Peanut Anxiety

Since the squeaker was first diagnosed with food allergies at age 2, we have worked hard to minimize the impact of those allergies on his life. First, we disregarded the allergist's admonition that he should not eat wheat, eggs, shellfish, tree nuts, milk, or soy. He eats all of these things, though we do avoid concentrated soy and soy protein (I don't believe soy is all that good for little boys anyway). Second, we are not terribly cautious about contamination issues, because that would involve avoiding huge numbers of foods based on very low risk. So if a food says something like "processed in a facility that also processes products containing peanuts," we don't avoid it. We've explained to him what it might feel like if he accidentally ingested peanuts, and we carry the epipen at all times.

Until recently, the squeaker seemed cool with all this. But for some reason, his anxiety has increased in recent weeks. Just before Christmas, his class had a party where the kids exchanged cards, and some kids included treats with their cards. One girl distributed peanut butter cookies, which really surprised me in this day and age. But we did not make a big deal of it; we just threw them away and assured him that he did the right thing in bringing them home, and that he should not eat anything someone gives him without checking with us. The next day, a boy on his bus gave him two candy canes, and when the squeaker asked if they had peanuts, the boys said one did and he took it back. (Never heard of a candy cane with peanuts, but who knows. Maybe he just had a change of heart.)

The day after that, my husband and I were both home, but the squeaker had a half day of school since the winter break was about to begin. We got a call from the school nurse in the morning; she said that the squeaker was upset because they'd had a snack in class and he feared it had peanuts in it. He apparently had been crying, but when my husband asked to speak with him, he had calmed down enough to talk. He was quite panicky that the muffin he'd had in class had peanuts in it. We suggested a dose of benadryl, mostly to set his own mind at ease, and the nurse agreed that was a good idea. When he got home, we asked him about it, and he said that after he had a bite, his throat felt funny and itchy. The school double-checked with the mom who'd brought the muffins, though, and they had no peanuts.

Yesterday, we had a similar incident. The boys had gotten chocolate penguins when they were out and about with their papa, and when the squeaker ate some, he got upset and said his throat felt funny. He asked in a panic whether he was stumbling around the way he did when he first had peanuts, at age 2. But of course he wasn't, and his anxiety about it baffled me. After some reassurance from us, he settled down and finished the chocolate.

This has never been an issue for him before. Perhaps it has something to do with recent realizations about mortality. The squeaker knows his allergy can be deadly, though we have downplayed that. Or maybe the peanut butter cookies distributed by his classmate really upset him; I don't know that he's ever been given peanuts like that. Maybe it shook his own sense of safety and made all food seem suspect. I don't know, but I hope his anxiety about this is short-lived!!

I am thinking I need to get both boys tested for the allergy anyway. I'd like to know if the squeaker may have outgrown, and I'd like to get some confirmation about whether the pipsqueak has it. While the tests aren't all that reliable, I think the big issue is false positives, not false negatives. Thus, I'd feel very reassured if I got a negative result for either boy. We shall see, I guess.

In other pipsqueak news, the pipsqueak has decided that he will not wear sweaters because....they are hairy. He does not like hair. It is very funny, but it does limit his wardrobe a bit!