Toddler Frankenstein

We're home. A great and fantastic trip.  Charlotte got better each day with her walking.  Last night as we were waiting to board the plane home, she took at least 20 steps without falling. And now that we're home she's walking over to Tandy with intensity. :)  Poor kitty.

Here's a very short video I took on my phone. Chris probably got better ones with the video camera.



This was taken on maybe the second day we were there, so I still had to entice her with objects. In this case, a brochure about Maui.

Anyway, more pictures to come once we get them onto the computer. But now must get some sleep.

Thirteen Months

Really quick post. We're leaving for Maui tomorrow. Yippee!  I. Can't. Wait. My parents will be there, so Chris and I will actually be able to spend some time together without Charlotte. This is a rare occurrence, as usually one of us is forced to stay home, while the other goes out with friends or to tennis or volleyball.

Anyway. Charlotte is thirteen months old today.  And she started really taking steps today, about six before she'd fall down.  So exciting.  Maybe she'll have perfected the cute toddle by the time we get back from Hawaii.

We also met with the allergist today and got the results back from her second RAST test.  As we knew, she is mildly allergic to peas, but also lentils.  Not tomatoes.  So maybe it was a contact irritation.  Nothing much to it. We'll be going back for a food challenge September 1 to test her allergy to straight soy.

Discovered she weighs in at a whopping 22 

On Friday, Charlotte got her first real haircut at a place that specializes in children's cuts.  They have this great play area, and when it was time for her cut, she didn't want to leave.

Not so sure about this.

 In the toy car seat because it has a booster chair for little kids.

All done! She even got a pretty barrette.

Okay, back to packing.  We have a 6AM flight, which means leaving for the airport at 3:45AM. Yikes!

And Now for Something Completely Different - Irrational Fears

This gal named Jen who has an adorable baby a few months older than Charlotte wrote this post talking about her irrational fear of cruise ships and then invited her readers to do the same.

I feel like I don't have a lot of fears, but here are a few:

• When I'm driving in downtown Sacramento and there are a lot of cars on the road, and there is a huge back-up at the light, I have this irrational fear that someone is going to open my car door and grab my purse from the passenger seat.  So I've taken to locking my door when someone walks by (I never remember to just do it once I get in the car), but I try to do it surreptitiously, so they don't think I think they're a carjacker, but I totally do.
• Big dogs. I'm afraid they'll run me over or lick me to death.
• Along the same vein, I hate big crowds. I'm always worried that someone is going to steal my purse by doing that whole bump into me while someone else picks my pocket from behind (okay, so this isn't entirely irrational, since in college someone did steal my wallet out of my purse as I sat eating lunch).
• Don't even get close to touching my eyes. When I was in college, I once had an eye exam done at the optometry school on campus (it was $5!) and the optometry student was doing a check for glaucoma or something.  While she was trying to touch my eye, I hyperventilated, which caused me to faint.  She freaked out and call 9-1-1, which really freaked me out when I came to and there were all these firefighters surrounding me.
• Big trucks on the highway.  I barely breathe while I'm passing them because I'm so worried they're going to just jump out in front of me.

What are yours?

The Gift that Keeps on Giving

Quick post:

We received the results back from Charlotte's RAST test.  They tested for a number of things, but as suspected, Charlotte scored very high for sesame seeds.  The RAST scoring goes from 0 to 6, and as her sesame reactions were in the 7.4 KU/L, that puts her at a level III, HIGH LEVEL OF ALLERGEN SPECIFIC IgE.  0 is no allergy, 6 is off the charts, don't leave the house type of allergy.  She also scored a II for both soy and cashews. To my knowledge she's never had any cashews.

I spoke to her doctor, who recommended that I talk to an allergist.  But before I was able to to that today, Charlotte had another allergic reaction last night, this time to delicious, fresh heirloom tomatoes.  I made her pasta with butter, Parmesan, and diced heirloom tomatoes.  After eating the tomatoes, which she didn't like, her chin turn bright red, as did her cheeks. Oh, joy.  I gave her Benadryl, and it subsided within an hour.

Fast forward to today.  I spoke at length with an allergist.  Talked about the reactions, the food she's been eating, what's caused reactions and what hasn't.  He ordered a new RAST test, this time checking for all of the following: eggplant, tomatoes, peas, lentils, lamb, chickpeas, pet dander, pollen, and a mix of related spices.  I just can't wait to take Charlotte to the lab this afternoon to have her get her second blood draw in a week. Poor thing.  And we have an appointment with him on Monday morning, the day before we go to Maui. Oh. And the allergist has prescribed three epi junior pens, two for home and one for daycare.  This is in case Charlotte goes into anaphylactic shock. He also wants to do a food challenge for soybeans and cashews.  This means giving her some soy milk in the clinic and seeing if she reacts (same with cashews, probably in the form of cashew butter).  Soybean oil is in absolutely everything, including most if not all of the crackers and bread she eats, and Charlotte hasn't shown any signs of allergic reactions, so I'm hopeful that she can continue.

