Allergy appointment (a.k.a. morning from hell)

Took Amelia to her annual allergy appointment today at Mount Sinai in NYC, along with baby John (who at under five months old, hasn't eaten a thing yet other than breastmilk). Amelia was fine until it came time for the various allergy tests. Her dad took her in (I was still in the other exam room with John, nursing) and Amelia started yelling during the SPT (skin prick tests) about how it "burned." At least the nurse was able to finish the test (which, btw, showed that Amelia is still allergic to milk, has about a 50/50 chance of having outgrown her soy allergy, is not allergic to sesame anymore (we think), is barely allergic to peanut (!!), and can safely eat chickpeas and lentils).

Sadly, we cannot confirm any of that that with blood tests, because the second the nurse pulled out the needle Amelia started screaming so loudly that I heard her from down on the other end of the floor of a major hospital. I guess she screamed, thrashed, fought and just freaked out so much no blood was drawn, so... . Sigh.

The upshot is Dr. Sicherer, our allergist, thinks we should do a soy challenge in his office, where we give her small amounts of soy over the course of a few hours and watch her carefully for any reactions. His office is super backed up so it will probably be a few months before we can do one, but that's about that for now.




I was really bummed about the Amelia'ss appointment, maybe more than I needed to be, frankly. We go there just once a year and the data from these tests is so helpful, and now we only have 1/2 of what we need to find out what kind of progress she may have made. That's the valid part, but the part I wouldn't admit as casually is that I am worried that Amelia is going through such a rough time. If she gets a minor cut or scrape she gets hysterical, and the sound of her screaming when she gets her hair washed would have people walking by our house think we were beating her. I wish I could figure out how to make this easier on her (and on us) and I'm fearing she'll always be this worked up about stuff she is scared of. Looking back on my own childhood, my biggest regret is that I let fear stop me from doing fun things -- kid stuff, like going on a roller coaster, or diving off a diving board in to a pool -- but things that make a childhood thrilling. For Amelia, I believe it's a combination of being three, being her (sometimes a sensitive kid), and the final whammy; having a new baby in the house. That perfect storm is creating a very cute, very small monster. Think Tasmanian Devil.






In better news, John's SPT to egg, soy and dairy were negative, which is a positive sign that (I think?) he may not struggle with the same food allergies as his sister, or if he does they will be less severe. Maybe he'll have a few (like, nuts, whatever) but hopefully he'll dodge the full list that she's dealing with. I'd know more but Amelia was still crying and upset during the final talk with Dr. Sicherer so I didn't get to ask some of the questions I meant to. Hey, I can always e-mail him, at least.

In "big picture" news I have two healthy children that I love very much and a great husband who really tried to help out today (even more than normal) when he saw how frazzled I was getting. (Did I mention John chose last night to wake up every two hours from bedtime to wake-up? Argh!) But for now, I'm a bit off my game and have to try to relax a bit, and let Amelia feel anxious if she needs to, even if it's hard for me to do that.