A Nut Story

So, Sprout is still allergic to peanuts. This spring, he was occasionally complaining that kiwi makes his throat hurt, and pineapple makes his throat hurt, and shrimp makes his throat hurt, and that certain type of lasagna makes his throat hurt... So we thought why not get him tested for those things.

He's not allergic to fruit at all, but indeed he is allergic to shrimp. So no shellfish for Bobo.

While we were with the allergist, he suggested that we do a blood test where they test Sprout's blood against all the common nuts. The new thinking is that you test versus all the nuts, and then if you discover that he's not at all allergic to almonds, we could buy them in the shell, crack them at home, and cook/bake with them at home. This sounded like a good idea to us. Information is good, right?

So we got Sprout's blood tested, and were optimistic. In fact, when the results came back, it turns out that he is allergic to all the nuts! He is least allergic to peanuts, and more allergic to all tree nuts! It was such a surprise. All the nut reactions in this test come back in percentages, and someone without an allergy has either a 0.7% or 0.07% reaction to nuts (I can't remember exactly). Sprout is allergic to peanuts at 3%, walnuts at 40%, almonds at 28%, etc, etc. Hazelnuts came in at a whopping 100+%.

We are - no surprise here - not eating nuts at home...

What was so funny about this situation was our (the grown-ups) own reactions to the news. We both freaked out about the 100+%, and walked around completely anxious for three days afterward. It was the same feeling you have when you're with your allergic child in emergency. Only this time, nothing had happened to him. He was completely fine. We were just 'loaded for bear' against all those hazelnuts out there in the world.

I'm glad we did the test. Information is always good - now we know for sure what the issues are. It was just such a surprise.

And here's an unrelated nut story: have you noticed how bread and butter with bananas cut on top tastes weirdly like a peanut-butter-and-banana sandwich? Very strange indeed.