On Thursday, right after Alex had eaten some milk and cookies, he came up to me crying stating that he was itchy. I noticed hives all over his body and his eyes were swollen. Not sure what was going on, but knowing that what I was witnessing was not good, I rushed him to the ER. He was given a shot and later an EKG. He was monitored for several hours and once most symptoms had subsided, he was released. The doctor had informed me that Alex suffered a severe allergic reaction to something (most likely in the cookies that he had eaten right before it happened) and that next time this happens, we need to call 911. I took Alex to an allergist today who stated that some cookies contain certain dyes that kids can react to, he suspected it was a yellow dye or a synthetic vanilla flavoring. I came home and checked the ingredients, there were 2 yellow dyes and an odd sounding vanilla flavoring in the cookies. Since Alex had sensitivities to red dyes when he was little, I believe the doctor might be right about the yellow dyes. Since allergists do not test for dye allergies, the only way we will know is when it happens again we will compare ingredients of the culprit food items. For now ,I will carry an epipen in my purse and have one in the house. Alex and the other kids have been instructed to call 911 in the future. So, for all you moms out there, if your kid eats something and suddenly looks like Alex did, call 911! (this picture was snapped on the way to the hospital, he continued to get worse until he got the shot)
Sunday I took the kids on a walk, we went to one of our favorite spots near the house, a stream where we skip rocks and wade in the water.
Today we went to the same stream further down, it has a nice little swimming hole near a train bridge....
The kids enjoyed swimming in the swimming hole....
Greg found his own little spot to play in...
Some teenagers came and jumped in from the bridge....the kids thought they were crazy, I kept my mouth shut about my bridge jumping college days! (especially the part about how the bridge we jumped from was way higher than this one!!)
6 comments:
I remember the bridge jumping!! That is so scary about Alex...and good to know what to do if it happens again. Glad he got better quickly.
That is freaky what happened to Alex. It's good you knew to get him some help.
You are so lucky to live in such a beautiful area! It looks absolutely stunning there.
It must be nice to have somewhere to swim so close to your house! You're SO lucky that creek is there and it has a swim hole made by nature. You'd hate to have to pay swim membership, yada, yada, yada!
Just watch out, some day soon your boys might not think bridge jumping is such a bad idea, it could be fun. And remember, it runs in there genes - it could be hereditary!
What a scary thing to go through with the hives! The whole year before we moved out of Maryland, I had hives caused by "severe allergic reactions" off and on (but not as severe as Alex), and doctors still have no idea what caused it. I saw 3 different types of doctors over the span and was on medications to control the hives. It is so fortunate that you already have a good idea what caused it for Alex and especially something to help if it gets bad again.
Aww poor Alex! Allergic reactions are no fun.
Be sure to practice with Alex on how to use the epi pen. And, when registering for camp or school, you've got to get written permission from the Dr. It's a pain, but it can potentially save his life.
We equate nuts with Kryptonite with Jackson. Even Superman has something that he has to stay away from!
Post a Comment