A Year Later, How Nicholas is Doing.

by Rose Elder

I remember than when Nicholas was diagnosed with all his food and environmental allergies I had so many questions. Is this permanent? For how long does he have to avoid these foods? Is his eczema going to go away? Nobody, not even the allergists, had any answers; I was clueless if things were going to get better at all! I was worried his diet would be that limited for the rest of his life. Nicholas was such a particular case due to the amount of things he was allergic to, and his severe reactions to them, that the doctors didn’t seem to know how he was going to progress with time. Food allergies are hard to deal with, but his allergy to dog dander has been the biggest hurdle. His allergy to dogs is so bad that he went into anaphylactic shock when he was 14 months old. We ended up riding in an ambulance to the ER. The doctors had to use two EpiPens and Benadryl through an IV to stabilize him. It was pretty scary dealing with it all alone. Adam had to stay home with Alexander.

I grew up at my parents’ house with dogs as pets. I loved my puppies. In Mexico larger dogs generally play outside most of the day. Yards tend to be larger in smaller cities so that is a big advantage to letting these pets run around and getting some energy out of them. In San Diego, however, I feel lucky we found a house with a yard. When we go on walks in the neighborhood we cross paths with a dog and their owner at every block. Most dog owners are very polite and move aside or step into the street to let us walk by. Then there is the kind of owner that doesn’t have a leash on their pet and their dog starts sniffing Nicholas. I politely say that their dog is “so cute” but that my son is very allergic to dogs. I even add “I’m so sorry”. There hasn’t been an apologetic owner so far. They take it so personally and walk away upset. One even yelled back at me “well, I’m allergic to cats!” I wish I could tell these people “My son doesn’t sneeze when a dog licks him, he can go into shock!” There are many owners that bring their dogs to the children’s playground and let them roll around in the sandbox. Nicholas has had to leave his sand castle building for the beach, where the sand washes daily with high tide.

Anyways, now to the positives. If you are a mom and are going though the same thing I can tell you that it will get better. Nicholas is now two and his immune system in the last year has gotten so much stronger that I’m starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. First he overcame the allergy to berries and grapes. I was ecstatic because it gave me more breakfast options. Then I realized he barely reacted to products with any kind of soy in them, and that meant I could give him a larger range of gluten-free products like crackers. In this past month I realized he is also not reacting to either bananas or to oats. He can now eat baked goods with egg in them. The baking apparently changes the chemistry of the egg and some kids won’t react to it. So now, when we have a birthday party, I either buy or bake something for him to enjoy while the other kiddos eat cake.

Gluten-free, nut-free granola with coconut yogurt. His new favorite!

As a mother you will also get smarter about making your child’s life easier by modifying certain things in the kitchen to let your little one enjoy similar things to the rest of us. Alexander begged me for some cinnamon pretzels yesterday. I went ahead and got them for him (ashamed). This morning he wanted to finish the leftovers but I didn’t want Nicholas to cry or feel left out. So I grabbed gluten free toast, added some Earth Balance, a tiny bit of sugar and cinnamon and put it in the toaster. He devoured them and didn’t even notice his brother’s food looked different. This is kind of an unhealthy example, and not a common occurrence in my house, but I felt so happy for Nicholas.

Alexander and Nicholas at the playground eating gluten-free crackers and chips.

There is a long road ahead, but I’m starting to see that it won’t be nearly as hard as I thought it would be. I know there are probably more visits to the ER, but less and less as he grows older. In the last year we haven’t gone once! We have had scares, pretty bad allergic reactions, but I have also gotten smarter about how to stop them on-time with Benadryl. We can now visit friend’s houses that are willing to vacuum and put their puppies away for a couple hours. We just have to give Nicholas a tiny bit of Benadryl ahead of time.

We still find it hard to travel. Cross contamination in restaurants is a reality. I feel vulnerable when I’m hoping that the cook in the kitchen got the information about using a clean knife, cutting board and pan when cooking for Nicholas. My son’s well being is in the hands of a faceless person I can’t directly talk to. Most of the times he is ok, cooks are well trained and very conscious about food allergies. Other times we have had to give him the antihistaminic to stop rashes, hives, or possible bad reactions.

But this too will get better. It will get better. Keep telling yourself that.