August Allergy Update

We had our next round of allergy testing this week. Last time we went, we planned to come back for both a baked egg challenge and a tree nut panel. I had them scheduled on different days but it ended up that we could do them both on the same day! We were at the allergist's office for over 4 hours, which as you can imagine is hard to entertain a 15 month old that long. He took control of the office and was armed with some Sesame on his ipad.

In the long run, not much has changed in our daily life. He has now been cleared for all vaccines (I'm sure Luke is thrilled about this) and we have a new nut allergy confirmation (compared to the suspicion we had).

BAKED EGG ORAL CHALLENGE
For the baked egg challenge, I brought in a blueberry bread that I had baked with 1 egg, close to 400*, and over 30 minutes.
We had 7 trials, spread by about 30 minutes apart. They start by touching it to his cheek for 2 minutes then waiting to see if there is a reaction. Then they give him a tiny crumb to eat and we wait 30 minutes. Then they give him a larger crumb and we wait 30 minutes. Now he's allowed to have 1 bite and we wait 20 minutes. This continues until he eats all 6 portions of the bread (plus the one on his face).


In between tastes, Luke ran around the office, played with his animals and watched Sesame on his ipad. He was also allowed to eat his normal foods. It was a long morning. He eventually fell asleep on Dave's lap because it was naptime!

eating cake is exhausting!

Luke passed the baked egg oral challenge. I thought I'd be thrilled but it's just frustrating because nothing has changed.
We still need to treat every exposure as an experiment and be ready with benadryl, epipen and a possible hospital visit. We tested his reaction to 1 egg, baked in bread for 30 minutes, over 300*. However, most baked goods have at least 2 eggs and we haven't tested him at that concentration yet so once we try other baked goods it will be an experiment as well. Also, many aren't baked for 30 minutes.

TREE NUT PANEL
We had suspected nut allergies because of his previous blood test so we've been avoiding exposure. The allergist wanted us to do the nut scratch panel to confirm the allergy and see if it is just peanuts.

Unfortunately, he responded to the test for: Peanuts, Almonds, Brazil Nuts, Hazlenut, Sesame Seed, and Coconut. We were cleared to use sunflower butter but need to avoid all other nuts. The allergist said we can experiment with sesame seed (hummus) if we commit to serving it daily, and to try coconut because we had used coconut oil in the past.

 Once we got home, Luke was allowed to have more bread! YUMMMMM