Allergy Testing and Shopping

Baby E is squirming wildy in my lap at the moment, trying to get the camera on the desk. She alternates between hopeful cries of "Dat? Dat? Dot it? Dat?" and then flailing around grunting and screaming because I won't give her "that" and she hasn't "got it" yet.

Despite Baby E's last-minute frolic of pulling her diaper halfway off and smearing the contents around, we did manage to get to the allergy clinic almost on time this morning. Thankfully, DH arrived early to fill out the paperwork, since we were about 5 minutes late for the appointment, much less the "be there about 15 minutes early" time.

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To my surprise, after asking lots of questions and talking to us for a while, they did an allergy test right there on the spot. No waiting, no having to schedule an appointment at another clinic or for another time. We just decided what to test her for, and they did.

usually they test for milk, wheat, egg white, soy, peanut, pecan, dust mite, cat, dog, grasses, tree (pollen?), mold and ragweed, along with controls of histamine (allergic) and saline (non-allergenic). We added corn, because DH and I thought she might be reacting to that.



The way they test is to put a row of tiny pinpricks in her skin, with the allergens on top of that. They do it all at once with a little instrument that does 8 pricks at a time--it took 2 nurses to do baby E's test. After 20 minutes they measure the welt and the red area around the prick for the control (saline), and then for the other items. Anything that measures 3mm or more larger than the control for both wheal and redness is a positive result. The saline was 0/3 (no welt, 3mm of redness).

Her results were positive for soy and corn, and she also reacted somewhat to mold. Those three things were the only ones besides the histamine that got raised welts. Soy was 3/6, corn 5/14, and mold 2/5. There were several other items that had red areas of 5 or 6, but they didn't have the raised wheals. I was surprised that the corn reaction was more severe than the soy. No wonder she reacted so badly to the corndog stick the other day; it almost certainly had both corn and soy in it.

Interestingly enough, Baby E immediately got a diaper rash (even though she hadn't had a bowel movement) and started scratching at her ears. Apparently my calculations that those two issues are related to her allergies were correct.

It was a relief to know that the foods we suspected were indeed foods Baby E was allergic to, but that there weren't any more (at least of the ones we tested). It should be safe to introduce her to foods like wheat and dairy products now--although because of the family history of dairy issues she won't get much exposure to that, anyway. I think we'll stick with goat milk products at first just to be on the safe side.

I had been wondering if there was something else I was eating that was bothering Baby E, and it must have been the corn. Corn chips with hummus and mango salsa have become one of my staple foods, with the difficulty of finding soy-free items that don't take a lot of preparation time. Sigh.

The allergist told us, of course, to avoid those foods, and to follow up in 3-6 months (or sooner if something else comes up). He gave us a prescription for a twin-pack epi-pen to keep with us, and also for an oral antihistamine that should help any non-emergency reactions feel better more quickly.

The good news is that she has a good chance of growing out of the soy and corn allergies by age 3 or so. The bad news is that it's rather unusual for a baby this age to already be showing reactivity to airborne allergens like mold, and the allergist said she's likely to have increased reactions to more airborne allergens as she gets older. We need to keep an eye out for asthma and hay-fever type reactions with those.

The girls and I went shopping after the appointment. One of our favorite places to shop has not only a great health/nutrition/allergy section and a pharmacy, but also has free childcare (up to an hour) for children from age 2 through preschool.

I rarely take the girls grocery shopping any more; usually DH goes on his way home from work or takes the girls with him on Saturday. They're a bit out of practice at behaving in stores. So I found it necessary to remind the girls several times we were there that no, they could not ride on or in the cart (they're too big for me to lift that high), they could not hang on the edge of the cart (front, back or side) or sit on the edge of the basket under the cart, no they could not run up and down the aisles shrieking, and no they could not take things off the shelves without permission.

I, of course, got the "But Moooommeeee, Daddy lets us do it! Daddy says we can!" argument on several of these items. Cart-riding is one of the many recreational activities which just serves to prove that, while Daddy is a super-fantastic all-around fun guy, Mommy is a just a mean spoilsport. Yessirree. (After a recent getting-on-the-same-page talk between parents, Daddy is no longer allowing them to ride on the outside of the cart either, but that hasn't quite sunk in yet.)

We dropped off Baby E's prescriptions in the pharmacy, then made a trip to the restroom before going to find some food.

We wanted to eat lunch in the deli, but the only thing they had that Baby E and I could eat was white rice. So I ordered chicken fingers for the girls and rice for Baby E and myself, and turned around just in time to see the empty cart tipping on two wheels with AJ hanging on one side.

I yelled "No!" and grabbed her arm just in time to keep cart and kid from toppling over. She didn't seem to even realize how close she'd come to a tumble, so I informed her of that and reminded her (still in my frightened, loud-but-not-actually-yelling tone) that I had just told her three times NOT to climb on the cart, and that she could have gotten hurt very badly if I hadn't caught her!

Realizing I had an audience of several shoppers (who probably hadn't seen the tipping cart) looking sympathetically at AJ rubbing her arm, and scowling at me as if wondering what I was doing to the poor child, I softened my tone a little.

I paid and we took our food over to a table, where the girls proclaimed the chicken "delicious" and happily devoured it, along with some of the rice. We chatted happily while we ate, and the girls enjoyed themselves.

