Unlike Most Kids, He Actually Has a Valid Excuse for Not Eating His Peas…

Matthew’s latest round of blood work confirms our suspicions that he has developed an allergy to peas. He used to eat them all the time, but just over a year ago he quite eating them. He had a vomiting incident involving some split pea soup and that was our first big warning sign. We have been watching him for the past year and he has picked around the peas when he encounters them and been just fine. But two weeks ago he ate around the peas in his chicken noodle soup just like he always does and had a reaction anyway. He was coughing and generating a lot of mucus, both signs of an allergic reaction. I gave him some Benadryl and within five minutes it had all cleared up.  So peas are off the menu around here.

I’m not going to lie to you. I get a bit discouraged. With every new thing he becomes allergic to, it gets harder to imagine that he’ll ever get to the point where we can take him out to eat. And I get nervous about him developing other allergies. I especially worry about other legumes.  If he becomes allergic to soy, we are going to need another all encompassing food and recipe overhaul. I think I’m better equipped to handle it now than I was five years ago, but honestly it kind of stresses me out to think about it and I know there would be tears involved. But all we can do it keep taking one day at a time and see how things play out….

Oh, and one other tidbit: we did a general screening for seasonal allergies since Matthew has been having some red, itchy and watery eyes of late. He showed positive results for both test groups of trees, weeds, grass, and mold. At least all of those aren’t life threatening.