Peanut butter = bad

Discovered yesterday that Theo is allergic to peanuts. He ate some peanut butter and the hives came, limited to just his face initially but then an hour later all over his little body. I took him to the doctor who prescribed him a steroid for the next few days to limit any more outbreaks until the peanuts pass through his system. He also gave me a prescription for an epi-pen. That is the thing that frightens me the most. I have to carry around something that I might have to use to prevent my son from dying should he accidentally eat peanuts again. Of course, we don't know that his next reaction will be that severe, but the doctor said based on this first reaction, it's the next one we need to be worried about.

So now our lives have changed. He'll get blood work done at his next check up in January to verify any other allergies but from now on we have to carefully read labels to see if the food we buy is manufactured in a facility that processes peanuts, Theo can no longer share snacks with his friends unless I know exactly what it is and if it's safe and, as he gets older, he will have to learn to tell people about his allergy so that unknowing caregivers and well-meaning parents don't feed him something dangerous. My friend Keila's little boy is severely allergic to dairy and has learned to say "no thank you" to snacks offered by others.

It's scary and it's frustrating but I am reminding myself to be grateful for his overall health. Grateful that this first reaction wasn't the life-threatening one, that we were given a warning from his little body. Grateful that we live in a time when peanut allergies are common enough that people are educated about their severity and foods are labeled appropriately. Thankfully I have been a label reader for many years but now in addition to sugars, bad fats and preservatives I have something new to look for.

Feeling defeated

Theo got the best of me today. He refused to nap this afternoon even though he desperately needed it. We struggled with each other, he cried, I dug deep and finally I got him in the stroller and we went to the grocery store. On the way home, he fell asleep - two hours before his bedtime. He woke up after 30 minutes in a terrible mood. He was absolutely inconsolable for a good 15 minutes but I finally found a winning combination of a pacifier, a cracker in each hand, some milk nearby and Animal Planet. TV is always my last resort and tonight I shoved my guilt aside and decided that whatever works, works.

Just as I thought we might make it through to the end of the day without any more battles, we faced dinner. He just won't eat anything these days. He won't try anything new and he is apparently bored of all the things he does like, with the exception of cheese and crackers. Roast beef? No. Fish shaped frozen fish sticks? No. Spinach and potato pancakes? No. Jar of baby food I keep around as back up - a few bites but then, no. Crackers with goat cheese. Yes. And the "no" isn't a polite, "no thank you, Mummy". It's grab it off the tray and hurl it on the floor. After picking up several things he had thrown I actually threw a piece of spinach potato pancake back at him. He, of course, thought that was hilarious which was a good thing because I was so mad I just kept throwing it at him and he just kept giggling.

Finally, I gave up. I cleaned him up, put him in his jammies and put him to bed where he seemed quite happy to go by that time. Finally, one thing today I got him to do without a struggle.