Peanut Butter: Benched

Its been a few days since the last post and sadly, things have taken a bit of a turn. Peanut butter has been benched for the time being and here is why.

It seemed like every time she would have it for a few days in a row, odd "symptoms" would start to build--- blowouts with coffee grounds, reflux flares, etc. Well, last week it seemed like those were dying down and I thought maybe, just maybe, she was adjusting. This past Friday I found a handful of bug bite looking bumps on B (about the size of a small baked bean, white with red rim) on her wrists and one on her tummy. Odd, I thought. Bugs? In winter? She was itching quite a bit and had a rash on her legs (her typical mild "reaction" rash--- sandpaper like and red, with tiny bumps). But her skin has been pretty up and down this winter (climate change from Japan maybe?) so I just put some hydrocortisone and aquaphor on her and didn't think much more about it.

Everything was gone in the AM on Saturday. She was pretty itchy all day Saturday but when I was getting her ready for her bath after dinner, I saw that she had more bumps (the large bug bite looking kind)-- about 10-20 on her torso. She also had a few on each wrist and a very bad diaper rash anywhere her poo had touched. She had deep scratch marks on her bottom, legs and torso, and on the back of her neck it looked like she had scratched a couple of bumps open, as they were red with dried blood. Hives was my first thought. Again, I applied the hydrocortisone and aquaphor on any of the irritated area. And this time we gave her benadryl-- something that we have surprisingly never had to do! So we happily found out that liquid benadryl is a safe med for her and that she is one of those kids that is knocked out by it. She cried out in her sleep much of the night, but stayed asleep.

The next morning, the large bumps were gone and most of the sandpapery rash was too. I put her in a close fitting outfit for the road (we were travelling) to see if the clothes/detergent were causing the rashes. No peanut butter that day because of the traveling. We saw no rash, no hive-looking things, no itching, all day, even in the warm car.

Monday (yesterday), we gave her PB again and she was itchy all day, had a few blow outs, and her diaper rash was so bad by the end of the day that she was completely beside herself when we cleaned her at night. Again with the creams. . . and this AM, everything had cleared. No PB today and you guessed it: no itching, no blow outs, no rash.

So here is the plan. We are still waiting to hear from the allergist about what he thinks we should do. Until we hear back, we are shelving that delicious food. :( She has an appointment in just over a month and I figure we can see if they will run an allergy test on peanuts at that time and hopefully, everything will be fine and we can reintroduce slowly. If the doc feels like it is something that we could continue with, we will try again. I am hoping it is a fluke but right now. . . I just don't know.

Anyways, unless the doc advises otherwise, as soon as we are no longer snowed in (another reason not to push a questionable food!!!) B and I will take a jaunt to Whole Foods for some yummy papaya-- our next trial. If that goes well, chocolate may be on the horizon!! Hopefully we will rebound and get a few more sure passes before B's 2nd bday!!!!