Our oldest son has a severe peanut allergy. When we first found out we were as surprised as anyone. There is no family history, and no known reason why he should be allergic to peanuts. However, when he was almost 3 years old we gave him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and he immediately broke out in hives.
These weren’t ordinary hives, they were huge boils springing up all over his body. He was miserable but wasn’t having any trouble breathing, although he did say his throat felt itchy.
We didn’t know what we were dealing with, but we gave him a dose of benadryl and watched him. The hives went down but didn’t go away for many hours. He was very itchy but otherwise seemed okay.
We set up an appointment with our Pediatrician. He took some blood and had it sent to the Mayo Clinic for analysis. He said to keep our son away from peanuts until we got the results.
Finally, after 3 weeks we were told that our boy has a severe allergy to peanuts. He was topping the scale on severity.
Now what? Our Pediatrician told us that we needed to be very careful with this life threatening allergy. We needed to have an Epinephrine shot, or Epi pen, with us wherever we went.
We filled 4 Epi pen prescriptions. We learned how to use them and stored one in each car and also gave one to each set of grandparents.
The real trick to being safe though, isn’t to have a ton of Epi-pens lying around, but rather to teach our son about his allergy.
We explained to him that he was allergic to peanuts and could never have them. We didn’t try to scare him but told him he would feel awful and have to go to the hospital if he ever accidentally ate a peanut.
He took the lesson to heart. Before he eats anything unfamiliar he asks if it has peanuts. Halloween is especially funny. He knocks on the door, and all in one breath says, trick or treat i’m allergic to peanuts.
It works, his brother gets all the peanutty stuff and he gets everything else.
When he became school age we were sure to inform the teachers and front office staff about his allergy. We got another epi-pen and gave it to them.
One day my wife went to his school and popped her head into the cafeteria during lunchtime. She noticed our son sitting and eating all alone.
She told me about this wondering if he was turning into an anti-social boy. He’d never been before, so I started questioning him. It turns out that we’d taught him too well about his allergy. He wouldn’t even sit at a table if there was anyone with peanut butter.
We told him his allergy was only if he ate it or got it rubbed on him. Ever since our conversation he’s been eating with his friends. But it does illustrate a good point about how literal kids can be.
Whenever we have a babysitter we always remind them about the peanut allergy. We have a fake epi-pen that we like to show new babysitters how to use. They’re usually a little freaked out at first, but we assure them that the chances of exposure in our house are very low.
That brings up another point. Even with our sons’ allergy, we still have peanut butter in the house. My wife and I love it too much not to. Our youngest son also likes it so we give it to him when he asks. The rules are simple, if you eat or touch peanut products you thoroughly wash your hands and mouth.
It’s also imperative to think about what you’re doing with the spreader knife. If you dip it into the peanut butter, you better not use it in the jelly. We’ve done this and realized our mistake. Typically we put a huge warning sign on the jelly saying not to use for our oldest. Or if were really worried about it, we’ll throw it away and not take any chances.
When were done with the spreader knife we don’t just throw it in the dishwasher or sink, we thoroughly wash it with soap and water using our hands. If you use a scrubber, you’ve infected it with peanut oil.
Our son has never had an adverse reaction since that very first one. He’s 8 now and very educated and careful about everything he eats. We got him checked again this year because there’s always a chance they can outgrow the peanut allergy.
We didn’t build it up too much, because we were pretty sure he still had the allergy and didn’t want to have him feel too let down if it came back positive. Sure enough he still has the peanut allergy. He wasn’t perturbed at all, though he’s been living with it his whole life; nothing changed for him.
Having precautions like epi-pens in place and educating our son about his affliction are the keys to keeping him safe. We’ve been dealing with it so long it really isn’t a burden for our family.
