First Day is Here

Today was Big Guy's first day of kindergarten!

Wow!

And no one cried! Hurrah. Well, I lied. His little brother cried because he knew he was going to daycare all day and that his brother was getting picked up BEFORE lunch -- curses, 2 1/2 hour kindergarten. Oh well. Life is not fair. Get used to it, even at age 3.

Here is Big Guy before we left for school.

And below is Big Guy in line at his new school. Look at those cute kids!

He had a good time. He even said he is EXCITED to go tomorrow. Hallelujah! I'll enjoy that while it lasts.

After school, I took him out for lunch where I got the call at Little Guy's school that he was throwing up. Aghhhhh! So, we hightailed it out of lunch and raced to daycare. Sure enough, he was breaking out in hives and threw up for a third time as we were trying to leave the class.

The cook tried to make something different for him ... an englifh muffin, tomato sauce and sausage pizza. When we got home Little Guy said the teacher gave him cow's milk ... but I don't entirely trust that statement. His teacher is very good and I think it is more likely that Little Guy saw her pouring milk from the "special pitcher" and thought it was cow's milk, but you never know!

Anyway, when we got home I gave him a dose of Benadryl, put some anti-itch cream on his hives and let him sleep it off.

I did call the daycare and said that I thought we should try a new approach ... find 5-6 meals that we KNOW are safe and rotate between those for Little Guy. I know the cook is trying his best, but it can be SO hard. We get reactions at home that are a mystery, so why make the poor cook -- who is trying to feed a hundred other kids -- try to decode food for my kid.

I also may have them give Little Guy juice for lunch for a while. It won't kill him. He drinks lots of soy milk at home. This way there is NO chance of someone accidentally giving him cow's milk (not that I'm saying that happened here).

So, Little Guy did get to come home after lunch like his brother, but certainly not under the best circumstances. These allergies, sometimes they really drive me nuts!!!!!! (Pun INTENDED!)

But, back to Big Guy, he ate his goldfish snack at school with no problems. He had a fun first day. Whew!

Another Call

10 minutes ago ...

Ring Ring

Me: Hello

Little Guy's teacher: Hi. Little Guy grabbed another child's vanilla wafer today and just ate a bite. Do you want me to give him benadryl?

Me: (inward groan) Can you get a look at the ingredients first? They might just be all sugar. If you can't get the ingredients, go ahead and give him a dose ... lord knows he gets enough of it. But be forewarned he might barf.

Little Guy's teacher: I know he did before. I'm really sorry I don't know how he grabbed that cookie so quick.

Me: It's okay. He did the same thing to me the other day. He grabbed a piece of muenster cheese from his brother. I immediately yelled at him to spit it out. So, at most he swallowed a piece the size of a half a dime. But still, 10 minutes later he barfed.

Little Guy's teacher: Okay, I'll check the box and call you back.

5 minutes later .... Ring Ring

Little Guy's teacher: So far he is okay, but the cookies did have milk in it so I gave him the benadryl.

Me: Good. Hopefully he'll be okay. I'll be there soon.

Wish me luck!!!!!

Bad things come in threes

Ugh, Little Guy has had 3 allergic reactions to food in the last 5 days. Here's how it all went down:

Friday: he must have eaten a couple Doritos when our friends were over because next thing I know I look over and he is rubbing his eyes so hard I thought they might pop out! Next thing I know his whole left side of his face is swelling up. Give him a teaspoon of Children's Benadryl and hold a wet cloth to his eyes. After about 15 minutes he was feeling better, eating soy icecream and back to running around in the backyard.

Sunday: He eats a cinnamon crunch bagel at Panera and 4 bites later, he is scratching those eyes again! I asked to see the ingredient list and teaspoon of Benadryl and hold a wet cloth with eyes in it to his eyes. After a three hour power nap, he is fine.

Tuesday: Off he goes to day care. At 12 p.m. I get a call, "Little Guy threw up. Can you come and get him?" When I get there they are holding him and he is calm and relatively okay, but the hives came out right after I hung up with them -- on his face, wrists and stomach. They gave him a teaspoon of Benadryl and he was already better by the time I got there.

What could he have eaten???? I check with his teachers, it doesn't seem like he ate anything he shouldn't have. I checked the label on the bread (the same bread he has eaten many times there). It says in the label "may contain milk products" -- but there isn't a milk product listed it in the ingredients. I guess that was it. But as usual, it's a guessing game - a crap shoot.

Aghh! I took him home and he was fine. I called the allergist and she suggested I put him on a daily does of Claritin for a couple weeks to help "calm down his system." He is now more sensitive to any little allergen because all those histamines are coursing through his body. So things he can normally deal with are causing reactions. It makes it sorta scary to feed him!

