For a while now -- like four months -- we've thought that Lucy was on the verge of walking. Generally, she's not all that interested in it, as she can crawl VERY fast to get to whatever she wants. She's taken a few steps here, and actually, right before our St. Pat's party, she took about 8 steps. We were very excited. But Lucy still seemed not all that interested in walking around, even though it seemed that for everyone involved, this would make things like going outside a lot easier. Today, I learned the truth about my daughter: she can walk just fine.
Apparently, all day yesterday at daycare, she was walking, much to the delight of the other girls there. I found this out because another daycare mom came in this morning and said "I hear we have a walker!" I had NOT heard that we had a walker, because our daycare provider (who is great) doesn't want to make moms sad when their kids pass some milestone there instead of at home. Hilarious.
So apparently, the bean has a secret skill set that she hides from us. What else can she do that we don't know about?
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Peanut Problem
On Monday, I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch. About a quarter of it was left on my plate, which was sitting on my desk, when Lucy climbed up into my lap. She pointed and otherwise made clear that she wanted some (she typically wants anything that she thinks we're eating). She's 16 months old, and to date, has had no problems with bad reactions to any foods (other than sometimes throwing them across the room). We have no family history of food allergies on either side. So I figured, well, it seems reasonable to let her have some of my peanut butter sandwich.
You may know what comes next.
Jake put her down for a nap. She was rubbing her eyes, and cried a bit, but we figured she was just sleepy. She fell asleep and woke up at about 2:15. When Jake went up to get her, she was crying and grabbing her ears and generally VERY unhappy. The ear thing made him think she had developed yet another ear infection (we've been through many already this year), so he called the doctor. Shortly after getting an appointment, he began to notice a growing redness....indeed, her whole face was becoming covered with hives. Bright red and itchy. Her face was a mess, and her belly and upper arms and legs were covered.
We went to her regular doctor where they determined that she wasn't having any respiratory symptoms, so that meant they didn't need to give her an adrenelin shot. So that was good. They gave her an oral dose of Benadryl and OraPred (a steroid). They warned us that the Benadryl makes most kids sleepy, but sometimes, with very young kids, it makes them hyper. I of course, imagined a hyper-active, steroid-induced kid terror, but thankfully, she became neither hyper nor super-strong. The medicine actually took care of the hives pretty quickly, and in fact, by the time we got home and tried to take pictures (for the future visit to the allergist) we discovered that the worst of the welts were gone.
But now, we think we have the dreaded peanut allergy problem.
We have to go see an allergist to get some more definitive results, but even then, the whole science of allergies seems a bit untested. Although Lucy didn't have a respiratory reaction this time, it's possible that she could have one next time. So we're also the terrified owners of an Epi-Pen, in case she has a future peanut encounter.
There are some nagging questions for us:
1) The reaction seemed a bit delayed for peanut (which is, from what I've read, typically instantaneous). Was her initial crying and eye-rubbing actually the beginning of her reaction? Or did the reaction really take over two hours to start and three hours to really get bad?
2) Is there any chance this reaction was actually to her latest round of shots, which happened last Friday. The three-day window, according to some folks I've talked to, makes this seem likely; however, the two doctors we saw both agreed that this was actually too soon for the reaction to be to the shots. Hm.
3) We found out today that one of the kids at Lucy's daycare is a carrier of strep. Every kid at daycare has had a case, and it's likely that Lucy has had it at some point, but since she was already on antibiotics for her ear infections, the doctor didn't give her a throat culture. Here's the rub: for some kids, in some cases, hives are the first sign of a strep infection.
Issues 2 & 3 leave me wondering if it's at all reasonable to suspect something other than peanuts. Don't get me wrong, we're not planning on exposing her to peanuts again any time soon, but I'm just not entirely sure it's peanut allergy. Occam's razor may apply here: it seems that the line of feeding peanut butter to baby leads most directly to baby breaking out in hives, but I guess I'm holding out hope that Lucy isn't doomed to a life of being terrorized anytime she sees this guy:
So that's the latest news from us.
You may know what comes next.
Jake put her down for a nap. She was rubbing her eyes, and cried a bit, but we figured she was just sleepy. She fell asleep and woke up at about 2:15. When Jake went up to get her, she was crying and grabbing her ears and generally VERY unhappy. The ear thing made him think she had developed yet another ear infection (we've been through many already this year), so he called the doctor. Shortly after getting an appointment, he began to notice a growing redness....indeed, her whole face was becoming covered with hives. Bright red and itchy. Her face was a mess, and her belly and upper arms and legs were covered.
We went to her regular doctor where they determined that she wasn't having any respiratory symptoms, so that meant they didn't need to give her an adrenelin shot. So that was good. They gave her an oral dose of Benadryl and OraPred (a steroid). They warned us that the Benadryl makes most kids sleepy, but sometimes, with very young kids, it makes them hyper. I of course, imagined a hyper-active, steroid-induced kid terror, but thankfully, she became neither hyper nor super-strong. The medicine actually took care of the hives pretty quickly, and in fact, by the time we got home and tried to take pictures (for the future visit to the allergist) we discovered that the worst of the welts were gone.
