A Little Miracle

We discovered Riley's strawberry allergy just after her first birthday, when we went berry picking with some friends and she broke out in a rash all over her body the following day. We had reason to suspect a peanut allergy when she had a reaction a couple of months later. That one was confirmed last spring when we tested her by feeding her increasing amounts of peanut butter over a couple of days.

Avoiding certain foods is easy in our home, and I didn't worry about snacks in preschool because her teachers were very cautious. But as Riley gets older, I have realized that avoiding those foods when she's out of my supervision is going to get tricky. I won't always be able to prevent "accidents" from happening: if a generous friend shares a snack with her, or if she eats at someone else's home where a "safe" food has been cross-contaminated. While she's old enough to tell people about her allergy, and she knows to avoid strawberries and peanuts, she isn't old enough to read ingredient labels, or always recognize when those foods are included in what she is eating.

After one such cross-contamination incident I had a little melt-down at the reality of what her life was going to be like. It didn't help that I made a new friend about the same time whose husband has an anaphylactic reaction to peanuts, and she shared stories with me of how he is affected by his allergy on a regular basis. Riley's four-year check-up with our pediatrician came within a week of that incident and resulting melt-down, and I shared my concerns with her. She referred us to an allergist for testing.

Riley had skin tests for nine different foods. Strawberries and peanuts, of course, plus shellfish (because of a family history), and six more that are common allergens. The good news from this test is that she has outgrown the strawberry allergy! On our way home we stopped by the grocery store for fresh strawberries and strawberry ice cream for the Strawberry Party we had that evening.

The bad news is that she is allergic to sunflower seeds, which we didn't know about before. But that's a fairly easy one to avoid. Unfortunately the peanut test was inconclusive. On a scale of 0-5, a reaction of 3 or higher is considered a allergic reaction. They measured Riley's reaction to peanuts as a 2. So they sent us to the lab for a blood test. The results from that were lower than expected for someone with a peanut allergy. So we went back to the allergist for another test, this time an "oral challenge." Riley ate increasing amounts of peanut butter in 20 minute increments, with a nurse checking for a reaction after each dose. She got up to the 1 tablespoon dose with no reaction!

I was skeptical. The allergist confirmed that about 25% of kids with a peanut allergy outgrow it. I didn't know if I didn't believe it because it seemed too good to be true, or if my doubt was some sort of mother's instinct that I should listen to. But I was warned by the allergist that if she isn't exposed to peanuts, her body could re-sensitize itself, so she should eat them in small amounts on a regular basis: at least a couple times a week.

So I cautiously fed her small amounts of peanut butter a couple of days later, again with no reaction. I continued to give her a little bit every few days, and she continued to be fine. Since then she has eaten a fair share of pb&js, chicken satay, peanut butter granola bars, etc. So I'm finally confident in saying that Riley is peanut-allergy-free! And after the panic I had felt just a couple of weeks before coming to this conclusion, I consider this a huge blessing from the Lord. Maybe even a little miracle!