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.