Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Allergic Reaction

Poor Olivia. Today she tried cashew butter (as opposed to peanut butter), with terrible results. For the past month or so, she's been eating almond butter sandwiches nearly every day. She LOVES them. Yesterday her almond butter ran dry. I decided to give cashew butter a try...her cousin Leah loves (loved? Does she still eat it?) the stuff, and I was curious.

Well, at lunchtime I smeared a thin layer of it on her natural wheat bread, as usual, and she inhaled it, saying, "Mmm!" But before she even finished it, her face began to break out in huge, red blotches. Instinctively, I wiped her hands and face clean with a washcloth. By the time that was done, her chubby little face had swollen a bit, and the blotches were raised up a little. Not grotesque, but noticeable to me, the mommy. I put her into the tub and called the doc's office. She didn't really act abnormally at all, except to rub at her eyes a few times. I think they probably felt tight and itchy. I called Nate and had him pick up some Children's Benadryl on his way home, per the nurse's order. I kept rinsing her and rinsing her, and she was pretty fussy by this time. And WOW, those blotches! Fiery red.
I diapered and shirted her, combed her hair, and then she magically started to look better. By the time Nate got home--which was probably only 10 minutes--her blotches were just pink. We gave her the medicine anyway (first medicine she's ever had), and 10 minutes later, she was good as new! True to Benadryl form, she got drowsy really quickly and went down for an early nap. :)
All is well. But she won't be trying cashew butter anymore. Too bad for her. I tried some, and it's great! :)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Scary! Yes, Leah has inhaled several cashew butter sandwiches, this week alone. Just recently tried almond butter -- not as excited about that one. Her reaction sounds like Leah's strawberry and peanut reactions. I didn't have anything to give her, and the hives and swelling passed very quickly. (not too quickly for me though) Apparently, you can wait a while (until after she's two?) to see if the allergy has phased out. I guess we won't be serving Livvie cashew butter sandwiches with the crusts cut off at our next tea party! Hope you guys are all doing well. How's the editing job sound to you so far? p.s. Go Tea Tree! =) I put that on Leah's bright red bum after several attempts at conventional stuff didn't work.

Karen said...

Ugh. I'll be so glad when all the food fear has passed.
Til then, almond butter sandwiches for Livvie at ALL tea parties!