A Nutty Day

Some of our loyal readers may have picked up on the fact that we have a loose schedule of rotating blog posts among the builders. Well, today is my day, and I have spent most of it in a 10'x6' doctors office with a 3 year old and a baby, so my brain is pretty fried at this point. This is not the post I had planned to write, but I will be happy if I can put together full sentences.

Today we had Dash's "peanut challenge". He had a reaction the first time he ate peanut butter, and tested very positive to a peanut allergy. His last skin test was shockingly negative, so the next step was to have him ingest peanut protein in increasing amounts in a controlled setting while his vital signs were constantly monitored to see if he is in the 15% of kids that do outgrow their peanut allergies. The great news is that he passed! He had absolutely no reaction to the peanut flour.

Here are some reflections on the day:

1. They tell you to bring something that your child will eat to a food challenge to mix with the allergic food. I made one of Dash's favorite desserts, homemade chocolate custard (or pots de creme). As soon as the door closed I realized I might regret bringing something made with both sugar and caffeine as we would be confined to our room for the next 5 hours.

2. However, caffeine for mom is definitely a plus in this situation.

3. It is possible to hold a crying 3 year old while feeding a baby simultaneously.

4. Someone needs to invent blood pressure cuffs for toddlers that work on the first try.

5. I never thought I would even consider a request to color on the baby. Request was denied, but I did consider the ideas merits (namely, distraction for a stir crazy 3 year old) for a moment.

6. Foam stickers shaped like bugs are worth their weight in gold.

7. Ample time to reflect on why my household of 3 small men was sent an American Girl catalog.

8. I have more patience than I thought I did.

9. Upon returning home and (momentarily) having three children sleeping simultaneously, I feel I deserve to eat something made from sugar and caffeine.