Food Allergies

When I started this blog, I had one child with autism, and an infant baby girl. Well, Amelia is now almost 18 months old and turning into a little firecracker toddler. Before she was born, I was worried about her increased risk of having autism. It didn't take long for me to figure out that she was NOT autistic. She is about as "typical" as they come in a lot of respects. I was definitely not, however, expecting her to have food allergies. I know that food allergies are on the rise, but as with anything unexpected, I didn't think my child would be one of the statistics.

One Sunday morning (November 3rd, 2013), Amelia was demanding my toast which had peanut butter on it. While I don't always give in to her demands, I was feeling particularly awed by her cuteness at that moment, and decided that since I considered her at low risk for a peanut allergy, it would be fine to try it. I gave her 2 or 3 bites of my toast and within 5 minutes she got red, angry hives all over her chin. We went to the emergency room and were discharged after 3 hours without incident; her reaction didn't progress into anything more than hives. We've since been to a pediatric allergist and her tests (both blood and skin) came back as reactive to walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, and almonds in addition to peanuts. We also suspect that she's allergic to sunflower seeds/oil or something else that is commonly in processed foods but not required to be labelled because it's not a common allergen. We'll be finding out more about that as time goes on.

All in all and so far, having a child with food allergies is not nearly as challenging as raising a child with autism. The feelings I had when Amelia first had a reaction to peanuts was similar to the feelings I had when I first discovered that Alex had autism, but they were not nearly as intense, and lasted only a tiny fraction of the time. I would consider that short time period more as an adjustment than as a major life change. I had some of those long-term thoughts about how my daughter's life is going to be with food allergies; she is going to have to read every label and ask questions at every restaurant for the rest of her life. We never eat at McDonald's so when we were traveling for Christmas and stopped there because it was the only option, I asked so I could be sure their fry oil wasn't blended with peanut oil. I was pretty sure of the answer, but I wanted to be totally confident. When I asked the girl at the register, she looked at me like I had two heads (and proceeded to ask the manager to answer my question.) That's not the only example of feeling that I'm inconveniencing or annoying a server at a restaurant by asking questions. It's okay, though; I've long gotten over caring that people can't be accepting of my children. That is the least of my worries. Clearly, it's more important to me that my children are happy, get their needs met, and, well, survive by not eating things they're allergic to!

Amelia's food allergies, so far, have not been life-threatening. I'm well aware that any subsequent exposure to allergens can increase the reaction and she could have a more severe reaction any time. So just as our family has made adjustments for Alex's needs, we have to make adjustments for Amelia's. And just as we're in the beginning stages of our journey with Alex, we are in the beginning of our journey with Amelia. God willing, I will have many fun, hopeful, and beautiful years with these wonderful, special children I've been blessed with, no matter what difficulties present themselves along the way.

Good News

I wanted to write an update about my husband's job situation. It turns out, he had every reason to be optimistic; he got a great job offer just a little over a week after being laid off. The new employer offers insurance plans from the same company we had before so we are greatly relieved. His commute is much shorter which is also good news. This adds about 2 hours back into his day that he used to spend commuting! Now that the job change is behind us, I can look back and conclude that we're better for it. The lay-off was stressful, particularly because of the timing, but it worked out that Michael got some extra "vacation" time at Christmas so he was able to relax and not worry about work at all for about 3 weeks. If I think about it, I can actually be thankful for the timing. Most importantly, none of Alex's services were disrupted and we were able to transfer everything to our new insurance plan without much hassle. I'm fully aware of how lucky and blessed we've been that things worked out so well in this stressful situation. Therefore, I'm starting the new year with a positive attitude and lot of hope for 2014!

Back To Routine

The dust is settling from Christmas vacation. Alex's time off from school was extended due to snow days so he ended up being out of school for more than 2 weeks. We traveled to upstate New York to visit my family and then had family visit us for a little over a week. By the end of the vacation, Alex's vocal stim (growling, squeaking, humming) had become constant during his waking hours. Last week he was back to school for the whole week and today, Monday, was the first day he has stopped squeaking and humming constantly. What a relief. That sound can really grate on one's nerves after a while. The sound itself is a little annoying but it's more the knowing that my little guy isn't himself part that bugs me. When he's making those sounds, it can be almost impossible to break through the shell and communicate with him. Where he would normally easily answer a question such as "would you like juice or milk?", I have to ask him several times and he may or may not be able to answer me. He can't tell me what doesn't feel right but I know that he is disregulated and that makes me feel so sad, especially when I try to do all I know to help him and nothing appears to make a difference. It's tough because is regression and reminds me how far we still have to go before I can have that back and forth conversation with Alex that I've longed for. It's times like this that I am so grateful for routine!