Christmas 2009

Every Christmas morning breakfast has been the same for my family, for as long as I can remember. Scrambled eggs, ham, fried potatoes, OJ, and my mom's famous homemade cornsticks.  Even after I moved out Christmas breakfast was always the same, and Mike and I would head over to my parents' house Christmas morning to indulge in our tradition.  For Dylan's first Christmas in 2008 the tradition changed slightly, and my parents and sister brought Christmas breakfast to us.  Of course, at only two months old Dylan just slept right through it!

Christmas 2009 started in much the same way.  My family was heading over with Christmas breakfast, and we were so excited that Dylan was going to be able to sit at the table with us and continue our tradition.  My parents knew about Dylan's allergies and everything was safe except the corn sticks, which are laden with butter.  He'd had everything else in some way before:  eggs (in processed foods like pasta), ham, potatoes.  The OJ he'd never had, but he had clementine oranges at daycare with no problems at all.

About 5 minutes into breakfast I noticed that Dylan's top lip looked funny...  And it got puffier, and puffier...  Then he started frantically rubbing his eyes and I noticed hives on his hands and around his mouth.  I started to panic, and told Mike to get Dylan's Benadryl as I started getting him out of the high chair.  Then I noticed the hives all over his chest and belly.  We laid him down, Mike gave him the medicine, and I just stared at him waiting for any signs of tongue swelling or laboured breathing, ready to rush to the hospital if needed.  Fortunately, the Benadryl kicked in and within about fifteen minutes the lip swelling was going down and within about forty-five minutes the hives and everything were gone.  After that he was perfectly fine, except that his eczema has flared up.

Once the adrenaline wore off, all I could think was WHAT THE HECK???  Everything was safe.  EVERYTHING.  He didn't touch the cornsticks.  We started wondering if it was cross contamination, but my mom assured me that this was impossible and she had taken the utmost care in preparing everything. Orange juice?  He had never had it before, but wouldn't he have reacted to clementines too?  Eggs?  He had them in other things before (like the pasta in stage 2 baby food) without any problems, and didn't even really consume them - brought one bite up to his lips and just spit it out.  Everything else was our 'usual' brands, or things that he consumed regularly with no troubles.  We were stumped, and obviously very worried.

As soon as the new year hit we called our family doctor for an appointment.  After describing our Christmas morning panic, and the probable mustard allergy we discovered at daycare, he gave us a referral to a popular allergist.  I called immediately, and got an appointment months away.  The receptionist asked if we wanted to be placed on the cancellation list to get an earlier appointment if one became available - I said yes immediately, and it paid off with an appointment at the end of January.  I was nervous, and not looking forward to putting Dylan through the tests that were sure to be needed, but I was also looking forward to finally figuring everything out.