Some Awesome News!

As you all probably know, when Kian was a little over a year old we discovered that he was severely allergic to peanuts. On a scale ranging from 0 to 6 he tested at a 5.5 which made his condition life threatening. His allergy was so bad he would have reactions to things processed near nuts. We checked the labels of everything that came into our house and educated those who would have him in their care.

Recently, we thought Kian might have seasonal allergies. Since we live in a new area, there are different plants than what he was tested for in California. We also were unsure if Kian was allergic to fish. The allergist told us that we should avoid it until he was five. We figured we would have testing done just to make sure.

The nurse called with the results of the test and said that the only allergen that came back was to peanuts. No shock there until she said, “You can keep feeding it to him.” I asked the nurse, “Feeding what to him?” She said, “Peanuts.” I informed her that the last time he had peanuts he was 16 months old!

Kian tested a low 1 on the 0 to 6 point scale for a peanut allergy!!! On top of that he is no longer allergic to dogs or cats and is not allergic to fish!!!

Since our lives have pretty much revolved around his allergy, we were shocked and almost disbelieving! So we started experimenting. We gave Kian foods that were processed near peanuts. He had no reaction. We gave him something that had peanuts as the ingredient half way down the listing on the back. He had no reaction besides disgust because he doesn’t like the taste of peanuts.

Today we performed our ultimate experiment before we let others know of the test results. At the suggestion of a friend who has a food allergy, we put peanut butter on Kian’s skin to see if he would have a reaction. Kian had it on his skin for a few minutes. I asked him if he felt anything. He said, “I feel peanut butter.” Ha! When we wiped it off his skin there was absolutely no redness! We wanted to see if Kian would actually eat some peanut butter, but after smelling the jar he plugged his nose and said it was disgusting.

Needless to say we are still in a bit of shock! Our lives changed drastically when we discovered Kian’s allergy. And to be honest, it was (and still is in a way) my waking nightmare. Knowing that something that most kids love could actually kill my child, it was hard to let him go pretty much anywhere unless it was with well educated friends and family.

Now our lives will change again, but so much for the better! We will all be able to get ice cream at Dairy Queen or 31 Flavors. We will all be able to eat pastries and cookies of any kind since we won’t have to worry about nuts in the bakery. We can all eat at a Chinese restaurant! The world has opened up wide for Kian to have more experiences that most of us take for granted.