My son’s nut free life began shortly after his first birthday, today he is almost six years old.
At 3 months old, he developed body covered eczema, it was in masses around his face, his legs itched and it spread up and down his arms. This was our first child and our first experience with what we quickly found out to be food allergies.
We visited the pediatrician for an examination and I was asked to omit dairy from my diet, as I was still breastfeeding. This was our first attempt in finding out what was causing the eczema. His eczema improved over time, it was manageable, though to this day he still battles it on his legs.
His first birthday came around and we were referred to a pediatric allergist, who did the first skin test on our son. The skin test and blood test at 12 months old revealed not only a milk allergy, an egg and peanut allergy as well. We then followed up with a RAST test which revealed a 45 level peanut allergy.
Since then, he has grown out of the milk and egg allergy around the age of 4. This was found with another RAST test which also revealed that he had developed a tree nut allergy.
Our last RAST testing was done in Spring of 2013 and it revealed a surprising drop, with a level of 25 for peanut and 45 for tree nut.
In 2010, we had our second child, who thankfully does not have any food allergies.
My son has never experienced a peanut allergy reaction. We have been avoiding peanuts and tree nuts every day of his life since the year 2008. My son was lucky to have the allergy testing done to find out about the peanut and tree nut allergy, rather than ending up in the ER with a reaction.
I started Nut Allergy Mom to connect with other parents who are living a life with peanut and tree nut allergies, to share recipes that we love and share product finds that have helped to make our lives easier. My son’s journey is also many other’s, with the support and awareness of food allergies, my goal is to help making life easier to live in the world of nuts.