Allergists and Doctors

New medic alert bracelet with Dora on it.

The appointment with the allergist went fine, I suppose. I knew a lot of the stuff he told us already... for those of you who don't know, I like to be informed! So, I've already read several books and searched many websites. ;) I did learn that egg can cause anaphylaxis, I did not know that. I haven't been looking into the egg allergy much because it didn't seem as life threatening to me and because she has never had a reaction to egg and she has eaten plenty. She may never have a reaction to eggs or she could, there is no way of knowing. So, we will avoid egg unless it is in a baked item and hope she outgrows it. This doctor doesn't retest for allergies he didn't seem to think peanut allergies could be outgrown. He also didn't feel it necessary to test for tree nuts, just said we should avoid all nuts and seeds because they are likely processed on the same equipment as peanuts. I have read several studies done on people outgrowing a peanut allergy. Most of the studies I have seen show a 20% rate of patients outgrowing the allergy. Of the 20% all had managed to avoid exposure to peanuts or had very minimal exposure. If you do outgrow it, they (doctors) advise eating peanuts and peanut products frequently to keep your immunity to peanuts up, otherwise the allergy would likely return. So, the kicker is if she did outgrow the allergy and we never retest her, how will we know? I will be requesting retesting for my own piece of mind!

Today Brityn had her 15 month well baby checkup. She is up to 19 lbs. I'm not sure exactly what percentile she is in with that but looking at the charts it looked to be about 1-3%. Height is still 30 3/4", they actually measured her standing up rather than laying down this time and I think that is a little more accurate. Head is in the 25%. I wish she had gained a little more weight than that but at least she is gaining and not loosing. The doctor seemed satisfied with the growth, so I won't worry too much about it. We'll just keep feeding her good fatty foods.

She has an appointment with a pediatric cardiologist on May 6, in Missoula. Hopefully he tells us that the heart murmur is nothing to worry about. Please pray for her.