TMI Tuesday: Oh, Nuts!

We have a, most of the time, happy little boy who is, mostly, health so there isn’t really anything that we can complain about there. So far, 2016 has been pretty good to us but there have also been many challenges this year and while we have gotten some answers there are other questions that remain. The biggest of which relates to our son’s possible allergies.

We learned rather quickly in the spring that Penicillin, for all the good that it can do, is not something that agrees with our son. The hives, rash, and bloating made us acutely aware of his allergy to this widely prescribed medication. It was one of the scariest few days of parenthood thus far with multiple trips to the emergency room and countless appointments with the pediatrician. Not knowing what was going on during those first couple of days is a feeling that I hope to never experience again.  

I guess the good and bad things about the situation is that we already had an allergist lined up for our son as there have been some minor reactions to peanut butter that we were hoping to get figured out. The appointments started in January or February but, because of the chaos that ensued since then, we are still in a state of flux. We simply don’t know if this is another allergen to add to his list.

The latest attempt brought us some hope as it was the final of three steps of testing. He had already passed the skin test and the blood work also came back negative. The final exam was to conduct a food challenge to see if anything happened while consuming peanut butter. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, our son wouldn’t eat more than the initial taste (three are required) and we are once again in limbo until the winter.

While nuts have been a part of our regular diet before this year, we haven’t had any in the house since winter and have consumed little outside of the house as well (never around our son). It is a change and sometimes a challenge, especially given the stock pile kept in the office kitchen, but it is completely manageable. Yes, we have to alter some things here and there but, beyond the aforementioned allergy and potential allergy, our son is a happy and growing boy. And, having survived last year, 2016 is pretty easy in comparison.

TMI Tuesday: Finding EVERYTHING on the floor!

Even before our son began crawling he would find the most minuscule piece of trash, hair, dust, crumb, lint, or string hiding in the carpet around him. Now that he is mobile and crawling at a clip that would impress even the most hard-nosed drill sergeant, he is finding more and more nearly imperceptible things within the field of carpet throughout the first floor of our house. It is actually quite impressive the amount of things that he has been able to find and also rather annoying since we have to keep a constant eye on anything that may seem out of the ordinary in the beige and brown floor.

Thankfully his toys keep him occupied more often than not and he tends to ignore many of the small pieces that we are able to quickly pick up behind him. Although there have been moments when I have contemplated putting some kind of shammy on this hands and letting him loose in the kitchen. He would probably have fun with it but I think it is a little too early and there might be something in the child labor laws about it. However, I think with his OCD tendencies he might do that all by himself when he gets a little older.

While we don’t keep a spotless house, and we probably never will, we do keep track of what could possibly be hiding in the fibers across the floor and in the kitchen around his highchair. We know where the possible discoveries are and we make sure to sweep, Swiffer, and vacuum enough to keep him from ingesting something we don’t want him to. On the other hand, the harmless things we don’t give much attention as he does have to learn every now and again that something, while perfectly safe, doesn’t taste very good.

And this is a lesson that he is quickly learning especially when he spends some time in the yard. Not only do leaves leave a bad taste in your mouth but they can also stick to the roof of your mouth even worse than peanut butter… something we avoid bringing into the house until we get some additional testing done. Now, fully mobile, he finds everything and he tries to eat everything which is proving to be humorous at times but, more than anything, a very tiring and challenging daily routine. And it is only going to become a bigger challenge when we start some of the improvement projects over the summer.