Test results for Geoff

I took Geoff to the allergist this morning to get him scratch tested. The bad news: he got bumps for eggs, nuts and shellfish. The good news: the bumps were very small, barely there in fact. It wasn't as traumatic as when I took Andrew in for his test at this age, and everything hived up. The other good news: Geoff is negative for dairy and peanuts.

The allergist was kind and said that I'd absolutely done the right thing by going off dairy and nuts for the last couple of years while I was breastfeeding.

His peanut score could be meaningless, of course, since he's never been exposed to peanuts. So I'm going to keep him off all nuts for another couple of years and do a peanut food challenge later.

In the meantime, I can add dairy back into my diet -- yay!!!

Though that may not be great news: going back on dairy in the Christmas season means that I can have all those tasty Christmas desserts...

Allergic blogs roundup

It must be the holidays -- my google alerts has been really busy today, with tons of stories from parents who are dealing with their allergic kids, and others having really bad reactions. Here's a roundup of people who could probably use a virtual hug.

Martie's House: Food Allergies, Part 1 (and then read Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4).

The Allergic Kid: A World Full of Peanuts

Geektalk: Where did this come from?

Parton.com: peanut butter playground -- a cake maker gave them the peanut butter cake rather than the chocolate one that had been ordered. Her husband ended up being airlifted to the hospital!

Allergic kids stories

This post from the GNMParents blog tells some scary stories of kids' reactions in daycare and school: Food Allergies Are Serious Business.

I'm so glad that Andrew's preschool is nut-free, and that his teachers are so careful with him and the other kids who have serious allergies. I'm worried about transitioning to kindergarten next year, but I hear that it's a peanut-free school. I also know that there are several kids there now who have extremely severe nut and peanut allergies, so the teachers are vigilant and allergy-aware.

Thank goodness for parents who have gone before me.