“Peanut” was one of those terms of endearment that started at the hospital and stuck. Well today our little Peanut had some peanut drama…
At Maya’s 9 month appointment her pediatrician gave the green light for her to try pretty much all foods, including peanut butter. Until recently, it wasn’t recommended to introduce peanut butter until 3 years of age. But supposedly early exposure is supposed to decrease the risk of an allergy if the baby is otherwise healthy and doesn’t have a family risk of allergies (Billy is allergic to walnuts, but no other nuts).
So over the last couple weeks I’ve been mixing a tiny bit of peanut butter into Maya’s food every other day or so. It’s the totally natural kind, I actually used the machine at New Seasons Market to grind my own! I waited for a day when we would be home and not busy for her to try it, just in case. Everything was fine, she tolerated it just like any other food. Here she was last week, totally loving the apple, banana, kale, yogurt, peanut butter purée I made her:
Today at lunch I gave her some banana oatmeal and mixed in some peanut butter, it was probably about 1/2 teaspoon which is the most she has had so far. As I was cleaning her up after she finished eating I noticed her left hand was all red and had broken into small hives. I quickly stripped her down to make sure she didn’t have hives anywhere else. The area around her mouth was also turning bright red in a patchy rash.
I quickly called her pediatrician and spoke with nurse advice. I was told to give her some Benadryl and if the redness on her face changed to hives or she started coughing to go to the emergency room. Well of course I didn’t have any Benadryl (just like I didn’t have baby Tylenol that first time! Note to self: awesome baby shower gift would be to stock their medicine cabinet!). So we raced off to the pharmacy. Under the fluorescent lights of Walgreens the redness was definitely worse, and a couple hives had broken out. I quickly administered a dose of Benadryl and drove to the hospital, calling Billy on the way.
Luckily through all of this Maya was her normal, happy self. We were immediately admitted to the ER and she charmed all of the nurses. The doctor said it was a relatively mild reaction as far as peanut allergies go but she wanted to observe Maya for a couple hours. While she was in her car seat on the way to the hospital, she had been trying to scratch the rash and inflamed her eye a bit in the process. Billy arrived shortly after her exam and helped me entertain her.
The Benadryl did its job and the swelling and redness had practically disappeared after being there for 2 hours! Our nurse reassured me that I didn’t over react by bringing her in, he said I did everything right including introducing peanut butter in the first place. We were discharged and Maya fell asleep as soon as we were out of the parking structure. I gave her another dose of Benadryl after she woke up and the sweet ER doctor called to check on her. It was a long day but she handled it so well.
So now we will need to follow up with an allergist and determine how severe her allergy is. I was reading about peanut allergies tonight and it’s crazy how common of an allergy it is as of recently. I have been noticing recently how there are “nut free” pre-schools… It’s such a prevalent allergy.
We are very lucky that her reaction was mild. I learned that while her body could handle trace amounts of peanut butter last week, a small spoonful was too much for her and her body made that clear! I’m sure the allergist will let us know how to handle this in the future, but for now I am going to be extremely carful about keeping peanut products out of the house and not giving her restaurant food that may contain peanut products. But this is one for the baby book, “Baby’s First Emergency”!
P.S. Just wanted to note that I wasn’t thinking “let me take her picture so I can blog this later!”, I was updating Billy as well as taking photos to show the doctor!
BABY HUME 