Soy Update

Despite the doctor's advise to "go slow" with incorporating soy into Owen's diet, I gave him one serving size of soy each day. On Friday, I decided to stop giving him this much soy because he was irritated. He had mild skin irritation before the Tuesday challenge. After the challenge his face had increased redness around his eyes, and his eczema has increased. And his facial redness would spike at times, and I could not figure out what triggered the spikes. I stopped the soy, and I used a whole bunch of topical medicine, and now his skin looks good again. I am going to introduce soy more slowly this time, and see how he does.

RAST Score- 2 year visit

The numbers are what the doctor prepared us for. It is not uncommon for the numbers to increase until the age of 2, and then they like to see the numbers plateau, and then hopefully decrease. These tests don't predict type or severity of the reaction, but it does give you an indicator of becoming more or less allergic.

milk 20.52 (was 11.9 in July '08 and 3.26 in Jan '08)
egg 11.7 (was 8.93 and 1.46)
peanut 13.32 (was 9.19 and 6.18)
barley 43.3 (was 21.8)
garlic 10.7 (was 7.01)
sesame 15.8 (was 10.0)
wheat 86.2 (was 60.1)
lentil 2.12
chickpea 0.92

Not great news. I'm sad. But I am still hopeful for the future.

So The World May Know

I ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at least once a day when I was pregnant. Last year I learned that those sandwiches may have contributed to Owen developing allergies. Needless to say I am very mad at peanuts. I do not tolerate any kind of nuts in my home. Someone threw out a peanut candy bar wrapper in my garbage can, and that was not acceptable. The trash needed to be thrown out immediately.

I hope the salmonella scare that is happening with peanut butter makes people realize how difficult it is to avoid peanuts. It is in everything! All my favorite snacks were made in a factory with other peanut products. Check out those labels- peanuts have infiltrated every part of your pantry. Some think that it is easy to avoid foods that you are allergic too, but I hope that this salmonella scare will open the eyes of some.

1 down, 10 to go

Owen passed his soy challenge!!! He ate soy chocolate pudding with only a minor skin reaction. Owen was such a trooper. He ate the pudding even when he did not want to eat it any more, and he did great during the skin and blood tests. After the skin tests were complete, the nurse put benadryl cream on his back and told Owen it was to help him feel better. 30 Minutes later Owen pointed to his back and said "feel better." He did that a few more times that day. He did great. We are already having so much fun with new foods. And I am trying to proceed slowly like the doctor recommended, but it is too exciting!!!

Soy Challenge & Contact Allergies

I can't wait till the soy challenge. I can't stop thinking about it, and dreaming about all the opportunities that soy could bring to our lives! I don't want to be hopeful, but like I said in an earlier post, I just can't help it! In church today, I was reminded how Owen's life is in God's hands. I need to trust God's sovereignty with Owen. No matter what, Owen will be fine, and he will have and get everything he needs, because he is in God's hands. But I still just can't wait to find out Tuesday's results!

We went over a friends for dinner this evening. We provided Owen's food, of course. Owen eyes and parts of his face became more red throughout the evening. By the time we got home, it was worse. Normally, I would have given him benadryl, but if I gave him benadryl, we would not be able to have the Soy challenge on Tuesday (you can't give benadryl within 5 days of the challenge). I was uncomfortable putting Owen to sleep since the redness was only getting worse. But I listened on the monitor for a while, and he seemed to go down ok. Owen has been doing so well with his food allergies. I was wondering if he really has contact allergies, or maybe his food allergies were getting better. But today was a reminder that he still has contact allergy problems. Oh well.

Animal Cookies

I found another food product that I love- Orgran Vanilla Animal Cookies. They are gluten, egg, milk, soy, nut, etc, etc, Owen allergen free! And most importantly- Owen loves them. I can give Owen a bunch without having to think about the cost of each bite. It is not cheap, but at least there are more than 9 cookies in the package. Try them. Your kids will love them!

Soy Food Challenge- keep us in your prayers

I promised myself never to get too excited about food challenges. But I can't help it! Owen has a soy food challenge next week. I can't help but be optimistic. I think he is going to pass. His soy RAST score is fabulous. I just have a feeling that we are going to pass. The thing is that I promised myself that I would not get hopeful. But I just can't help it.

I am not looking forward to the actual test, and having to be at the doctor's office for a few hours. Owen is only 2. What am I possibly going to do with him? I am going to go to the library and load up on books and DVDs. I will bring crayons and craft stuff. It is going to be a very long morning!