Last Tuesday we had our appointment with the allergist to find out if Nathan is indeed allergic to peanuts. The doctor had him tested for peanuts, dust, dogs, and a few minor things (sesame and sunflower). Nathan tested positive to peanuts only, which is good and bad. We can keep Cooper and get dogs in the future, but we cannot have peanuts or any other tree nuts around until he is tested again in a few more years. Nathan's reaction was relatively mild. They had to give him the full strength dose for it to even show up on his back, but the doctor strongly encouraged us to keep him away from all nuts other than sesame and sunflower seeds since future reactions could be anaphylactic (and we will now carry EpiPens at all times). On the bright side, Nathan can have sunflower seed butter, so once I figure out where to get that, he can have ssb&js AND Sarah won't have to give up a staple meal either.
So, for those of you who might offer us any food from here on out, be prepared for a litany of questions regarding the item's contents. A few of the ingredients he can't eat or we have to be vigilant about are:
beer nuts
cold pressed peanut oil (regular peanut oil is okay, so bring on the fried turkey!)
ground nuts
mixed nuts
Nu-Nuts (?)
peanut flour (duh)
African, Chinese and Thai dishes
baked goods
candy
chili
chocolate
egg rolls
hydrolyzed plant protein
hydrolyzed vegetable protein
marzipan
nougat
I won't bother adding the stuff about tree nuts because you get the picture. One thing I did find interesting about the tree nut thing is that we can only use artifical almond extract, not the real stuff. You have to watch everything!
If you are interested in reading more about this or food allergies in general, visit http://www.foodallergy.org/
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