She's baaaack

Bravery in the kitchen

I have finally done it. I summoned up the courage to pull out the crock pot that we received as a wedding gift. For some reason this particular piece of kitchen gadgetry has always intimidated me. Tonight I made a hearty potato soup- it tasted better than it looks :). Next, the blender...

Peanut allergy update

Yesterday morning Anna and I went to see an allergist. Anna had a skin prick test on her back for many different allergens. Her results confirmed an allergy to cats but did not confirm a peanut allergy. She had little or no reaction to the peanut. The doctor said that her previous blood test was positive for peanut allergies, but she had quite a low score, so she wanted to give Anna a taste of peanut butter in the office to see how she tolerated it. Anna had no visible reaction and kept signing for "more." Although a peanut allergy is usually a pretty black and white issue, her allergist feels that it may be safe to let Anna have peanut butter as part of her diet as long as we monitor her closely and always have her Epi-pen on hand.

The trouble is, we're not sure we're too comfortable with the approach of continuing to give her peanut butter unless something bad happens. According to a book about peanut allergies I read over the weekend and some research I have done online, reactions are difficult to predict and can vary greatly from one peanut exposure to the next. A child can be fine for the first five exposures and go into anaphylactic shock on the sixth exposure. I don't want to be an alarmist and I don't want to limit Anna unnecessarily, but I also am not confident that continuing to feed her peanuts is the best course of action. I think for the time being we may not directly give her any food with peanuts in it, but not worry too much about trace amounts of peanuts (for example, when a product label says "this product was manufactured in a facility which also processes peanuts"). And of course, we'll keep her Epi-pen handy.

Anna's first trip to the allergist

We had a loooong appointment at the allergist's office today but Anna was a real trooper.
p.s. Note that Anna is playing with an ankylosaurus in this photo- Daddy's favorite dinosaur.

The butterflies are back at Frederick Meijer Gardens!

A playdate with McKeiley

Hold the peanuts, please

Last week Anna had a little peanut butter for the first time. A couple of days later she had a flare up in her eczema and a mild rash on her cheeks and neck. To be on the safe side I took her to the pediatrician. Her doctor thought the rash was probably just more of Anna's eczema, but she ordered a blood test to check for allergies to be careful.

Yesterday I got a call from the pediatrician's office and it's official- Anna is allergic to peanuts :(. I spoke to her pediatrician on the phone last night to get some more information. The good news is that Anna's initial reaction was quite mild. The bad news is that each subsequent exposure to peanuts can make her reactions worse over time. We're going to meet with a pediatric allergist, but in the meantime we are to remove all peanuts from our home (including foods which have labels indicating that they were made in a plant that processes peanuts) and start carrying benadryl and an epi-pen just in case.

We'll let you know more when we've met with the allerist. Ahhh... the wonderful world of food allergies.

Open wide, dolly!

A visit from Grandma and Grandpa Dutra

This weekend Anna's Grandma and Grandpa Dutra visited from St. Louis. Anna had lots of fun playing with them!

We took Anna to a fun new place called Playworld.

I was amused by the warning label I found on one of the inflatable bounce houses.

Anna had a good time snuggling with Grandma and Grandpa...

... and taking a walk.

Playing with the heater in Grandma and Grandpa's hotel room was pretty fun, too.