Monday: wear black to school, Tuesday: wear orange, Wednesday: wear Halloween costume for Halloween party and bring in assigned treats, Thursday: wear Halloween socks (who has those, anyway?), Friday: wear Halloween shirt. It's madness! They're two for goodness sake!
Nevertheless, I will be up baking into the night so that Colin has special treats to take to the party! Special, ALLERGY-FREE treats, that is. I can't really expect other parents to meet our expectations for food requirements so I always try to bring in something that is safe for Colin to enjoy!
People often ask us how we figured out that Colin even had food allergies. It didn't take long, really. Even though I was nursing, he had had chronic eczema from the time he was born. My pediatrician kept giving me prescriptions for a steroid cream. I was going through tubes of the stuff! The eczema would clear up and then come right back. He had it mainly on his face, as you can see in the pictures, but also on his shoulders and back which he would scratch until he bled. It was awful!
Look at those red cheeks! I feel awful just looking at them
In May of 2009, when Colin was about 7 months old, we took a trip to Michigan and stopped at a friend's house on the way back. After playing with their dog, Colin looked like this:
We knew then that something was wrong. When we got back in town, I scheduled an appointment with a Cincinnati allergist, Dr. Ann Ghory (we LOVE her!) and had them conduct a round of allergy testing. Since he was so young, they only tested for the top 8 most common food allergies and dogs, of course. Allergy testing is not a fun experience. The nurse comes in and pricks their little back with needles containing a drop of each individual allergen. And if the pricks weren't enough, every time there is a reaction, a large red, itchy bump pops up at the injection spot. Not comfortable at all for an 8 month old. Needless to say, the results were nothing short of shocking- EGG, WHEAT/GLUTEN, SOY, PEANUT allergies!
In case you didn't know wheat and soy are in a LOT of foods. It's been an interesting journey. If anything, it has made us better eaters! I will have to get into the nitty-gritty of how we manage Colin's allergies day-to-day, this has already gone on far too long! Back to baking it is!
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