Not So Fast

Charlotte had her skin test to see if she's still allergic to sesame seeds/oil.

The skin test involves pricking the skin with the food allergies in question (in this case, sesame seeds and peas), a control, and a histamine. The histamine is added to give a comparison in allergic reactions.

I can't rotate this picture, but you'll see that the allegy tech wrote a letter next to each prick to remember which is which. P = Peas, S = Sesame, C = Control, and H = Histamine. This was taken early on in the test.

Anyway, the plan was to do the skin test with a possible food challenge afterwards. We waited in the lobby during the process with Charlotte using my sweater to keep her front warm (her shirt had to remain off). While Charlotte was doing a game on the iPad, Dr. K, her allergist came out to chat with us. He looked at her back and immediately could see that sesame was having a fairly strong reaction.

At that moment, the timer went off and the allergy tech came out with a ruler to measure the size of the welts as well as the corresponding redness. The good news is that she had absolutely no allergic reaction to peas (I could have told them that, as she's had a few peas since then). The bad news? The sesame welt and redness was bigger than the histamine welt. Dr. K did not want her to undergo a food challenge with that kind of result. But since this was the first time Charlotte had undergone a skin test, we didn't have any baselines with which to measure it. Would it have been bigger two or three years ago? As a result, he recommended we do the same thing in a year (blood test, followed by skin test) to see if anything changes.

In the meantime, continued vigilance against errant sesame seeds - those sneaky little things that get stuck to baked goods like bread and bagels. I'm disappointed because I was hoping we'd be sure she'd outgrown it. Plus, I know how hard it's going to be when she's in elementary school. What if she sticks a carrot in hummus? What if she takes a bite of a hamburger with a sesame seed bun? I hope that in one year things will have changed.

Anyway, on a happy note, Charlotte's having a great time at soccer practice. When she focuses, she does really well. Case in point: yesterday, she scored a goal. Right after that, she spaced out and started pulling up grass.

They got to decorate their team bench with stickers after practice yesterday, and as a reward, they all got popsicles! (Too bad the Team Mom spelled Charlotte's name wrong on the bench - Charolette - this after I specifically emailed her the correct spelling).

 

I think they're all shouting "Pink Lightning" here! (Oh and the little girl next to Charlotte is one of the little sisters, in case you wondered why she looked so young)

I'll be back soon with tales of the Crazy Phoebe Bibi at 17 months. Talking, climbing, screaming.