Ant Experiment

In Brennan's Easter basket he got a small ant farm.  Since we then had to catch ants for the ant farm, I had the idea to do a little "experiment" to determine what types of food the ants would like.  We divided up the paper plate into sections and Brennan chose various types of food that he thought might interest the ants.  Watch the video and you can learn what these ants liked the best.

That night when he went to bed he said, "Mommy, that was the best experiment!"  So, I guess we'll be doing some more experiments this summer since it peeked his curiousity.  

UPDATE:  There is 1 ant left.  We started out with six and 5 escaped through one of the air holes.  The ant that is left is probably lonely but he did start tunneling in the gel - just like he was supposed to.  We'll have to catch some more and figure out a way to keep them from escaping.

Allergy Update

So, if life weren't complicated enough.....

After Evan's trip to the ER two weeks ago, I talked to the doctor and she recommended that Evan have a full ImmunoCAP Blood Test specific to Nut Group, Childhood Allergy Profile, and a specific Cashew test.  The ImmunoCAP tests your bodies antibody level to each allergen. Granted, these tests only check the top 90% of common allergens - so it is not 100%.  BTW, Evan did fabulous when we went to have his blood drawn.  You could tell the gal getting ready to draw his blood was preparing for this 2 year old to throw a gigantor fit in her lab.  But - he sat there on my lap, watched, flinched a little and made no sound or cry.  He was a super trooper!

We went in yesterday to go over the results with the doctor.  Here's what we found out....the ImmunoCAP gives a rating, 0-6 for each allergen.  Obviously, a 6 is scary allergic and a 0 means your body could care less.  They start getting really worried and concerned when things are a 4 and 5...but take notice when they are a 2 or 3.

Almond =0                                    Wheat=2

Coconut=0                                     Shrimp=0

Peanut=2                                        Walnut=1

Pecan=1                                          Other environmental things such as mold=1s and 2s

Sesame Seed=1                              Cashew=2

Milk= 2                                           Soybean=1

Codfish=3                                      Cat Dander=1

Dog Dander=2                              Egg White=2

So the good thing was that not one thing was at a scary level.  The questionable thing is that he had lots of 2s on there and codfish a 3 (what in the world).  But clinically - he had a major reaction that night.  Which seems to be stronger proof to the doctor that there is something going on.  She explained it that we all have a threshold of what we can tolerate - and maybe that day Evan may have been exposed to all these things on various levels and the cashew sent his body over the edge and into a reaction.  Of course, we did not test his environmental responses to pollen and such - which we are assuming he would show some responses.  And those could have definitely triggered his reaction as well.

Bottom line is this = he is a kid we will have to watch.  He will take Claritin every day to see if that helps with his allergy symptoms of runny nose and cough.  Which I had always assumed was the "daycare cold".  She did prescribe an Epi-Pen for us to use if he ever has a response/reaction again - so we are prepared.  He will stay away from cashews.  And he will have future allergy testing when he is older at an allergist.  His immune system is still developing and she said going through that right now would be unneccesary unless we see some more serious responses in the immediate future.

We will have 4 Pens - 1 at home, 1 at school, 1 at Grandma's and 1 that travels with us. Hopefully we will never have to use it - EVER.  But it is a relief to know we have something that could help him if he ever has an anaphylactic reaction again.  Basically, his life won't change much, at this point, except for staying away from cashews still.  We are glad to have all this behind us and have a plan for him.  I'm glad we are not going to have to go crazy, obsessive over checking labels and avoiding a whole slew of foods and restaurants.  Time will only tell how things develop from here...but I feel like our prayers have been answered.

Alleluia!

Easter was always so exciting as a kid.  The anticipation of yet another mysterious being sneaking into my house while I was sleeping was thrilling.  

The boys are at the perfect age for this "lie" to come off well.  We did the bunny track trail from the front door, through the living room, out the back door.  He left little bits of his cottontail a long the way too.  The boys got some hot wheel cars and a track thingy that goes with the stuff they already have.  They aren't into candy so the bun-bun leaves coins in their eggs.  It was a pretty quick morning at the house because then it was off to church...it was busy at church.  I was involved with the youth choir the whole time.  And, well, Evan was a bit excited to be sitting through church that morning and just didn't cooperate with Bryan when he wanted to play trumpet with us.  

After church we spent the afternoon at Nan's house with the rest of the Stein/Durkin clan. 

We hope you all had a joyous Easter as well!  

Spring Has Sprung!

Enjoying some time at the park this week and checking out the wildflowers!

ER Trip #2

So, Evan is not doing so well in the how-to-stay-out-of-the-ER-department. Last night was our second trip in 3 weeks.

My parents were over our house for dinner....they had just arrived and things were a bit crazy with the "let me show you this" and "come over here" and things on the stove cooking and etc, etc.

There was a can of mixed nuts open - Evan helped himself to a cashew. Nothing out of the ordinary. He's had nuts before so we didn't think anything of it. He ate the first one and then went to eat a second one but started coughing and spitting out the first second one into Bryan's hand. He was making gagging noises and really loud coughs. At first, we thought he swallowed a piece wrong or something. His eyes were watering, his cheeks were getting blotchy and he continued to cough - it started to sound like a croup cough and then the wheezing started. It wasn't really sinking it that fast what was going on. Then I turned around and looked at him and I said, "he's having an allergic reaction to that nut!" We called the doctor but before she could call back we were already in the car on the way to the hospital. Evan was clawing at his throat, nose was running like a faucet, wheezing, coughing, eyes watering, face swollen and cheeks and neck were red and blotchy. (I wish I'd taken a picture so you could see what I'm talking about). He threw up once in the car - which was gross but probably the best thing. He was already improving once he did that. I went to Arlington Memorial because the drive out to Cooks just seemed endless when he wasn't breathing well. They got us in right away and didn't mess around.
They determined that it probably was an allergic reaction to the cashew. Cashews are a tree nut not a peanut - so it has a different potential for a reaction. The doctor told us that he visited a cashew farm in Costa Rica on vacation once. Apparently the shell and the fruit of a cashew are highly toxic to people - that's why you never see a cashew in a shell. Huh, what do you know? Okay, doc...get back to helping my kid. He said we would have had no way of knowing if he was going to be allergic until you actual take the first bite. And the odd thing is - he hasn't had ANY sensitivities to food or skin products - at least, that we know of or have seen.
So he got Predisone (a steroid to dry up all the mucus he was producing), Benadryl (to stop the reaction), a breathing treatment to improve his oxygination level and an X-ray to determine if he aspirated on anything and to make sure a piece of the cashew wasn't stuck in there. Everything came back fine. The hardest part was keeping our hopped-up-on-steroids-and-Benadryl-no-dinner-past-bedtime-2-year-old entertained in an ER room for 2 hours. The nurse was very nice and actually took Evan to find the doctor so he could release us. Whew!
Evan is great today - he slept well last night and there is no sign of ANY problems today.

Honestly, this couldn't have happened at a better time. My parents were there, so we were able to leave right away and know that Brennan was taken care of. We were at home and not on vacation, a restaurant, a ballgame, etc. We were close to a hospital that did the most thorough job of taking care of him.

I guess we'll be avoiding all nuts from now on until I can go to get him tested for what other allergies he might have. Anyone with any food allergies have any suggestions for us?