But no calls so far from the day care. Thank goodness. I checked the menu carefully today, talked to the cook and told him (and the teacher) what Little Guy could and could not eat.

I saw this study on the Allergy Mom's blog and I agree that while the milk allergy is not "ruining our life," it does add to the daily stress of life. I am pretty used to it (in fact, yesterday the allergist told me I was handling it well and not freaking out) and luckily, don't have to deal with breathing issues, but once in a while I see a kid sit down and eat anything on the table and think, "WOW, that mom is sooo lucky!"

Can he eat a hamburger bun?

Little Guy started daycare this week with Big Guy. In addition to the fears that he will cry and wail and give me the deathgrip when I try to leave him there, I get to worry about if they will remember NOT to give him the cheese tortellini or the muffin at snack time.

I get to fax documents back and forth to the doctor that give them permission to stick him with the epi-pen if he eats the wrong thing and goes into anaphylaxic shock. And more documents that allow them to give him benadryl.

But I am lucky, one of the reasons we chose this center for Big Guy is how well they handle food allergies. They post a picture of him in the room with a list of his food allergies so if a new teacher comes in the room she can see immediatley what his issues are. The whole school is nut-free, so I don't have to worry about peanuts in anything. And they have special menu items for kids with food allergies or who are vegetarians. But still .... I worry.

The teacher even called me at lunch yesterday to ask, "Can he eat a hamburger bun?" I told her it should be fine, but I knew there was a teeny-tiny chance there was egg in the bun. But since 90 percent of the buns I've looked at in the past four years, don't have egg in them, I hoped it would be okay.

And really, these things can creep up at the weirdest times, when you think you have done everything right. Like when Karen's son had a reaction to a tiny bit of egg on his hands. So, if it can happen to the mom, it can happen at school when I am miles and miles away.

And my Little Guy, like Sarah's Katherine, will learn this is just part of who he is. But it is another thing to worry about. And I totally agree with Sarah when she says that caring for your child is a privilege, not a chore, but you have to admit it is one more thing to worry about.

But, really, look at that face? How could you NOT want to do whatever you need to to keep him safe.
And we all know, that every mom worries. And every mom has something to deal with with their kid. It might be lots of ear infections and having to get tubes in their ears. It might be a delay in speech. It might be a wicked temper. Everyone has something, right?

The Pseudo Vegetarian

Okay, today I got an email from Big Guy's day care center (where he goes two days a week) with tips on what peanut-free snacks parents can bring in. The center is peanut-free so they are trying to help people out with some ideas because (apparently) some people can't exist without those pesky legumes.

Before I share the list (which by the way, about 50 percent of the things on it my kids can't eat because of all their other allergies ... sigh), I want to share a funny story about what recently happened to him at his day care as a result of his allergies.

At this day care they feed him lunch and a snack. I usually ask Big Guy what he ate for lunch and he was often telling me "I had beans and a tortilla, mommy. But everyone else had chicken." Oooo-kay, I thought. I guessed the chicken was breaded and had egg in it so they didn't give it to him.

After a couple weeks of this, the teacher asked me, "Can he eat chicken? I'm just wondering because the kitchen doesn't give it to him, but I gave him some because I thought he could eat it." I asked her if it was breaded. "Nope, just grilled chicken," she answered.

Well, we figured out that the kitchen misread his card about his food restrictions and thought he was a VEGETARIAN! And so all he got were beans!!!! Jeez! Poor kid already can't eat a lot of the things the other kids eat and now he can't eat meat either AND he is loaded up with the toot food!

So, a big thanks to the teacher who caught it and helped fix the mistaken identity Big Guy had with the day care kitchen.

Anyway, back to the list of peanut-free snacks for those who are lucky enough to only have ONE food allergy ....

Cereal/Bars:

General Mills

• Cinnamon Toast Crunch
• Kix, Berry Berry Kix
• Lucky Charms
• Rice Chex, Corn Chex, Wheat Chex
• Trix
• Kellogg’s

Cereals: Corn Pops, Crispix, Fruit Loops, Post Alpha Bits, Quaker Cap ‘N Crunch

Nutri-Grain: Apple, Blueberry, Raspberry
Nutri-Grain Twist: Banana & Strawberry, Strawberries & Cream

Post
Honey Combs

Cheese/Dairy:
Sargento
Mootown Snacks- Cheeze & Pretzels, Cheeze & Crackers, Cheeze & Sticks

Yogurt
Go-Gurt, Drinkables

Other Cheeses -- Sliced, cubed, shredded, string cheese, cream cheese, spreads, dips

Crackers/Chips/Cookies:

