Monday, November 16, 2009

A date with the devil(ed)

Finally! An appointment!

January 12th.

Bring on the eggs.

My bets are on Georgia.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Waiting...

The good news: Based on Georgia's latest RAST score, she's eligible to do a food challenge for eggs, and if she passes, she'll be declared no longer allergic to eggs and may eat them to her heart's content. Yea!

The bad news: This food challenge has to be done supervised, at the allergist's office. Fine. But we can't get an appointment! All slots are booked up for November and December, and we are on a waiting list. A waiting list to try eating some eggs???? Argh!

A little frustrating. But I suppose, if you have been avoiding eggs this long, what's another couple of months? No biggie.

We are following the doctor's orders and not trying this at home. She'll just have to wait until next holiday season for pumpkin pie and Christmas cookies, I guess.

Monday, November 2, 2009

Funny Halloween Exchange

Kid: "Trick or Treat!"

Us: "Here ya go." (Drop candy in bag.)

Kid: "Do you have any Reese's?"

Us: (Lauging) "Oh, specific requests, eh? We haven't gotten any specific requests yet."

His parent: (Hollering up from the sidewalk) "Oh, sorry! His school wouldn't allow anyone to bring candy with nuts for their Halloween parade, so he's been asking everyone for Reese's." (Gives the "can you believe it?" head nod and partial eye roll.)

Us: "Oh." (Smiling.)

They were gone before we could react with any kind of witty response, or at least interject that it's just fine by us if his school doesn't allow nut-laden Halloween candy. It's all for the best, though, since um, Halloween is kind of all about the candy and having a good time, not hearing about your neighbor's child's medical history while you're out trick or treating. (duh.) : )

Sunday, November 1, 2009

No Fright Night Here

Happy (belated) Halloween!

From what I can tell from perusing the Internet, Halloween tends to freak allergy parents out a bit. We've been lucky so far, and it has not been any big deal.

Halloween '07 (Georgia age 2 months): Dressed her up in a costume. Took photos. She wasn't even eating solids, and we had no knowledge of her food allergies anyway.

Halloween '08 (Georgia age 1): Dressed her up. Took photos. Like most 1 year olds, she had no idea about the trick or treating or candy. Didn't feel like she missed a thing.

Halloween '09 (Georgia age 2): Our first year with a toddler running around a Halloween party. Our first year trick or treating with her. I'm beginning to see where the parental nerves come from with this stuff. Our daughter's still at an age where it wasn't that big of a deal, though. We hit only 5 houses while trick or treating and were able to control all of the candy consumption.

halloween 2009-6
Eek! An allergy mom's worst nightmare: our child, having run off at a party, scooping up something to eat off the floor! Fortunately it was just a grape in this case. Shwew!

The best part of Halloween (from an allergy perspective, I'm saying) was that she made great strides in learning to ask us which foods she can and cannot eat. We practiced at home with her. It was rather cute seeing her hold up each piece of her loot and ask, "Is this safe for me?"

I also tried to buy allergen friendly candy to hand out, in case any of the trick or treaters coming to our place happened to have food allergies. Who knows?

We went with Swedish Fish, Sour Patch Kids, and Smarties. (Not my personal favorites, I have to say!)

This (Halloween with a food allergic child, that is) is just another one of those things that's going to continue to evolve year by year, I can tell. Right now I could sit here and tell you that I don't understand what all of the fuss is about. But then again, I don't have an 8 year old trading candy with her friends at school and that kind of thing to deal with. I'm sure my perspective is going to change!