a week later. Same thing-hives around his mouth that cleared up after about 20 to 30 minutes. I said something to his pediatrician at his 18 month check-up, and about a month later we found ourselves at the allergy clinic at Children’s Hospital having a scratch test.

He was so cute that day, running around without a shirt on, big ole belly hanging out, a giant welt raising up on his back. Other parents would see him and see the welt and say, “Ooooh.” And we’d say, “Yup. He’s allergic.” We were sent home with EpiPens and instructions to keep him away from peanuts. And we were told to return in a year.

Now, I LOVE peanut butter. I mean, REALLY LOVE peanut butter. And Andy eats peanuts like they’re going out of style sometimes. So we did not become a peanut-free house. I discovered the joy of Sun Butter (sunflower seed butter), and would make Caden’s sandwich. Right next to the sandwich, I would make Noah’s peanut butter sandwich. I was careful about not physically touching Caden with any type of peanut product. I was sure to wipe my mouth well before I gave him a kiss after I ate any peanut product. I carried his Epi-pen everywhere, and made sure he had one at school. We never had another reaction.

The following early summer, we were at my mom’s house, and I was leaving to go to work. My mom was making sun butter/peanut butter sandwiches for the boys for lunch as we were chatting. I left as my mom was serving the boys. I got a call about 30 seconds later from my mom saying that Caden had taken a bite of Noah’s peanut butter sandwich (he spit it out after a couple of seconds of it being in his mouth). OOPS! Noah was actually the one to remind Nana that Caden can’t have peanuts! So I told my mom to keep an eye on him, give him Benadryl if it seemed he needed it, and keep that EpiPen handy. Nothing happened. No hives, no nothing. It was intriguing.

We had our annual check-up last August, and mentioned the accidental exposure. The doctor was cautiously optimistic. It’s extremely rare to outgrow a peanut allergy, but it’s not unheard of. So the doctor had some blood drawn to do a RAST test to determine the level of IgE in his blood. When the doctor called a year a week later, he said his levels were fairly low, and they were low enough to consider doing a food challenge, where we gradually introduce peanut butter to Caden’s body (Hi, how are you? I’m peanut butter. What’s your name?). The earliest we could get in was late October. I wrote about the challenge https://www.sajadvice.com/2008/10/22/bummed-out/.

Yesterday we returned to the allergist with a new doctor. We were seen first by a resident and a med student. I’m all for learning in real life, and since I was once a student PT, I’m much more tolerant of it. But we just really wanted to talk to the doctor to see what we should do next, because the resident and student were kind of clueless as to what to do. When the doctor came in, we asked if we should do another scratch test or a blood test. She suggested another scratch test, and if that came back negative, then a blood test. We also asked about desensitization trials. She said they’re not FDA approved. They’re doing them in Europe, but they haven’t been approved in the US yet. I asked about the trials they’re doing in La Crosse. She said she doesn’t really agree with their methods. They aren’t quite following the European method and she questions whether it’s such a good idea. That was all I needed to hear. We’ll hold off on the desensitization until it’s been FDA approved, thank-you-very-much (unless they want to pay us big bucks to be in some research group, then I may consider it. I’m just interested in helping research!).

Back to the skin test: She said she’d send a nurse in, then return 20 minutes later. The nurse came in, drew three horizontal lines on Caden’s back, and made three scratches between those lines: a control that shouldn’t react, the peanut extract, and a control that should react. We started watching. The second control started turning red within a couple of minutes. I started getting my hopes up. Then we started noticing some redness, then an unmistakable hive where the peanut scratch was made. I checked my watch-7 minutes. Yup. Still allergic. The doctor and her minions returned at that 20 minute mark and I said, “It only took 7 minutes.” They were all appropriately sympathetic, then handed us our EpiPen refill prescription, and said to return in a year.

So that’s where we are. Still allergic. Still have to tell everyone he’s allergic. Still have to fill out all of that paperwork that flags him as a peanut allergy.