Jamie is allergic to cows… milk
First, a little history. Part one:
When Jamie was about five months old, I decided it was time to bust out the ol’ solid food. So I mixed up some Enfamil with some rice cereal and water, and started feeding it to him. He was new to solid food AND formula (he was exclusively nursed, not on purpose, totally my fault, but that is another story). He was not particularly interested in the food and so he didn’t really ingest much of it, but of course it got all over his face. I didn’t force it, just cleaned him up and took him to bed. I noticed some redness and puffiness around his mouth, anywhere it seemed like the food touched his skin. I thought I was probably imagining, since he was a bit of a red and puffy kid anyway. He went to sleep and his face seemed normal after the nap was over.
Part two:
When Jamie was about six or seven months old, nursing was winding down, and it was clear that we needed to get Jamie on formula. I was procrastinating due to past experience with Rees (he refused the bottle and took forever to get the hang of a sippy cup). So my mom decided to give it a try one day while she was watching Jamie. To be clear, she did nothing wrong - I had given her the formula and told her to try to give it to him whenever she wanted. It just so happened that she gave him a bottle of formula about thirty seconds before I walked in the door during a work break. Again, he didn’t appear to drink any, but the formula was on his lips and around his mouth a bit. By the time I reached the kitchen, his lips were HUGE, probably swollen three times their normal size. We didn’t detect any other symptoms, breathing problems or discomfort. My health insurance has a Call-A-Nurse service, so I called, and the nurse suggested that I didn’t need to rush him anywhere as long as he was breathing and the swelling was not getting worse. His lips began to deflate within 30-45 minutes and he never had trouble breathing. We went to Dr P the next day, who set up an appt with Dr Muggleberg, an allergist in Sandy. He also told me to keep cows’ milk away from Jamie and use soy formula (which we have been doing for a couple of months now). Dr P also prescribed some Epipens, which I totally did not take seriously, so I never had the prescription filled.
Okay, now we’re all caught up. Today was the appointment with Dr Muggleberg. She gave Jamie a skin test for cows’ milk allergy, and his reaction was pretty serious. They put a negative control on his right shoulder, a positive control on his left shoulder, and the cows’ milk on the lower right back. The reaction to the milk was 2-3 times the size of the positive control (I took a picture with my phone because I forgot my camera, I might try to post the picture later). The doc said that with this level of allergic reaction, she did not expect it to resolve itself within six months. She also said that Jamie is more likely to grow out of the allergy if we prevent him from eating any and all cows’ milk products. ALL. For a year (they will re-test next summer). She also made me watch a video about kids and food allergies, which was clearly meant to totally freak me out. Next, we went to the in-clinic pharmacy to pick up his Epipens (which we are supposed to carry at all times). Then off to the lab for the taking of blood for more tests. The phlebotomist told me she was going to take his blood right out of his arm, like an adult. Um….. right. “Just hold his arms and legs.” Um….. right. A second phlebotomist then came in to hold his arm. He was so cute, just watching them curiously, thinking, “Whatcha doin’?” She tied the thingie around his arm and patted for a while to find a vein. She couldn’t find one on the left, so decided to try his right instead. He was just sitting calmly, watching them. The phlebotomist finally said, “Well, I’m just going to go for it!” I was thinking that this whole thing was going to be a huge disaster, picturing him freaking out and the needle ripping out, and braced myself the best I could to hold his entire body still (not really possible!). She got the needle right in, and he literally did not flinch or even act like anything was happening. I am not exaggerating - he didn’t even care. The phlebotomist was not instilling much trust in me with her demeanor, but apparently she knew what she was doing! That was a gigantic relief. Everyone around was going nuts about how tough he was, but I have to give that chick props - she must have done it just perfectly.
It will be a week or so before we find out the results of that test, but it doesn’t really matter all that much anyway, I don’t think. It appears that Jamie is trying to make up for being such a happy, go-lucky, easy-care baby with all this fuss. If he wasn’t the sweetest, cutest, happiest baby ever, I might be more annoyed. 
3 comments July 23rd, 2007
