Guilt and hazelnuts

Today I spent a whopping $.59 for a delicious Ikea milk chocolate bar with hazelnuts. I devoured the entire thing in 5 minutes and washed it down with a large coke. What makes this exciting is it's the first time in 8 months that I dared to eat any tree nuts. No, I'm not allergic but my son and husband are. I took precautions, I purchased and ate the bar while away from home. I disposed of the wrapper in a garbage can at a gas station. I washed my mouth out. I washed my hands multiple times.

So what's the problem? I feel guilty - like I still broke some unwritten oath of mom's of kids with nut allergies. When we witnessed and confirmed of his peanut allergy, I went cold turkey on all nuts. Some people are only allergic to peanuts (a legume), and others are allergic to peanuts and tree nuts. DH is allergic to tree nuts too so I just decided to give them all up. I don't buy them, I read nutrition labels on all grocery items, I never eat them, and I switched to Sun Butter.  Giving up peanuts and all peanut butter products hasn't really been that bad at all.  SunButter tastes just as good to me.  It doesn't have quite the same texture but is pretty delicious.  But the tree nuts was hard one for a girl who used to eat an entire can of mixed nuts or cashews in one evening.  

So when did we know?  It all happened at the church pot-luck last Thanksgiving.  Noah had promised him a cookie after the meal.  Elijah was 2.5 years old and didn't use very many words at the time, but he made sure to tell Noah about the cookie he wanted.  Well, the husband went searching with him for a cookie and found one.  Elijah was thrilled and immediately took a bite.  He chewed it a little and then spit it out and coughed a little.  Noah found this weird so he smelled it and he immediately smelled the peanut butter in it and threw the cookie away.  Noah is allergic to peanuts but hasn't ever had severe anaphylaxis.  We piled in the car to leave and noticed that Elijah was still coughing a little and he had started rubbing his eyes.  I suggested we drive to CVS down the road for some benadryl.  I quickly ran in and asked the pharmacist about giving my 2 1/2 year old some Benadryl and what dosage.  By the time I returned to the car I noticed Elijah's face (especially around his eyes) were puffy.  Noah, who had been reluctant at first about the meds, totally agreed with me that he needed some.  Elijah had a dose and looked fine by the evening.  

We talked with the pediatrician and she recommended he have blood allergy testing done (and this was an event in itself).  Elijah's radioallerosorbent (RAST) tests results were shocking to me.  The RAST is tests that is done to detect specific IgE antibody levels to suspected allergens.  These levels are then categorized as Classes 0- 6.  See more here.  A Class 0 means no allergy and a Class 5 or 6 usually means high allergy.  The RAST test is used as a guide to what a patient may be allergic to.  Elijah had many environmental Class 2 allergies but the Class 2 food allergies really surprised me (milk, soy, corn, wheat).  His peanut allergy registered as a Class 6.  Time to fit him for a plastic bubble.  Elijah didn't come back with an issue with hazelnuts but who knows...  He does have and epi-pen now for any accidental consumption of the peanuts. 

 *Now I have to note that a person can still have positive IgE levels even if they have outgrown their allergy (obviously not the case if your child is 2). 

After a few months of food elimination and experimentation I can say that Elijah has no real noticeable reaction to wheat products but tends to have digestive issues and eczema if he has too much milk or corn (this includes corn syrup).  He also gets very irritable from anything with too much corn syrup - no more fruit snacks for treats.  Fruit snacks are just glorified candies anyway. So I work around his food issues. It's made us all healthier.  I found out in my experimenting that I am allergic to soy (my throat started to to close up!!) .  It has been a crazy summer of learning for me.