I hardly ever eat peanut butter, the smell usually makes me gag. Michael loves peanut butter. Before Remington was born I told several folks that Remington was never to eat peanut butter. It wasn't because I thought he would be allergic. Really it was a selfish request because I didn't like the smell of it and didn't want my child requesting a food that I didn't want to prepare for him.
On Thursday at daycare Remington went into the older kid class to play and ended up being given a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He really didn't eat alot of it (according to the daycare workers), but afterwards they put him down for a nap. This was all around 11 am. A little while later they walked over to check on him and noticed that he had thrown up in his sleep, so they woke him up and started to clean him up. While cleaning him they noticed that he had hives all over his body. So they gave me a call at work to see if they could give him some benadryl and I said yes and they were like well you may want to come get him. This was around 1:30 pm. There wasn't really any alarm in their voice, they just made it seem like he may have a slight peanut allergy and I need to go pick him up. So I left work and when I got there my child's whole body was covered in what looked like reddish/purple birthmarks and huge white bumps. At that time they told me that his tounge was swollen, so i immediatly took him to his pediatrician's office. On the way to the office, Remington really wasn't responding and looked like he was having a hard time breathing.
At the doctor's office they checked his vitals and made sure that his airways were opening back up and gave him another dose of benadryl. So after about an hour we left with a prescription for an EpiPen to use if he ever had a similar reaction again. I got about 3 blocks away from the doctor's office and Remington started violently throwing up again. Puke was flying everywhere and my poor little babies eyes were rolling back in his head, I seriously thought he was dying. So I got on the phone with the doctors office and asked if I should bring him back or take him to the emergency room and they said to come back to their office (the hospital and their offices are at the same location so not too big of a difference). We got him back in the office and he was in bad shape, having another reaction to the peanut butter that he was given more than 4 hours before. This time around they ended up giving him a steroid shot and a shot of benadryl and they rechecked his vital and his heartbeat was extremly high and his oxygen was extremly low. And the spots on his body were turning from white bumps into his whole body being one large red raised rash. The doctor was really concerned about him so they had me sit in observation for about another hour while they made the decision to admit him to the hospital or not. My doctor was leaning towards the hospital admission, but she consulted with another doctor and they decided to observe us for a longer period of time and then make the decision. So about 7 o'clock they rechecked his vitals and his heartbeat and gotten back to normal and his oxygen level was normal too. His hives had reduced substantially and so they decided that we could go home with him as long as we went and got the EpiPen prescription filled immediatly.
Long story short, Remington is recovering from his allergic reaction to peanut butter. We have to keep a watch on him for the next 24 hours because a reaction can occur again even if he isn't exposed again within this time frame. We got our EpiPen prescription, $153 for this medication. Good thing we have insurance and only had to pay $20. Michael and I have both recieved training on how to use the EpiPen and we have to carry it around with us at all times. In about 1 week Remington is going to an allergist to be tested for additional allergies at at time we will find out more about preventing future outbreaks.
However, from now on you better not bring peanuts or peanut butter around out baby. The doctors even think he is probably allergic to eggs and shellfish. And yes, we will be having a talk with the daycare that fed him a lunch that he wasn't suppose to have yet because of the age group he is in. I am not angry at them. I just would have rather things been handled a little bit faster and differently. Remington was literally chocking because of the swelling of his tounge and they waited 2 1/2 hours to call me after he was first exposed and then instead of the daycare taking him to the emergency room or calling 911 they waited for me to get there and didn't tell me how serious it was until I got there. They should have taken him immediatly to the emergency room, he could have died. Peanut allergies are very dangerous. Michael and I are just thankful that we were able to get him better.
