Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! We have had a wonderful holiday. This is a picture of my babies in their Christmas pajama's {SERIOUSLY cute!!}

It's Official

Heath in the subway
on the way to his appointment

Last week, Heath had an appointment with a pediatric allergist. The first part of the appointment was spent talking with the doctor about what happened when Heath ate peanut butter back in November. She did say that Heath should have been given epinephrine while they were at the mall. She was also fairly sure he would test positive for peanut allergy. 


After we talked, the doctor left the room and a nurse came in to educate us. We learned {again} how to use the epipen and how to keep Heath safe. After the education bit was over, the doctor came back in and we talked about the future. We'll go back in when Heath is 3 and hope that he will be allergy-free. 


We left the doctor's office and Heath had a blood draw. No baby likes a blood draw and he knew all about it having had an IV last month. But it was quick, they are pros! 


So on Monday we got a call with the results from the blood test. Heath IS allergic to peanuts and is NOT allergic to tree nuts. He scored a 62.7 and is a level 5. Basically...very allergic to peanuts. Here is a little chart from wikipedia.org:

RAST rating	IgE level (KU/L)	comment
0	< 0.35	ABSENT OR UNDETECTABLE ALLERGEN SPECIFIC IgE
1	0.35 - 0.69	LOW LEVEL OF ALLERGEN SPECIFIC IgE
2	0.70 - 3.49	MODERATE LEVEL OF ALLERGEN SPECIFIC IgE
3	3.50 - 17.49	HIGH LEVEL OF ALLERGEN SPECIFIC IgE
4	17.50 - 49.99	VERY HIGH LEVEL OF ALLERGEN SPECIFIC IgE
5	50.0 - 100.00	VERY HIGH LEVEL OF ALLERGEN SPECIFIC IgE
6	> 100.00	EXTREMELY HIGH LEVEL OF ALLERGEN SPECIFIC IgE

Finding out that he truly is allergic to peanuts has not been super easy. It is really a fairly big life change. We will have no peanuts or tree nuts in the house and purchase nothing that has been manufactured in a plant with those things. We're getting really good at reading labels!


Aside from being allergic to peanuts, Heath is healthy. We're very thankful for that. We're looking forward to celebrating Christmas...but no peanuts in our stockings this year, Santa!

Our Advent Calendar

The past few years, we have had one of those chocolate advent calendars. The kind where you pull open a little door and find a chocolate. This year, with a peanut allergy, I haven't been able to find a calendar that would be safe. As advent got closer, lots of the blogs that I read started sharing their calendars. Lots of creativity out there! I found one I liked and recreated it for our home!

The advent calendar is a bunch (24) of mittens, mini clothes pins and a red cord. I've started sewing on numbers (I'm only up to 7 so far!) but it's working out great. The mittens are filled with chocolates from Vermont Nut Free Chocolates, little toys and other trinkets. Audrey is thrilled to peek in one mitten each day. Heath...totally clueless!


In totally unrelated news...I was thrilled to find this subject in an e-mail this afternoon:  For Mon: The Twilight Saga: Eclipse

Lunch

Eating at Chinese restaurants with Heath is pretty much not going to happen anymore. When I was in college, my friends and I went to a certain Chinese restaurant ALL the time {I can't remember the name...help me out, Nicole!}. It's very sad that I cannot take Heath to my favorite Chinese restaurants.

A few days ago, we were over at Grandma Judy's house at lunch time. The egg rolls {in the picture} had been on sale at the grocery store so they were what we had for lunch. Amazingly, they were REALLY tasty! The label has allergy warnings but none are for peanuts. Not only are they yummy, they're safe. Right now I'm almost 100% sure there is no way Heath would even let an egg roll touch his plate...let's just say he's a little picky. But eventually he'll get more adventurous and maybe try an egg roll!

{I must admit I was a little grossed out by one allergy warning...fish. More specifically, anchovies.}