When Parenting Causes Minor Heart Failure

So, hell! 

Connor is on his way to eating real food.  Not the strained (and expensive) crap that comes in convenient 3.5 ounce sizes.  But real food.  We try something new every day.  So far, he's fallen in love with whole grain frozen waffles, cherrios, goldfish, graham crackers....but rejected all manner of fruit and vegetables.  He won't eat anything with meat in it - in any form.  He seems to be okay with some pasta, but has rejected those little Pasta Pickups.  In other words, our kid is a finicky freak in a way that Bailey never was.

Okay, so freak may be a harsh term. 

But honestly.  He is a bit of a freak about what he will and won't eat.  And at some point he needs to jump on board with some food that is not strained and spoon-fed.  Because it's not really filling him up anymore.  When you have to feed your child thee of them at any given setting, it's not working anymore.  And have I mentioned it's expensive to buy that much baby food??

Enter the point of this story.  EGGS!  Bailey loved 'em...still does for that matter.  They are easy to eat, easy to mash up with toothless gums.  They are nutritious in moderation.  They are full of protein.  And I have perfected the art of making a mean, mean omlet over the years.  Perfectly done eggs without a hint of "brown", folded over perfectly.  I mean, I'm good. 

So after feeding Connor his waffle, and preparing Bailey's omlet, I decided to give eggs a go with Connor.  I made him one egg.  I didn't cook it with butter and I didn't add cheese.  In other words - I was isolating the food just in case.  You know, so that I would know if something was wrong.  This little habit is something we've always done and if you are not yet a parent, I highly recommend it.  We are now close to 3 years into feeding children, and we've never had a problem with allergies.  Until yesterday. 

Connor picked up one piece of egg.  He put it on his lips and then refused to eat it.  I tried to coax him a bit, but he just waved me away, refusing to eat the egg.  This happens 90% of the time when Connor is offered new foods, so I wasn't surprised.  I left it sitting on his tray for a few minutes just in case he changed his mind.  But, of course, he didn't.  Thank god.

About 5 minutes after he touched his lips with the egg, he got a few red streaks around his mouth.  They looked like his face had been sunburned in short streaks.  You know what I'm talking about?  That kind of red, bloated look?  I noticed it and was curious, but not worried.  Bailey gets the same thing when she eats sugar-free syrup and it sits on her face.  But it quickly began spreading.  I was on the phone with Kelly when it started and by the time it had spread up the right side of his face and he started digging at his right eye, it was only about 7 minutes.  I told Kelly I was calling the doctor and hung up (she had been urging me to do this since the streaks started...she's a bigger worrier than I am). 

Connor was really digging at his eyes.  By this time, the red, bloated rashy look had spread to his forehead and was starting to creep down the left side of his face.  He was digging at both eyes.  I had, of course, removed all signs of the egg and cleaned him up so that no traces were left on him.  As I calmly (I hope) called the doctor, I began making sure my bag was stocked with baby supplies in case we needed to make an emergery trip to the hospital.  I was that scared...but also, not dumb enough to let myself be stuck in the ER without food for Bailey and enough diapers to survive.  LOL.

Anyway - as I waited on hold, it just seemed to get worse.  After finishing it's slow creep down the left side of his face, the red, bloated look seemed to get more bloated and he just kept digging at his eyes.  Then, his lips seemed to swell even more and a white ring appeared around his lips.  Kind of like if he were pursing them - but he wasn't. 

Now, I should stop and let you know that the entire time this was happening, Connor was babbling.  He was also smiling at me as I paced in front of him and kept talking to him.  I needed him to keep talking and making noises so that I could reassure myself that he was not having any trouble breathing.  My attention kept him happy and he gladly babbled and told me all about what was going on in his little-boy brain.  He never once seemed like he was struggling to breath or even a hint of anything beyond the red rash and itchy eyes.  Had I seen even a second of anything like that, I would have called 911 immediately (another reason I was packing necessary items in my bag). 

I finally got a nurse on the line and briefed her.  She asked if I had children's benadryl in the house.  I did...it had expired in Nov 09, but I figured that it would be okay for this.  After asking all the questions to ensure that Connor was breathing fine, she told me to give him 3/4 of a teaspoon of the benadryl.  She explained how allergies work - they are either "mild" and controllable by benadryl, or a huge problem and should be treated in the ER ASAP.  Given that we were about 20 minutes into the ordeal at this point and Connor was only exhibiting a rash and itchy eyes, it was very likely that benadryl would control the problem.  She also warned me about the sleepy effects of benadryl.

It worked and 15 minutes after giving him a dose, the red was mostly gone and he was well on his way to normal.  He never crashed out - which is odd.  But okay. 

This was our first incident with any kind of allergy.  Bailey has none to date.  I worry about the strength of this allergy given that he didn't ingest any of the eggs, and we have to make some decisions going forward about how to explore the allergy safely.  And, as with most things kid-related, we won't be able to tell if it's a real allergy until he's older than 2.  Most allergies that present prior to 2 are grown out of before the second year of life.  We have a lot of questions.

But I'm glad I was home with him when it happened.  Daycare would have called 911 (rightly) and THAT would have been a hellish situation as we tried to get home from the city, with our infant son in the ER.  I mean, how bad would that have sucked?