Shake Your Peanut!

Disney channel has a show called Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. In one of the shows they are trying to get an elephant out of a tree by shaking a peanut at it and doing a little dance with the peanut. I have to say the over protective side of me has always disliked it because it like several other kid shows have characters playing with peanuts and there are so many kids with peanut allergies these days that I felt it sort of irresponsible. Regardless and apologies for my preachiness on this one I couldn't think of a better title for this post but wanted to not make light of peanut allergies.

With that said, Bug is NOT allergic to peanuts!!!!

He went to Hopkins yesterday for his peanut challenge and though I kept waiting and waiting for a reaction, it never happened. He had to eat less than 2 tablespoons of peanut butter over a little over and hour. I made peanut butter icing on cupcakes for him and that's what he chose to eat (I also had cookie dough, pasta for mixing peanut powder, oreos, you get the point). His first bite was tiny, about the size of a pink finger nail. As the size increased and time passed it was harder to get him to eat, but I had been advised that this would be an excellent occasion for bribery.  Before Roo and I got to Grandma and Grandpa's on Monday, we stopped and got Bug a bunch of small gifts or as Bug called them yesterday, prizes. Roo was an awesome helper and Bug was excited about the prizes.

Hopkins is really an amazing place. From the moment you arrive until you leave, everybody is happy and helpful, even down to the cleaning staff who upon seeing a large sheet covering the floor and were concerned we were covering up vomit were sensitive to what was going on. Luckily, the sheet was on the floor for Bug to play on!  The staff was great the entire time and what an amazing moment when the nurse walked in and said, "so, he's not allergic to peanut." Amazing!

Peanut was always a tricky one for us. He never skin tested positive but at an early age (3 months) skin tested positive for a tree nut (almond). Because of the cross contamination between the various nuts we were told to avoid all tree nuts and peanuts. He did always have a positive RAST for peanut though. Luckily the number decreased that last two times he had the RAST done and Dr. Wood recommended he trial peanut.  We weren't sure what to expect since he had never actually ingested peanut and had a reaction like he's had with several of the foods he's allergic to.  It's likely he never had a peanut allergy since only 20% of children outgrow a peanut allergy, but peanut allergy is so dangerous we followed the doctors orders and strictly avoid peanuts just like we do with his other food allergies.

It's really amazing to be at the point where we've crossed a few foods off his allergy list rather than adding foods like we were three years ago.  The doctors and nurses at Hopkins are confident he'll outgrow ALL of his food allergies.  He is scheduled to trial tree nuts in July and we are supposed to start adding in baked milk again when we feel ready.  We'll wait until next January after his next RAST to find out about the remaining fruits and eggs but for now, crossing peanuts off the list is pretty amazing!