Hazel's Allergies

A couple of weeks ago when we went camping with family we started to notice some bad rashes on our little Hazel's face.  We couldn't quite pinpoint what was causing it, so we figured it was just something out in nature that was irritating her face.

A week later back at home I tried to give Hazel a peanut butter sandwich and she spit it right out, and immediately got a rash on her face again.  I started thinking back on other peanut encounters she's had in her short life and realized that maybe we had a peanut allergy problem.

My sister Leslie's little boy has peanut allergies and when I asked her how she found out about them, his symptoms seemed very familiar to Hazel's.  We decided it would be best to take her to the allergist.   Better safe then sorry.

After doing a "scratch test" on Hazel's back they discovered that she is allergic to peanuts, and mildly allergic to eggs.  They prescribed an Epi-pen for her and said to avoid peanuts all together and watch her to make sure she doesn't have a reaction to eggs.

Hazel has never been a fan of baked goods.  Cookies, cakes, brownies, all get spit back out with no interest.  She has never really eaten a lot of products with egg in it.  The egg allergy wasn't too much of a surprise.  It just didn't taste right to her.

So, as scary and inconvenient as this discovery is, thank goodness we learned about it sooner than later.  Grocery shopping has taken a lot longer since I have to check all the labels (anything with traces of peanuts or manufactured in a plant that processes peanuts are out of the question).   But the worst part is educating other people on her allergy.  I know that she is safe in our house, it's other people that I worry about.  Peanut traces on kids hands at nursery, or an adult who hands her a piece of candy without asking me.  We have to carry her Epi-Pen with us wherever we go, just in case she goes into anaphylactic shock.  Babysitters.....birthday parties....it's something we'll never be able to stop worrying about. 

I know we'll make it and she'll grow up being a happy little girl.  A lot of children have allergies these days and they are doing okay.  It's just one of those "it will never happen to us" moments that we need to accept.