Overall, feeling a little down about all of this. Worried about what I can give poor Charlotte, short of really boring food. Feeling better that the issue has been elevated, but also worried because it's been elevated, if you know what I mean.  And we can't keep doing blood draws. Charlotte hates it.  Uggh, uggh, uggh.

I guess this went longer than expected...

Fourth of July Fun

We spent the Fourth of July weekend in Santa Barbara, visiting our very good friends, Brian and Andrea.  Santa Barbara is about 300 miles from Folsom, and by far the longest trip we've ever attempted with Charlotte.  The traveling went pretty well overall.  We had a bag of toys right next to her, and she would reach in and pull out toys.  This kept her happily occupied for quite awhile. We stopped after about two hours at a McDonald's (yuck, but not a lot of choices along the I-5 corridor) to give Charlotte lunch and tire her out some so she would take her normal nap.  She loved watching all the kids in the play area, so was pretty distracted from actually eating anything.  Then we drove all the way to Paso Robles (about two hours north of Santa Barbara), where we stopped in at a winery, did some wine tasting, and let Charlotte cruise around outside.  The last leg was the worst, with Charlotte practically screaming for the last half hour.  She had just had it by the time we pulled up to Brian's.

Brian let us crash in his studio apartment, while he stayed over at Andrea's.  This was awesome because his apartment is literally two blocks from the main street in downtown SB.  What was not awesome? Was the cough that Charlotte developed, which had her hacking all night long.  She managed to sleep through most of her coughing, but Chris and I would startle awake every time she coughed.  This continued throughout the weekend and got so bad that we about decided to drive back on Sunday (July 4th) until Brian convinced us to stick around.  I'm glad he did, even though the lack of sleep over three nights was tough on the both of us. 

The Fourth was great.  We walked all the way down State Street to the beach, where hundreds of people were milling about.  Charlotte had a fabulous time in the sand, and she didn't even manage to eat too much of it.  She really loved the ocean and would kick happily as the waves ebbed and flowed.  That's good news for our trip to Hawaii in 10 days (yay!).

We also managed to get some excellent wine tasting in, both in Santa Barbara county and again in Paso Robles on the way back.  My dear friend Kristen and her husband Todd happened to be in Paso for the weekend, so we met up with them at a great winery, which also had a quasi petting zoo.  Perfect combination!

Best part of the weekend? Charlotte has suddenly starting using the sign for "more" all the time.  She uses it when she wants more food or when she wants something again.  For instance, when I sang the "Itsy-Bitsy Spider" (her favorite song), she'd sign "more" as soon as I was done. So cute.  And it's just so awesome to know what she likes, although sometimes she signs more when there is clearly food on her tray.

And now, some pictures of the weekend:

Je suis grande! - I'm SO big!

Playing with the giant chess set

Wee!!!!

Allergy Update

Thanks everyone for your kind words.  It's been an uneventful week, on the allergy front anyway.  We went to Charlotte's pediatrician last Thursday, and he was sympathetic but probably more realistic than we wanted to hear.  He basically said that he would support us in any way we want to figure out what food actually caused the reaction, but that referring us to an allergist would not suddenly be a cure-all.  For one, the test that they do to figure out allergies is the RAST test, which is a blood test to test for antibodies.  You can only choose a few specific allergens to test for.  He recommended this over the skin prick test, which is basically when they inoculate you with various allergens, because he didn't believe Charlotte would be able to tolerate it.  Because Charlotte was pumped full of Benadryl and steroids, Dr. M didn't want to do the test right away.  He also said that this age is when allergies present themselves because you're exposing babies to more and more foods.  And he said that this will probably happen again because a blood test will not show conclusively what they're allergic to.  So we're just supposed to have Benadryl available at all times and either go to the ER or call 911 if she starts to swell again.

It's kind of frustrating because I guess we were hoping that we could find out exactly what to avoid.  I asked the doctor to order the blood draw yesterday, and Chris took Charlotte in today to get it drawn.  We decided to test for tree nuts, peanuts, sesame seeds, and eggs.  I don't think it's eggs because she's had them a few times before without so much as a rash or sniffle.  And the reaction happened almost immediately after eating the baba ghanoush.

