I am what she (can't) eat.

Nuts, in other words.

Gah. I took Libby to an allergist yesterday to confirm that she has asthma, and Nurse Ratched performed a skin prick test on her which shows she is allergic to peanuts, walnuts, cashews, and pecans. I was flabbergasted. She's never had a reaction to anything she's eaten as far as I know, although she has tended not to like anything with nuts in it.

Smart little girl.

We're in a bit of lockdown mode right now: I'm trying not to panic, failing miserably, but hopefully not letting the kids see. Crystal, if you're reading this, please call me and give me a reality check about managing this stuff, while I can still call and cancel the order on the plastic bubble from Biospheres R Us.

Comments

[Divrchk]

One of the little girls in my son's preschool class was just diagnosed at the beginning of the year with a nut allergy (she's 4 years old.) The family is still having a very hard time adjusting. The older siblings used to eat loads of peanut butter but she never liked it and felt slightly sick/nauseous when they would eat it. It sounds like your daughter's allergy isn't life threatening but it's still a major adjustment - especially for a cook and food lover like you. My son is allergic to the proteins in milk. You get very good at reading labels. The best are the ones that have allergy info in bold at the bottom of the ingredients list. Good luck! If you think that I could help in any way, just ask away...

[MoverMOM]

Lets see...My 9 year old son is allergic to milk (proteins), tree nuts(not peanuts, so he can eat peanut butter), shell fish. He first was tested when he was 3 and at that time he was also allergic to egg whites, we avoided them for 4 months and he now can eat eggs, but as far as the other allergies they have remained his milk allergy is 4+.......my 4 year old son is allergic to peanuts (not tree nuts), chocolate, tomatoes, rag weed and SOY! I have found that Allergist can be very wishes washy, I was once told that you can get false positives and false negatives.........

[Becki]

I've read that false positives are fairly common, but false negatives are rare, which I suppose is good. Gah. Well, we'll adjust. I let my boy have a peanut butter sandwich this morning but I made him scrub like he was going into surgery afterward.

[Fr. Dcn. Raphael]

Becki, I don't know if you know Kelley has nut allergy. Peanuts are fine though.

[Hoo]

Hmm - well peanuts are legumes, the others tree nuts. Not unusual to be allergic to both, and I've heard about a link between asthma and allergies. But she hasn't had past reactions? Reducing exposure is sound advice, especially if she's not wild about them anyway, but I'm not sure you need to go into bubble mode.
Which type of skin test? Some quick googling - The Asthma & Allergy Foundation had to say about skin testing
http://www.aafa.org/display.cfm?id=9&sub=20&cont=290
"A positive test only shows that you are allergic to the allergen. It does not necessarily mean that you will have symptoms on exposure to that allergen, or that allergen is a cause of your symptoms. Indeed, you may have positive skin tests, and your disease may be non-allergenic."
- which is right up there with wishy-washy IMHO. Does it mean she's only allergic to it stuffed under her skin? Not very helpful.
Did they give you a "number" for a result? How about a blood test? I'm seeing my allergy-mom-expert SIL tonight, I'll see what she has to offer...try not to stress, as dumb as that sounds....

[carmen]

Becki, my son is anaphylactic to tree nuts, peanuts and coconut. Email me if you need to chat.

[Missie]

Sheesh, woman. I am sorry about your baby girl being allergic, but it doesn't sound like she has the "Omigosh a peanut traveled within five miles of her, quick call 911!" kind of allergy, so that's a blessing. I think just by using some common sense (which is something the doctors don't really dispense alot of), she will be fine. I wouldn't imagine you should have to eradicate nuts from every area of your lives and kitchen. I could be wrong, but that would be a first. ;)

Oh, and my husband has the weirdest allergy ever. If he eats cantaloupe or kiwi fruit, his mouth itches and his throat can constrict. And what does he do? Eat them anyway. The goober. (get it, goober? See what I did there? Okay, never mind.)

[Missie]

Oh, and by "sheesh, woman" I meant it in a kind of a "wow, sorry that happened" way not a "get a grip you crazy woman" way.

Just wanted to clarify.

[The Butrfly Garden]

I can't believe this is the one I missed first. (If I would have read them chronologically, it all would have made more sense, eh??)

I am going in for an allegy test soon. My doctor said that I'm probably right about it boiling down to tree allergies and boiling over into veggies, fruits and nuts. :( But hopefully, we'll figure out exactly what I am allergic to.

[Soraya]

Hi there,
I'm a fourteen year old girl and after a visit to the hospital and a scratch test they finally found out that I'm allergic to, well, pretty much ever single nut. I also have some kind of problem with my "thyroid gland" or whatever the name was. Yeah, fun, fun, fun. Anyway - I can't eat any nut ever again and I have to take medication twice a day and that helps.
Well, anyway - just wanted to let you know that life and eating habits don't stop because you have an allergy. You learn to live with it - sometimes in a weird, semi-dysfunctional way, but you do manage.
Love,
S