I've decided to start a blog to archive Brooke's journey dealing with life threatening food allergies. Although I have vehemently tried to stay away from blogging, because I feel it is just another social media time stealer, I think this is probably the best way to keep everyone informed and updated about her health and progress trying to cure her peanut allergy. I wanted to title the blog "Brooke's Allergy Bashers" because that is the plan... to bash her allergies out of existance... peanuts are her worst enemy, but we are going to beat them. The best place to start the story of her journey, is at the beginning;
When Brooke was conceived, Scott and I were in the last semester of our college years. Being low income college kids, we qualified for public aid and WIC. WIC (women infants and children) was a great program... every month we received coupons for food. The coupons were meant to aid in buying healthy foods throughout my pregnancy. Among the coupons we received, there were always at least 6 or 7 coupons for free jars of peanut butter. I loved peanut butter, and it was a convenient food to take with me during long days at work. I would make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and stick it in the my pocket of my scrubs every day that I had to work. I'd sneak bites of my sandwich between patients, which held me over until my 1:00 lunch break. I had a peanut butter and jelly every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for my entire pregnancy. Little did I know, the theory at that time was that women who were pregnant should eat foods containing peanuts in moderation or avoid them altogether to reduce the risk of food allergies.
My lack of knowledge about the food allergy world wasn't surprising. No one in my family has food allergies. No one in my husbands family has food allergies. Food allergies were so foreign, that I just about missed the signs that something was immunologically wrong with my child.
Brooke was born a week earlier than her due date. The doctors insisted that she needed to be delivered via C-section because she was breech and because her amniotic fluid was very low. We set the date for early on a Monday morning, and out she came. The delivery wasn't complicated, everything went well. She was quite a bit jaundice, but not enough to make the doctors worry about sending her home 3 days later. Brooke's first few months went well. She was exclusively breastfed until 6 months of age. During breastfeeding, I continued eating my free jars of peanut butter and whatever else I had on hand. Brooke had her immunizations on time, usually without problem... sometimes a fever and some pain, but nothing more.
At 6 months, we started to introduce Brooke to table foods. We started with Gerber's first foods, rice flakes and oatmeal, which she did fine with. We graduated on to other foods, green beans, applesauce, peas... but when we got to carrots we noticed that the carrots were bothering her skin. When we fed them to her, she got little red blotches around her mouth. After asking the doctor about it, we were told not to feed them to her and to be sure to introduce only one new food at a time, eliminating any that seemed problematic, and to reintroduce carrots at a later date. That advice sufficed for the time being.
Fast forward a few months, we didn't think much about the carrot incident. We waited awhile, tried carrots again and she was fine with them. Around 12 months old, we started to notice that Brooke was getting eczema in the folds of her skin. It was terrible behind her knees and in the space in front of her elbows. We would ask the pediatrician (a new one, since we had relocated) time and time again, what to do about her eczema. The advice given was simple; use mild soap like dove, put a good lotion on it, like eucerin, and try not to let her bother it. Occasionally the peds would have us rub steroid cream on it, which always helped... but we were cautioned not to 'overuse' it. Not at any point, were we counseled about the fact that children who have eczema are more prone to developing food allergies. That would have been some good information to have been armed with.
Around Brooke's one year well visit, we were told that Brooke wasn't gaining weight fast enough. The peds were concerned because her weight graph wasn't climbing, instead it was plateauing. We were encouraged to start giving her more fattening table foods, adding butter to just about everything and to start introducing fatty things like peanut butter. As naive as I was about the food allergy world, I DID know that the recommendations were to NOT introduce peanuts until 2 or 3 years of age. I brought this up, but the peds didn't really seem concerned. I recalled reading articles about time frames that highly allergenic foods should be introduced, and made the decision to wait on introducing peanuts.
We did however, decide to introduce eggs. I was desperate to find new things for Brooke to eat, as she was a really picky eater and seemed to have aversions to many textures. I called a friend for advice and was told that at 1 year old, her children love to eat scrambled eggs! I thought that was a good idea and scrambled some eggs for Brooke. She loved them. Soon after feeding them to her, I noticed little pinpoint red spots popping up on her hands and arms. I lifted her clothing and saw her torso covered in little red spots. Scott and I were dumbfounded, and didn't really know what was going on. We did have enough sense to get Brooke in the car and rush to Walgreen's for some children's benadryl. After giving her a dose, she was fine. The little red dots soon faded and all was well again.
At Brooke's next pediatric visit, which had turned into every 2 week weight check visits... I declared "my daughter is allergic to eggs." The ped listened and notated it in her chart, advising me to avoid eggs and flu shots. Thinking back to that point in time... I should have been advised to avoid egg in everything and I should have been taught how to read a food label, and we should have been referred to a pediatric allergist. But, what should have been done and what was, were two different stories.
Every two weeks we went back to the peds for Brooke's weight checks, and every two weeks I was lectured on feeding my child, who was still plateauing. I felt like a terrible mother. I was constantly worried about her weight. I tried my best to get Brooke to eat and to try new things and nothing I did would work. I was still breastfeeding at that point, because it was the only thing Brooke would heartily eat. We tried fattening foods, junk foods, hot dogs, french fries. We began to notice that anytime she had ketchup or ranch dressing on her skin, she would get an irritated red mark wherever the dressing had touched her delicate skin. The eczema was still out of control, flaring up in the folds of her skin. We needed help, but it would still be awhile before we got any.
Brooke turned 17 months right before Christmas. I had made peanut butter cookies for the holidays. I hadn't planned on feeding them to Brooke, because I was still adamant about waiting until she turned 2 or 3. I had made the cookies for Scott and I. One night, after eating one of my cookies, I gave Brooke a kiss on her sweet little cheek. Almost instantly 3 tiny little bumps appeared, and I thought... hmmm that's strange. I wonder if she is allergic to peanuts?
At Brooke's next 2 week weight check visit, I mentioned the peanut butter cookie incident to the ped. She didn't seem concerned. She was more concerned about Brooke's lack of weight gain and continued lecturing me about foods that Brooke should be eating to "fatten her up." She again, suggested peanut butter. I remember reminding the ped about the egg incident and the 3 little bumps with the peanut butter cookie and asking her the question "what if my daughter is allergic to peanut butter?" Her response was that if I was worried about it, she could prescribe me an epi pen. I hardly even knew what an epi pen was. I didn't truly understand the concept of food allergies or realize how serious they could be. I suppose that is why, when we finally decided to try giving Brooke peanut butter, Scott and I were shocked by what took place.
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