Baby E ate a little bit of rice, but wasn't all that interested in it. Instead she started fussing loudly to nurse. I didn't have a blanket or anything with me, so had to stretch my comfort zone a little by nursing in public with nothing to drape around Baby E's head, while just wearing a normal T-shirt. It was that or drag all the kids out to the parking lot to sit in the broiling hot car, or have her screaming in hunger the whole time we were in the store. She was cooperative, though, and didn't make it too difficult to be discreet. A store employee even spoke with me and got me a spoon without giving any sign that he noticed I was nursing. When she got too wiggly, I decided she was done.

Next we headed to the childcare area and checked in the girls. Then back to the bathroom with M&M, who at the last minute decided she needed to go potty again. There was a woman in there curling her hair and explaining to everyone who came in that she wasn't really crazy to be curling her hair in the store restroom; her hair had just looked so bad that she absolutely had to curl it before she could go pick up her son from school. I don't think anyone cared, really, except that she was blocking one of the two sinks and forcing everyone to line up at the sink that didn't work as well.

Then I took M&M back to the childcare area and went to pick up Bay E's prescriptions. It always makes me want to laugh out loud when the pharmacist who is supposed to be explaining the medications does nothing other than read the label to me. I suppose he must sometimes get customers who can't read, but it always seems like a bit of a waste of time to me since I actually can read.

Baby E was so tired and fussy, and ended up nursing again and then falling asleep in my arms while I attempted to find some cereal to buy. I thought trying to find food with no soy (and no hidden soy ingredients like mono-dyglycerides, glycerin, lethicin, tocopherols, Vitamin E and xanthan gum, etc. ) in it was hard. Trying to find food with no soy AND no corn (corn syrup, cornstarch, dextrose, maltodextrin, etc.) is much worse.

After an hour of examining labels and finding very few things we could have, I was about ready to tear out my hair. Baby E was awake and fussing again, and I had to go pick the girls up. Then the no-climbing-on-the-cart-no-running-no-gleeful-shrieking-no-grabbing-things-off-the-shelves fun started all over again. I had to be able to concentrate on reading labels, so I wasn't able to keep them occupied with a running chatter and having them help me shop like I normally do.

After AJ ran full-tilt into me about 30 seconds after being reminded not to run up and down the aisles, I finally ended up telling the girls to stand right next to the cart and not touch the cart and not move, while I tried to finish getting the most urgent things as quickly as possible.

They followed instructions very well and stayed right where I told them to without moving, so in the next section I gave them a little more leeway, which they responded to by not-quite-running and squealing loudly (M&M does not seem to be able to talk at a normal volume or walk instead of skipping or running no matter where we are or what we're doing, even if she's truly trying) and putting a hand on a package of raw chicken (AJ wanted to read the label, of course). At that point I made them stand still next to the cart again, while M&M wailed at the top of her lungs and AJ asked me loudly why I was "being so mean."

When we finally arrived home, I had the girls take a brief quiet time even though it was late while I dealt with Baby E and did laundry.

Baby E was really grumpy after getting only a short nap, so to quell her series of tantrums I let her play with the closed bottle of teething tablets she grabbed at while I changed her diaper. I didn't have the energy for a battle at that point, so I let her hold them for a few more minutes while I washed my hands, took a few photos, put her in the playpen next to me, started writing this post, and evaluated what to do next.



The lid was screwed on tightly and I was right with her, but a few moments later I looked down to see her drooling madly while cramming little white tablets into her mouth, along with the lid to the bottle. I knew I shouldn't have let her use the bottle as a maraca. I was so mad at myself for letting my guard down.

By then it was time for the girls to get up from quiet time, so when they came in I asked them to pick up their toys and things while I dealt with the teething tablet mess.

A call to the 1-800 number listed on the bottle assured me that a baby would have to eat 6 entire bottles of the tablets before experiencing adverse effects; apparently it's very difficult to overdose on Hyland's teething tablets. That was a relief.

Just as I was finishing cleaning up the mush of white tablets, I heard a crash in the kitchen. Running toward the sound, I called, "Are you girls okay? What happened?"

"I'm okay, Mommy, but the handle came off this dish." AJ was standing next to a chair she'd dragged to the sink, holding what was left of a glass pot. I'd been in a hurry as we'd left that morning, and had left the pot I'd cooked breakfast in on the table. AJ thought she'd be helpful and put it on the counter for me.

She said, "I'm sorry, Mommy. I didn't mean to break it. Can we still wash it and cook in it without the handle?"

I reassured her that I was less worried about the pot than about her safety, and got her out of the way so she wouldn't step in any glass. She did have a little cut on one finger, but was otherwise okay. The application of a hug and a bandage made her feel better.

Then I turned my attention to the shards of glass peppering the floor.

DH wasn't going to be home for dinner, which was already late, and I hadn't started cooking anything yet anyway. Baby E screamed until I put her in her high chair with some food, and the older girls ended up getting peanut butter sandwiches and salad for dinner. DH got home in time to help with feeding the kids and putting them to bed, while I cleaned up broken glass and thoroughly swept/vaccuumed the kitchen floor.

I was in a frazzle by the end of the day, but somehow we all survived. Hopefully tomorrow will be a bit less chaotic.