When William was very young, we gave him something with peanut butter and noticed a little swelling around his eye, so we figured he might have an allergy. Of course a few months later I forgot about it and gave him a bit of a peanut butter cookie, and of course he swelled up a little bit around his eye. So we have been keeping him away from peanut butter, just in case. The plan was to give him a little bit after he was 3 years old in the morning and keep an eye on him. I actually tried to give him a little bit last week, but he didn't want to eat it (smart kid). Which brings us to yesterday. Mom was watching the kids while Jenny went to work and was putting together some food for the kids. When William is at grandma's, her pantry is a free-for-all where she usually keeps gummy snacks and raisins where he helps himself. He grabbed a breakfast bar and gave it to grandma to open. She opened it and gave him a bite, then she took a bite too and noticed it was filled with peanut butter. About 15 minutes later his face started swelling, his skin all over his body got real splotchy, and he started coughing and weazing. So he was having a serious reaction to the peanut butter, not the little swelling that he did when he was younger. Mom immediately gave him benedryl and rushed him to the ER at Dupont (again, the best in Fort Wayne). Even though she wasn't technically William's guardian when they found out what was going on they immediately rushed him into a room with nurses and a doctor in the door right behind them. They gave him and I.V., a shot, and a couple of breathing treatments. Jenny left work and went to the ER. I ended up going to Mom's house to take care of Andrew since Uncle Dave is not that good with little babies. I finally made it to the ER and by the time I got there William was sleeping on Jenny's lap and looked real good. I didn't think it was that severe since my mom tends to overstate stuff, but the way Jenny described it, it was pretty bad. Lucky for us he woke up from his nap, we left the hospital and headed back to grandma's. By the time we got back to grandma's he was acting totally normal running around and chasing the dogs. He doesn't seem to have any lingering effects from his reaction, but now a whole new set of worries with him and what he can and can not eat. Looks like another trip to a specialist.
I feel sorry for mom since she feels guilty for "almost killing my kid" as she puts it, but I told her she did all the right things getting him medicine and taking him to the hospital. Of course all my comments won't curb her guilt, she just kept saying "I am going out tomorrow and buying him a swingset". My uncle had the comment following that saying,"good idea, then he can fall off of it and break his arm". Kids are so much fun....
4 comments:
Man! I'm happy she got him to Dupont, not too far from the house, I think. Well, near teen years, you can have a uncomfortable, perhaps painful allergy testing done for him. I wonder if it is peanuts, salt & peanuts, oil or what. Peanut & oil allergy is very difficult, as it is widely used.
I think I'll offer him orange things, as you mentioned, carrots, cheese, doritos.
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That is a great story! I love the part at the end where you forsee a broken bone. Ironic, you know.
Wow. Isn't that amazing that William will react that severly to just a touch of pb in a granola bar. Now you're going to have to reall alllll the labels of everything.... Grandma did an A+ super job taking care of him in this emergency. She just passed the babysitter course with flying colors!
That's wack.
Hopefully it doesn't end up being the extreme allergy where he can't be anywhere near peanut products.
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