Anyway, we've been living in a kind of state of paranoia ever since (Chris more than I, but I've definitely been kept awake thinking about it).  We've been giving her bland, one ingredient foods, or foods that she's had many, many times (like crackers).  But Charlotte can't subsist on crackers, bananas, bread, turkey, avocado, and cheese for the rest of her life.  She's a great eater, who's had so many different kinds of foods. I want to expose her to a diverse palate, but until we can rule certain things out, complex foods with a lot of ingredients and spices just don't seem like a good idea.  We don't want this happening all the time because the reaction might just get worse.  We're trying to keep a log of foods we know are on the okay list (because it would be really sad for our Berry girl if les framboises were on the bad list).

Oh and Chris's mom informed me (and reminded Chris) that he did have some food allergies when he was a baby, but they only presented themselves as eczema, and he outgrew them.  Nothing nearly as severe as Charlotte's reaction last week.

Open Sesame?

So in Charlotte's 12 month recap, I wrote: Charlotte appears to be allergic to peas (peas!).  Twice now, she's broken out in a blotchy rash on her face and then furiously rubs her eyes until they're both bright red.  It's strange because she's had peas before with no adverse effects, but maybe allergies develop over time? No idea. The Kaiser Advice nurse dubs her a "sensitive" child.  Anyway, Benadryl is now on hand.

I wrote this thinking it was strange, but not overly disconcerting. I mean, how hard is it to avoid peas?
Not hard at all, I thought, until we realized that peas aren't the only thing Charlotte's allergic to.

Last night, we bought some take out from a local Mediterranean place. I got the chicken shwarma and Chris got the gyros.  Both platters came with a side of baba ghanoush, a roasted eggplant dip similar to hummus.  I was giving Charlotte pieces of lamb and chicken and she was happily eating them.  Then I thought I'd have her try some baba ghanoush, so I dipped some lamb in it and gave it to her.  Almost immediately after sucking on the piece of lamb, Charlotte started fussing.  We assumed she was just tired, so Chris gave her some milk in the sippy cup.  Suddenly, we saw the tell-tale sign of an allergic reaction with a blotchy rash appearing on her face. But it didn't stop there.  Her lips started swelling.  Chris grabbed Charlotte from the high chair, and I ran to get the phone.  I hesitated, wondering whether to call Kaiser or just dial 911, but giving the swelling, I opted to just call 911.

A team of firefighters arrived within five minutes and Chris met them outside.  We explained what happened, and one of the firefighters asked if we'd given her any Benadryl yet.  We hadn't, only because the swelling gave us pause.  By this point, Charlotte's lips had swollen to five times their normal size, and her bottom lip had started to blister like hives.  I gave her Benadryl, while one firefighter continued staring at Charlotte's lip.  He exclaimed that he thought it was still swelling, so to be safe, they should take her to Kaiser in Roseville via ambulance.  Chris went in the ambulance with Charlotte, and I gathered up important documents to follow behind in our car.  Just as I was about to leave the EMT comes running up and says that they think her tongue is swelling and aren't willing to risk the 20 minute drive to Roseville and wanted to take her to the nearest emergency room, about two miles from our house.

(While all of this was happening, Charlotte, despite swollen lips, is smiling and laughing at the firemen - she seemed completely oblivious to the fact that the rest of us were panicking.)

We arrived at the hospital. Actually, I got there first because the EMTs took a longer route.  She got seen right away, and within a few minutes they gave her an upped dosage of Benadryl combined with some steroids.  We stayed at the hospital for about 90 minutes, but were discharged with the instructions that we wake Charlotte up at 2AM to give her more Benadryl.

Needless to say, we're a bit shaken.  We're not entirely sure what ingredient in the baba ghanoush caused the allergy -- it was such a small amount of food.  It could be the eggplant, which she's had before with no prior reactions, or maybe it's the tahini (ground up sesame seeds) that's causing it. Or it could be any number of spices added.  Who knows? Chris is terrified now of giving her anything that we don't know exactly what's in it.  I'm suspecting that maybe it's the sesame seeds, as I've read that it's not uncommon for children who have allergies to legumes (peas, lentils, peanuts, etc.) to also have a sesame allergy.  If this is the case, it will be rough.  Sesame seeds are in a lot of breads (hamburger buns for one, breadcrumbs for another) and are used in a lot of cosmetics like lotions.

I spoke with Charlotte's pediatrician this morning as I had the Kaiser advice nurse send a message to him to request a referral to an allergist.  He wants to see her this afternoon and do some blood tests to check on the most common allergies before needing a specialist.  All I know is that I hope we can get this allergy isolated so that it doesn't happen again.  And I wonder where this allergy came from?  Neither Chris nor I have any known food allergies, and from what I've read, allergies are generally hereditary.  And it seems surprising for Charlotte to have such severe reactions.  In any case, now Benadryl really must be on hand at all times.