What a Birthday Party!!

This has been another busy week with something almost every day. Today it was out to Langley for a birthday party. Now normally I wouldn't blog about someone else's birthday party, but it was a really scary party, and not in the sense that there were dinosaurs on the birthday "cake." The "cake" was Rice Krispies with green icing on top, so of course I asked "What's up with the "cake"? and found out that one of the little boys there is allergic to eggs, hence no real cake. So I ended up chit-chatting with the mom about allergies, her son is allergic to peanuts too. It is always good to talk to other people about how they do things and to realize you are not alone. Although, being allergic to eggs is a whole new thing. So we were sitting around, it was almost time to get going, but I didn't feel like it yet as the kids were all playing so well. Another adult had the little boy on her lap and was feeding him baby carrots with ranch dressing, then the mom came running back from the bathroom grabbed him, and ran to the van, saying over her shoulder, there are eggs in ranch dressing. WHAT!! so I followed, as I thought it would be good to see how an EpiPen works, but she didn't have it with her. She had talked to the hostess the day before and gone over the food and thought she didn't need it. So off I ran to get my keys and my EpiPen that was in the van. He had only a couple hives and breathing was fine so in the end we gave him the Benedryl I had. Now this is a reaction to less than half a teaspoon of ranch dressing that just had eggs in, not even a straight egg and he had such an instant reaction. She phoned me later, his face had started to swell, so off they went to the walk-in clinic and had more Benedryl and had to wait two and half hours for the swelling to go down.
This has shown me the importance of NEVER leaving the house without my blue diaper bag. (It's totally falling apart, but I need a bag with a pocket in the front as in an emergency the last thing I want to do is dump a bag and "find" it.) It has been so tempting so many times since Danielle is toilet trained to not haul the bag around, to the grocery store, nursery, friend's house, etc., or when it is forgotten to not go back home and get it, but it is so worth the extra work because even with everything planned and even having a different cake you just never know, and it happens so FAST. Sometimes my brain gets tired of thinking and assessing situations and always having it a part of my life, but that's the way it is. Like at the kindergarten grand when it was snack time before I even got to the table she ( Danielle) had reached up and grabbed the first thing could get and that was a homemade white chocolate macadamia nut cookie. Nope not good, put that back and gave her candy so no crying, and got her some popcorn twists. She was happy and life carried on.

I have been doing some research right now since I don't know if I should or shouldn't be having peanut butter right now, so my little babe gets used to the proteins My allergist and two doctors all said "Now that's a good question, I don't know the answer." What!!! you are a Doctor don't they always know the answers, or at least talk long enough so you think they know the answer. SO I really don't know if I should be having peanut butter sandwiches at night now or not. One theory for the rise in allergies in our clean society. I would mix dirt in with my soup or brush my teeth with the sand in the sandbox if I could be guaranteed that this baby would not have allergies. Another theory is, that in our society we are having too many peanuts. It is a cheap protein that "everybody used to grow up on." Japan is experiencing a rise in rice allergies as here in North America it is considered one of the least allergic foods. (we generally start with rice cereal, as the first "solid" food). So I am not really sure what to do and have just not been having any peanuts. A cousin of mine, her son was just diagnosed with peanut allergies too. It just seems so crazy that there are so many kids with this, and what can be done? Carrying an EpiPen is a life-saving solution, but doesn't fix the problem. (allergy)