The Emergency Room

Guess who has food allergies?

Shane and I spent our Friday night together at our local emergency room where we determined that he is either very allergic to cow's milk or oatmeal infant cereal.

Although Al's kids have had allergic reactions to foods and I have seen it first hand, none of my kids have ever had a reaction to anything in the past 4 years! It was really scary!

It all started tonight after I nursed Shane before bed. I got out a box of infant oatmeal (which he had never eaten) to mix with his banana baby food. After I mixed them together it was too thick so I added a bit of milk (which he has never drank) to thin out the mixture a bit. Then I started to feed him.

After a few bites I noticed that he was grabbing his eyes and rubbing his face. Then I realized that he had blisters forming all around his lips and mouth. Then Shane started coughing and gagging and crying. I yelled to John that he was having an allergic reaction and to find the Benedryl. We gave him a small dose and waited. He cried and coughed and finally puked 3 or 4 times and then seemed better.

He fell asleep on my shoulder and I put him in his bouncer to keep an eye on him. After 45 minutes or so he started coughing again and I realized that he was COVERED in hives. His head was one massive hive in the back. His eyes were swelling shut and his breathing was getting labored again. I took him into the shower with me to see if his breathing would improve and realized how bad his hives were getting so we dosed him again with Benedryl and decided to take him to ER.

By the time that I got to the ER with him the Benedryl had kicked in and he was improving again, but I had him checked out anyways. They basically told me to stay away from both the milk and oatmeal until I can get him tested and use Benedryl until the hives improve. My poor little guy was so sweet in the ER! The doctor wanted to know what kind of formula he normally drinks and couldn't believe that he has never drank formula before! Our collection of soy formula may come in handy now after all!
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I have never written about our nasty neighbors across the street before. They are the worst. I am not even going to get into how rude they are or how they are at war with their next door neighbors over a bike that has been in between both of their yards for over a month! I am above all of that.

I am just going to celebrate that they put their house up for sale today! Yipee! We are hoping that a family with little boys moves in. I am going to start strategically leaving all of the boys cars and ride on toys out near the street so that any prospective home buyers see that there are kids across the street. Then I am going to post a sign that says "Don't retire in this neighborhood... no empty nesters!"! That should do it.

The house on the corner sold too and the people moved out today. I am keeping my fingers crossed that a young family moves in there too, but I don't have a lot of hope. The house has a first floor master and is a corner lot on a busy street. That combo seems to attract old introverts! Plus I didn't have my sign up when that house sold.

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We are taking the boys to get their H1N1 vaccine tomorrow! I am so excited. It will be so nice to know that they won't get infected and die from the Swine Flu. Apparently all it takes is a little milk and some oatmeal!