The UnRestricted Diet

I never used to take allergies seriously. Before I had kids, I thought of allergies as that moment from Hitch where maybe you’d blow up for a little but there was never anything serious or life-threatening that went along with it – boy was I wrong.

It started when our oldest daughter was 15 months old. I had made myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on a Hawaiian roll, and she asked for a bite. Without hesitation, I gave it to her. Before this moment, I had been giving her tastes of peanut butter from the time she was 6 months old so in my head, we were clear and free of any allergies. Within a few minutes, she began to cough and I’m not quite sure why but my first thought was that she was having an allergic reaction. Call it mother’s intuition but no part of me felt she was choking. I ran downstairs, called 911 and we gave her Benadryl as we waiting for the ambulance. When they arrived she had seemed better, they checked her of course, but then they ended up leaving. Later we learned that the first reaction is not the worst one, its the second.

By an odd stroke of luck, we had already gotten Avery some bloodwork done the week before due to a recent hospitalization with pneumonia and asthma. Her pulmonologist wanted to test a few things. We now know that her asthma issues and her allergies are all connected. We called him and asked to add peanut to the panel and that test was when we learned that her allergy to peanuts was extremely life threatening.

After a switch of allergists (that story is a post for another day), we ended up with the best allergist in the NY/CT area and learned that her allergy list was Peanut, Pistachio, and Cashew. We will eventually add Pink Peppercorn to that list, which we have only found in Montreal Steak Seasoning. We now carry her epipens everywhere we go and have a 504 in place for school.

Avery is about to turn 10, and we’ve had 2 incidents of reactions since we found out about her allergies. One was at the allergist’s office during the food challenge (I told you it’s a post for another day!), and the other was when we had steak and added the Montreal Steak Seasoning. We hold our breath every time she goes out with friends or even buys lunch at school. There’s that balance of control and letting her live which we have to walk very carefully. Our allergies has told us about a shot she can take that can potentially lesson her reaction. We are considering this as she gets older and would love to hear from any of you on how you are managing your allergies!