No Nuts!

At Ryan's 2 year appointment we got the all-clear to try peanut butter for the first time. Peanut butter is one of those food items that they really urge parents to hold off on due to how common allergic reactions are these days. So Jeff and I put a tiny amount of PB onto a saltine cracker and gave it to Ryan. Within moments he was vomiting and acting strange. He got bumps/hives on his neck and upper part of his chest. After a dose of Benadryl, a trip to the ER and a blood draw from our pediatrician we discovered that Ryan has a level 4 peanut allergy (he is also allergic to pine nuts and pistachios). He is not allowed to have any type of nuts at all. In addition, he is not allowed to have any type of food that *could* have come into contact with any type of nuts. Things you wouldn't necessarily think about are now not allowed, even some things that he has had before.

There is a 20% chance that he will outgrow the allergy. Jeff and I were totally surprised that Ryan had the allergy as we do not have a history of allergies of any kind in our families.