• Austin
• Zoo Animal Crackers
• Betty Crocker
• Cinnamon Graham Cookies
• Dunk Aroos
• Sprinkled Vanilla Frosting

Frito Lay

• Cheetos- Crunch, Zigzag, Puffs
• Rold Gold Pretzels
• Sun Chips- Original, Sour Cream, Cheddar, Classic, Flavored

General Mills

• Bugles- Original
• Keebler
• Bite Size Snackin Grahams- Cinnamon, Chocolate
• Elf Grahams- Honey, Cinnamon
• Fudge Stripes Shortbread Cookies
• Golden Vanilla Wafers
• Grasshopper Mint Cookies
• New Rainbow Vanilla Wafers
• Munch’ems- Sour Cream & Onion, Original, Ranch, Cheddar
• Snack Stix
• Sugar Wafers
• Toasteds- Wheat, Buttercrisp
• Town House Classic Crackers
• Wheatables- Original, Honey Wheat, Seven Grain

Kraft

• Handi-Snacks- Cheez ‘N Crackers, Apple Dippers, Cheez ‘N Pretzels
• Handi-Snacks Teddy Grahams- Honey, Chocolate

Nabisco

• Air Crisps
• Potato- Sour Cream & Onion, Ranch, Barbeque, Cheddar
• Pretzel- Original
• Ritz- Original
• Wheat Thins- Original, Ranch
• Barnum Animal Crackers
• Cheddar Sportz
• Cheese Nips
• Dizzy Grizzlies- Vanilla Frosted, Chocolate Frosted
• Graham Crackers- Honey Maid, Cinnamon, Chocolate
• Newtons- Fig, Cobblers, Raspberry, Apple
• Ritz Crackers- Original
• Saltine Crackers
• Teddy Cheddy
• Teddy Grahams- Cinnamon, Chocolate Chip, Chocolate, Honey
• Triscuits, Triscuit Thin Crisps
• Wheat Thins
• Old Dutch
• Baked Cheez Curls

Chips

• Crunchy Curls
• Pretzels
• Pepperidge Farm
• Butter Thins
• Goldfish- any flavor
• Goldfish Graham Snacks- Honey, Cinnamon, Golden
• Pringles - Any Flavor
• Sunshine
• Big Cheez-It
• Cheez It- Regular, Reduced Fat
• Hi Ho Crackers- Regular, Reduced Fat

Fruit:

• Fresh-Apples, Bananas, Oranges
• Packaged Fruit- Apple Sauce, Apple Sauce Mix, Diced Pears, Peaches, Raisins, Mandarin Oranges
• Fruit Snacks- Fruit Roll Ups, Fruit by the Foot, Fun Fruit

Jell-O and Pudding Snacks:

Popcorn:

• Barrel O’Fun
• Corn Pops (No Kernels)
• Frito Lay
• Cheddar Cheese
• Chester’s Popcorn Butter
• Old Dutch Popcorn
• Carmel PuffCorns, Cheddar, White, White Cheddar

Vegetables:
Fresh Carrot Sticks, Celery Sticks


Special Treats:
Cakes/Cupcakes
Cub Foods Bakery, Kowalski’s Bakery, Sam’s Club Bakery White, Chocolate, Marble Cakes


Candy:
Air Heads
Rolos
Dum Dum Pops
Runts
Gum Drops
Shock Tarts
Hershey Kisses-Milk Chocolate, Extra Creamy
Sixlets
Jolly Ranchers
Skittles
Junior Mints
Smarties
Life Savers
Spree
Lollipops
Starburst
Mike & Ikes
Sugar Babies
Milk Duds
Sweet Tarts
Nerds
Tootsie Pops
Oompas
Tootsie Rolls
Ring Pops
Twizzlers

Cookies/Donuts:

• Cub Foods Bakery
• Donuts/Donut Holes- Glazed, Powdered Sugar, Sugar
• Sugar Cookies
• Kowalski’s Bakery
• Iced Sugar Cookies
• Donut Holes- Plain, Glazed

IceCream/Frozen Treats:

• Edy’s
• Whole Fruit Bars
• FlaVorice- Freezies
• Good Humor Popsicles
• Sherbet Cyclone
• Icee- Squeeze up tubes
• Italian Ice

Kemps

• Fudge Bars- Regular and Junior Size
• Ice Cream Bars
• Ice Cream Cups
• Ice Cream Sandwiches- Regular, Mint Chocolate Chip
• Twin Pops- Any Flavor
• What’s Up Orange Sherbet Treats
• Klondike
• Oreo Ice Cream Sandwiches

Minute Maid

• Soft Frozen Lemonade
• Polar Express
• Ice Cream Sandwiches