Hello all,
Would love some insight into our experience last night... Before I start, our kiddo is fine this morning, so all's well that ends well, but I need some thoughts on how to handle it differently, if needed. I *think* we were lucky. I think we made a lot of mistakes. (Please be gentle with me, in your responses!)
DS(7) is allergic to peanuts, tree nuts, sesame and banana. We have had mystery reactions as well. He has environmental allergies and asthma to boot.
Last night, right after eating State Fair Corn Dogs (yuck, I know, but we found out they were safe for peanut/tree nut/sesame & he gets very little junk food - it's an occasional treat), and drinking apple juice - he had a sore throat, he said it felt hot. He got himself a drink and told us about it. He seemed concerned and scared, but we had just given him benadryl (for the environmental allergies) and we decided to wait and watch. He said it felt like his throat was opening and closing (I have never heard anything like this before from him - he demonstrated with his hands) and said it was hard to get a deep breath. We checked his peak flow and it had dropped 25 points from the number he had blown several hours prior, and I gave him his inhaler to be safe. He then complained of a stomach ache. There were no hives, but other than that - these are basically his usual symptoms after exposure, and we had the epipens handy. He thought it was time to dpi, but DH and I were not sure and we told him that we were going to wait and make sure.
But then... he said his arm hurt, near the shoulder, and he was acting very melodramatic, pretending to fall down and acting silly. It seemed like he was clowning around, and DS is our little actor. It was hard to tell what was going on. So we waited and watched. In the meantime, we cuddled up together and watched a movie. He said he was nauseous, but did not vomit. Again, it was hard to tell if it was his inner actor, or real.
This morning - he's fine. But there is eczema around his mouth. With that, I *do* think it was an allergic reaction. [Sigh] I think?
Would you walk me through this? What would you have done differently?
Thanks.
Oh! I am editing to add that DH had heartburn after eating the same food (!) last night, so we were also thinking that this might be heartburn, while this was happening. Just to put all the info out there.