So, this morning we woke up and went off to take care of a few errands. We bundled up. They said with windchill it felt like 7∘. Brrr.
We went to the grocery store and picked up her prescription for her double ear infection. Oops. Yeah, she wasn't just being cranky for the heck of it. But she didn't tell me! So frustrating that she can't communicate that! You see, what had happened was, the daycare called into my classroom at 8:55 yesterday morning to tell me she was sick and I had to come get her. My kids were to arrive into my room at 9:00. Huh?! She looked fine to me. After all it was just a runny nose! "No," said the director. "Her teacher said it had a yellowish-greenish tinge to it and you need to take her home." I was so annoyed. It looked clear to me and I needed the time to do assessments on my students. I begged the director to let Almi stay a bit longer. She said she would give me til noon. Argh! Really wish I had family in the area to cover in times of emergency. So, I called for a sub and picked her up at noon and took her to the doctor. And, yeah, turned out she has a double ear infection. Who knew?! The doctor asked her if her ears hurt and Almi said no but then she cracked me up when she followed it up with "I wan shot." Ha! She was serious, too. My vax-lovin' doc quickly flipped open her laptop to see if she was due for any but, alas, she was all caught up. No shots this time. Almi was disappointed. LOLBut, back to the errands. After picking up her prescription at the pharmacy drive thru we headed down to Children's Hospital. Being the worrier that I am, I often worried about being surprised by a rogue nut in a restaurant or at daycare. I figured we should see if this was really an issue-- but do so in a safe environment-- so once safely in the hospital parking lot, I offered her a snack of almond milk and sliced almonds.
You see, awhile back she had a reaction to pine nuts (rash on her face) so I had her tested for nut allergies. She tested negative for peanuts and all tree nuts but the doctor advised me to keep her away from nuts until she is three. I was paranoid so I followed her advice but it has been getting challenging. I am fine with no peanuts--we eat sunflower nut butter around her anyway and I prefer it to peanut butter so that's easy-- but I want to cook stuff with almond flour and ideally I'd like her to move away from rice and soy milk to almond milk. So, I went down to the parking lot of Children's Hospital right by the emergency room and gave her the snack. I figured if she had a bad reaction I could snatch her out of her carseat and run her inside. I knew that was unlikely, but I figured better there than at home or at someone's house or in a restaurant. Well, guess what?! No reaction. Nothing at all. I am so relieved and so excited that we can now make stuff with almonds in it. And best of all, she loved them! Here I am saying, "Phew!!!" LOL
When we got home, we had lunch and both plopped into bed for a restorative two-hour nap and when we awoke we had a snack of bananas sprinkled with cinnamon dipped in sliced almonds. :)
*** I am not suggesting anyone do this with their own child. Remember, Almi had already tested negative for nuts. I was just too nervous to feed her them to her in my home so this made sense for me. ***
6 comments:
I have a friend who did the same thing with peanut butter!
If it matters, I always assumed that Almi was a combination of her birth name and Naomi--it was only your post that made me think otherwise!
Ha! That is really really smart to go to the hospital parking lot! I would never had thought of it. I have to ask, how do you get pictures of yourself, or you and Almi? Do you put the camera at arm's length? That is one of my sorrows is that being a single mom, I can get lots of pics of my sweet little one (3 in April), but rarely have pics or videos of both of us. And by the way, I have been a reader for a while now, and left one comment a while back saying I would comment more once I figured out that it worked, and haven't yet. Your blog is on my very short list of blogs I read every day (and I have a long list of favoritized ones, but just go to them once in a while) :o) Thank you for having it public. Thank you. Leo
yes, i should try peanuts next! and leo, yes, i just hold the camera at arm's length. it gets easier--you should try it. sometimes i set up the self timer but for me it's harder to get good shots doing that.
I have read your blog for a while now and I really enjoy it but I would like to respectfully suggest that you remove this particular post. Although it seems like a good idea to do an allergy challenge in the hospital parking lot, it is not. Anaphylaxis is a life threatening emergency and ever second without treatment can deprive the brain of oxygen. I am not being judgmental, just concerned that someone else may try this with very different resaults. By the way, allergists can do the challenges in their office.
anon, thanks for your comments. i certainly am not suggesting anyone else do this just to see if their child has an allergy! as i said, she had already tested NEGATIVE for peanuts and tree nuts. i NEVER would have done this if she had not.
i actually think this was a lot safer than to just to assume she was in the clear and end up feeding her something at home and not being able to have help quickly enough. now at least i know that i don't have to worry about this. i will edit the end of the post, though, to suggest that other not do this. thanks for the suggestion.
My sister tried her kids on nuts in the Emerge parking lot also. No history or reason to think they were allergic, but better safe than sorry.
I'm glad I mentioned the name thing :-)
BTW, was looking at our pics together from Addis today and getting rather nostalgic. I hope we get to meet again!
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