Who would have thought - bad things can happen when products that may contain peanuts, eggs and definitely dairy when you are transferring from 1 container to another. We were putting some protein powder into another container in the kitchen while kason was eating lunch. Some spilled and was in the air & after cleaning up and washing hands you would think we would be good. Not 2 seconds later- kason was covered in hives. I mean covered. We gave him his Claritin- no change and not 15 minutes after the initial reaction- we were headed to the hospital.
Here is the deal:
A) when in doubt- go to the hospital
B) don't hesitate- but drive safely
C) don't worry about over reacting with a kid with an allergy- there is no such thing
D) when in doubt give that epi pen- it buys you time to get to the hospital (we hesitated- luckily we live close to the hospital)
I've never skipped the line in the emergency room or seen a doctor within 15 mins- but we did. By now Kason's eyes were red and with a runny nose- his neck was covered in huge hives, his face was so red it was frightening. He was coughing but talking and alert. At no point did he appear to have anaphylaxis- but the Claritin was not working.
The doctor gave him epinephrine, prednisone and Benadryl. Being overly cautious and we were glad. Our very itchy boy went from red to kind of clear within 10 minutes. We had to stay at the hospital for 2.5 more hours to make sure he cleared up and didn't have a residual reaction which can happen.
He napped- finally
We watched him sleep for a full hour
I mean- we did not take our eyes off him
So where do you go from here? How do you deal with this? How do you take this incredibly scary and adrenaline filled moment, and make it a positive.
First- you use this to educate. A good friend of mine said "knowledge is power" when I told her about this and she is right. The more people that understand what can happen from this very freaky incident, the less of a chance that this will happen again - to kason or anyone with food allergies.
Learning to take out of this:
A) Label read/label read/label read - a 'may contain' warning is just as good as it containing it
B) cross contamination is very serious- you don't even have to ingest the product that was made in a facility that uses peanuts to get sick
C) take it very seriously people- that Reece's peanut butter cup is not worth someone's life
Our family have already said that this is an eye opening experience for them. That's the best thing we can ask for - to make sure that ours and everyone else's eyes are open.
A great way to understand food allergies is by watching this documentary- it's difficult to watch (especially as a parent) but tells you how serious food allergies are and how reactions can be prevented by avoidance, diligence and awareness. Please watch of you know someone with a life threatening food allergy.
It's also narrated by Steve carrell.
Secondly - making your home peanut free means reading very label, throwing away anything even close or peanut related and excepting that it is just no longer a part of your diet. I won't even touch peanuts while I am at work!!! It's not worth it- not for one second.
Today- kason is fine- completely back to normal and relatively rash free (considering he hasn't been rash free a day in his life) and loving his megablocks. We even took him shopping and EVEN bought him some new cookies to try....
Big shout out to the staff in the emergency dept at Victoria Hospital- they were amazing and very considerate to us. We hope we don't have to see them again.
Inspiring and brave. Thank you to all of you for telling this story.
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