Jack's Allergy Story

When my son was 11 months old, I made him a snack. It was a piece of bread with a very thin layer of peanut butter on it. Very thin because, of course, I didn't want him to choke. The bread was then cut into nice baby sized pieces. I thought "What a nice healthy snack". I was watching him carefully because I know that peanut butter is sticky, but I wasn't worried. And he had no problem to any other food so far. He ate it just fine and I took him out of the high chair to give him some juice. It was then that I noticed this strange sort of redness on his chin. "That's wierd", I thought. My husband had just called me on the phone and we were talking when Jack threw up. I had just finished cleaning him up when he threw up again. I threw him in the tub and still remember his poor sad face looking up at me as if saying, "Mommy, fix this." After that he would go on to throw up more (5 times in all) and he started turning bright red from head to toe. I called the nurse who told me to give him some Benedryl and then she said something that I still can't believe. "Tomorrow you can try to give him some more peanut butter and if it happens again we'll know he's allergic." (What??!!??) As soon as I got off the phone I realized I never was told how much Benadryl to give him. I never could get back a hold of a nurse. I'd put in a call and it would take forever to get a call back. By this time the poor little guy was so miserable. Just laying his head on our shoulders, not really responding to our attempts to cheer him up. We finally took him in to Urgent Care and by the time we were seen he seemed to be feeling better. The doctor promptly prescribed an epi pen and said don't give him peanuts. That was pretty much it. Well, I hit the internet the next day and what I learned absolutely scared me to death. I learned he could die from this. It took me a long time to get used to what life was going to be like now. Praise the Lord, he has not had one reaction since then. Not one! I don't live in constant fear anymore. He is so very careful and responsible about not eating things without checking with us first. Our families have been great about making things safe for him. Knowing what we know now though, we should've taken him to the hospital that night. And I been a bolder person, I would've mentioned to the doctor the potentially very dangerous advice the nurse had given me on the phone. So that's Jack's story about his allergy. We take each situation as it comes now and continue to trust the Lord to guide us in each one.