A trip to the Doctor

Last week Caden had a mild reaction (face rash that lasted about 3 hours) to me eating whole wheat bread. I considered cutting wheat from my diet, but discovered it would be really hard and expensive, and since Caden seemed to tolerate refined wheat I decided to hold off until I was specifically directed to cut wheat. Today I got my marching orders.

For the past few days Caden has been grabbing at his throat, coughing, and had a runny nose. Monday he woke up with a red, slightly rashy face that lasted through yesterday and was just all around grumpy. Yesterday every time he took a nap he woke up crying and coughing. Today when I put him down for his morning nap he woke up about 10 minutes later gagging and choking. I called the nurse hot line to see if there was a cold medicine I could give him. She said the symptoms weren't really consistent with a cold and recommended I come in to see the Physician's Assistant. After examining him, the PA called in the Pediatrician, who called the Pediatric Allergist we saw a few weeks ago.

Diagnosis: a sustained, mild alergic reaction that is restricting the airways.
Treatment: strict avoidance of all products containing egg, wheat, and peanut in addition to the already excluded dairy. For immediate relief I am giving him Benadryl.

The allergist feels Caden is too young to prescribe him an epi-pen so we all just need to be extremely careful. Exposure to any of the foods Caden is allergic to can cause his airways to be constricted and could even result in his death. And on that happy note, I'll leave you and go hunt through the kitchen for something allergy friendly for lunch.