But now, we think we have the dreaded peanut allergy problem.
We have to go see an allergist to get some more definitive results, but even then, the whole science of allergies seems a bit untested. Although Lucy didn't have a respiratory reaction this time, it's possible that she could have one next time. So we're also the terrified owners of an Epi-Pen, in case she has a future peanut encounter.
There are some nagging questions for us:
1) The reaction seemed a bit delayed for peanut (which is, from what I've read, typically instantaneous). Was her initial crying and eye-rubbing actually the beginning of her reaction? Or did the reaction really take over two hours to start and three hours to really get bad?
2) Is there any chance this reaction was actually to her latest round of shots, which happened last Friday. The three-day window, according to some folks I've talked to, makes this seem likely; however, the two doctors we saw both agreed that this was actually too soon for the reaction to be to the shots. Hm.
3) We found out today that one of the kids at Lucy's daycare is a carrier of strep. Every kid at daycare has had a case, and it's likely that Lucy has had it at some point, but since she was already on antibiotics for her ear infections, the doctor didn't give her a throat culture. Here's the rub: for some kids, in some cases, hives are the first sign of a strep infection.
Issues 2 & 3 leave me wondering if it's at all reasonable to suspect something other than peanuts. Don't get me wrong, we're not planning on exposing her to peanuts again any time soon, but I'm just not entirely sure it's peanut allergy. Occam's razor may apply here: it seems that the line of feeding peanut butter to baby leads most directly to baby breaking out in hives, but I guess I'm holding out hope that Lucy isn't doomed to a life of being terrorized anytime she sees this guy:
So that's the latest news from us.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Notes & Promotions
Notes:
We did our Root-X application over the weekend, so (hopefully) our sewer pipes are root-free. Fingers crossed. Maybe we should get one of those fancy cameras down there and see for ourselves how bad the situation is.
For those of you who have been trying to keep up with Lucy's language development, please note that we have not been updating her "lexicon" lately. She is saying so many things that it's hard to keep up. She now knows the name of her BFF, Ruth, (she says "Oooth!") and repeats just about anything you say. On St. Patrick's day, I mentioned that she looked very "preppy" in her polo-shirt dress and cardigan, and I heard "preppy! preppy!" Nice. Today she said "toaster." She also calls all kids she sees "bay-be!" although we've tried to clarify the difference between babies and kids.
Promotions:
If any of our readers are living in the Lowell area, we'd like to recommend joining our CSA: New Entry Sustainable Farming. We get a huge array of delicious vegetables from them all summer long. Check out their site here: http://nesfp.nutrition.tufts.edu/worldpeas/csa.html Their FAQ is here.
For our fellow home-owners, we'd recommend you check out the new government mortgage program here: http://www.makinghomeaffordable.gov/ to find out if you're eligible for a refinancing plan. They also have info on how to find out if Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac hold your loan (it turns out Freddie has ours). Looks like the economic stimulus package will be helping 83 Durant. Nice!
We're also fans of the American Antiquarian Society, where Lucy has just Adopted a Book! The book that will be adopted in her name is Little Marian; it's a children's book in the "Nettie Lightfoot" Series. It was written by Anna Letitia Barbauld (1743-1825), who was also the author of a significant piece on the Gothic. So Lucy's book adoption is fitting in many ways!
You may recall that Lucy adopted a book last year, too.
That's all for today. A belated Happy St. Patrick's Day to all!
We did our Root-X application over the weekend, so (hopefully) our sewer pipes are root-free. Fingers crossed. Maybe we should get one of those fancy cameras down there and see for ourselves how bad the situation is.
For those of you who have been trying to keep up with Lucy's language development, please note that we have not been updating her "lexicon" lately. She is saying so many things that it's hard to keep up. She now knows the name of her BFF, Ruth, (she says "Oooth!") and repeats just about anything you say. On St. Patrick's day, I mentioned that she looked very "preppy" in her polo-shirt dress and cardigan, and I heard "preppy! preppy!" Nice. Today she said "toaster." She also calls all kids she sees "bay-be!" although we've tried to clarify the difference between babies and kids.
Promotions:
If any of our readers are living in the Lowell area, we'd like to recommend joining our CSA: New Entry Sustainable Farming. We get a huge array of delicious vegetables from them all summer long. Check out their site here: http://nesfp.nutrition.tufts.edu/worldpeas/csa.html Their FAQ is here.
For our fellow home-owners, we'd recommend you check out the new government mortgage program here: http://www.makinghomeaffordable.gov/ to find out if you're eligible for a refinancing plan. They also have info on how to find out if Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac hold your loan (it turns out Freddie has ours). Looks like the economic stimulus package will be helping 83 Durant. Nice!
We're also fans of the American Antiquarian Society, where Lucy has just Adopted a Book! The book that will be adopted in her name is Little Marian; it's a children's book in the "Nettie Lightfoot" Series. It was written by Anna Letitia Barbauld (1743-1825), who was also the author of a significant piece on the Gothic. So Lucy's book adoption is fitting in many ways!
You may recall that Lucy adopted a book last year, too.That's all for today. A belated Happy St. Patrick's Day to all!
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