Reactions to Food: How We Discovered Our Daughter’s Allergies

We were nervous, so we were going to wait. Food allergies can run in families, and my husband’s intuition told him Reagan was going to be allergic to peanuts. So we were going to wait. We were going to introduce them when we were home together.

But after a follow-up visit to the doctor for something else, I felt pressured to introduce them immediately. So the next day for breakfast, without Andrew, I mixed some peanut butter with breast milk to thin it out and put some on toast for seven-month-old Reagan to try. I fed her shirtless and watched like a hawk.

The first reaction

It took ten minutes. Ten minutes after eating, I saw the first hive. A little red patch with a raised bump in the middle. And then another followed. And another. Until her little chest was covered.

I called the pediatrician immediately. It was the longest phone call in the world, trying to tell them everything while watching to make sure Reagan hadn’t developed a new symptom. Luckily, she was her usual happy self, playing and wanting to nurse as much as I would let her. In the end, the nurse said that we should go to the ER out of an abundance of caution.

Really regretting being home alone at this point.

I think the drive to the hospital when I was in labor was easier than this drive. I was so not thinking straight that I put Reagan’s Owlet sock on so I could monitor her heart rate while we were driving, not even thinking that it wouldn’t work once we left the WiFi of the house. The drive was terrifying, and the only thing running through my mind was that she could not get worse. I wouldn’t know what to do if she got worse.

The entire way there, I was talking to her.

“You’re safe, baby.”

“Mama’s here.”

“Keep talking to me.”

“I know it’s scary.”

“Crying is good, it lets me know you can breathe.”

“Keep crying.”

All while I tried to hold back my own tears.

Twenty minutes later, we were checked in at the ER and waiting on the doctor. Reagan was so unbothered, it’s like the whole reaction at home never even happened. By the time the doctor came in, there was very little evidence of the hive outbreak, and honestly, I felt kind of silly. Like I made the whole thing up. The doctor could see where some marks were, though, and prescribed an EpiPen and a follow-up with her primary care.

That visit the next day basically just got us a referral to the allergist. We had to wait four weeks to even get in.

The second reaction

While we waited for the appointment, Reagan had another reaction. This time, it was to eggs, something she had eaten a couple of times before. Again, it was breakfast, and I made thin egg strips for her. As far as I had known, she had done well with eggs before, but thinking back, she always had a shirt on her. For some reason, she was just in a diaper for this meal, and I noticed the hives right away.

Immediately, I took her out of the high chair and gave her some water to make sure she could still drink, and I called the pediatrician again. In this time, the hives spread to her arms and back, but she never had any trouble breathing or any changes in mood. So we monitored them at home with the instruction to use the EpiPen and/or bring her in if anything changed.

Nothing did, but that didn’t stop my heart from racing the whole day.

You can read all about my emotions throughout this journey here.

The allergist

One month after the first reaction, and two weeks after the second, we finally visited the allergist. The wait felt too long. It felt unsafe not to have definite answers. But we cut Reagan’s allergens in the house and settled into a routine.

Everything felt unsure, even when we got to the office. I brought Reagan up in her carseat because she was asleep, and I remember the waiting room being so hot. When we got to the room and I took Reagan out of her seat, she had peed through her diaper. For the first time in months. Of course.

So of course everything felt hectic. Between changing her diaper and clothes, talking to the nurse, and trying to mentally prepare myself for the doctor coming in, I really had no idea what to expect. Would we get answers that day?

Meeting the doctor only felt more rushed. He came in, got a brief history, said a bunch of important things in a medical language I do not speak, and then asked if I wanted Reagan to get a skin or blood test.

What?

“Can we go over those options again, please?”

Blood or skin. A blood test would require a blood draw and we’d have the answers in 24 hours. A skin test would be a couple of pricks and we’d see the results immediately. A skin test would be more sensitive, but a blood test could be more accurate.

We chose skin.

Four pricks – a negative control, a positive control, an egg swatch, and a peanut swatch – and 15 minutes later, and the doctor was saying “oh no.”

Reagan’s poor back flared up with the markings of severe allergies to both egg and peanut. We were sent home with instructions to keep avoiding both and to come back in six months.

The Aftermath

Our entire house has been peanut and egg free since June 2022. It’s honestly been easier than I think I expected it to be, but going anywhere always brings anxiety. Especially going to other people’s houses.

We have had to be very open, and sometimes stern, with people in our lives about what is safe for Reagan, and what situations we’re comfortable putting her in. That hasn’t always been easy.

The good news is that Reagan has continued to be able to eat baked goods made with eggs. While 50% of children already will outgrow egg allergies by five years old, this drastically increases her chance of outgrowing the allergy by the age of two.

Outgrowing a peanut allergy is a little more rare at 20%. But it’s not impossible.

The other piece of this puzzle is that Reagan has eczema, which goes hand-in-hand with allergies. It can even sometimes give false positives on skin tests. Though since I saw her hives after consuming both allergens, I have faith that the skin tests were accurate.

We’ve been to the allergist once more, and her second round of tests instantly came back positive. We won’t go again until the beginning of 2024, which wow does that seem like forever away.

We are cautious, but hopeful that Reagan will be a success story in outgrowing both her eczema and allergies in childhood. Until that point, we are managing. Taking things day-by-day and keeping epipens and Benadryl on hand in case of emergencies.