Nathan's One Year Checkup

Nathan one week: Nathan one year:

Monday I took Nathan for his one year checkup. He is such a big boy now!!! Over 20 lbs (which is only the 10th percentile for his age) but he is 31 inches tall (80th percentile!!!). When I asked her about his head, which seems really SMALL to me, she actually laughed. Its normal size I was assured. Which in our family is abnormal. He wont be a "lollipop boy" like the other two kiddos.

While there she did discover that Nathan had both a sinus and ear infection. Poor kid. He just has been sick constantly since September. Its hard to keep up! So, he is on an anticbiotic now. Want to know what NOT to do after giving you child antibiotics for the first time? Give him an entire bottle out in public. YUCK. What a mess. Sorry to those who had to experience his eruption.

Nathan also had his long awaited allergy testing. Blood work. Its the most reliable and accurate, according to our pediatrician. We dont mess around with allergies with our kids. We got the results today and it was quite what we expected, Nathan is extremely allergic to egg whites and less allergic to milk, but, still not in a range that would be recommended to feed to him. Luckily he is not allergic to nuts or soy. Surprisingly and upsettingly, he is extremely allergic to dogs, dog dander to be exact. His allery response was so severe she actually assumed he was living with a dog currently, his numbers were so high that he typified a child with constant exposure. Our pediatrician recommended to avoid all contact with dog dander for at least a year until we can retest him to see if he outgrew his allergy. This is extremely sad for us, because we were in love with the idea of a Spring dog for the family. However, we will always put the health of our child over the wants of our family and therefore will not be getting a dog until his allergies resolve themselves.

To this allergy discussion I wanted to add my own personal thoughts. Our family has struggled with allergies in the form of food and environmental allergens for many years now. Its extremely difficult for the kids (my heart breaks knowing Nathan will have to go through even some of what Evan had to as a child with food allergies). Its also hard for G and I as parents. It affects many, many aspects of our lives. It is more than just not eating certain things. It means checking labels, not going out to dinner (eating out is extremely difficult as many foods are cooked on shared grills and surfaces), not easily eating with other people, the kids being left out at parties at school, always being on our guard, in our home, when we are out, everywhere. At the gymnastics place where Justin attends, the waiting room is littered with food crumbs and bits and pieces from kids left behind. Nathan picks everything up and puts it directly in his mouth. This is a terrible combination. When Evan was little I even had to seek out a gym that did not allow food in the daycare (which was incredibly hard to find) because of accidental exposure to allergens. Because our boys cannot even eat foods with certain ingredients baked into them, its even harder than just not drinking milk or having scrambled eggs for breakfast. You would NOT believe the amount of foods that contain milk and/or egg.

I feel sometimes like we struggle alone with these issues. Unless your child has food allergies its extremely difficult to relate and understand, even believe in the dangers. I have seen changes and more awareness in the past few years in the schools and with other parents. Some schools now encourage non-food related celebrations so every child is safe and no one is left out. Parents will sometimes ask if its okay to share a snack with your child. But, its still so hard. And so yet so important. Total allergen numbers in children affect their lives in serious ways. It affects their immune system and their respiratory system. Sleep apena, asthma and other really serious conditions are a result of repeat exposure to allergens. Repeated exposure at high levels also can lead to worsening symptoms and reactions.

The silver lining to our diligence as parents is our family eats so healthy! The boys dont eat lots of processed foods (in our processed food society this is quite a feat) and snack foods. When Evan was little we got in the habit of serving whole foods, apples, bananas, grapes, carrots, broccoli, corn, instead of say, apple crisp, fruit snacks and corn casserol. We cant have butter on anything (milk product)! And the nice thing about Nathan's food allergies is that they are a condition that he most likely will outgrow (as did Evan at 4 years old) and are not a lifelong condition. Plus, Evan had all the same ones, so Im experienced at cooking without these ingredients!!

In the end, I am very grateful that Nathan is a healthy and happy one year old, allergies aside. I know that given his traumatic start to life, we could very easily be faced with much different medical issues now. And without sounded ungrateful, I wanted to express how appreciative we are for our friends and family understanding our struggles.