The Nestle ice cream bars that are made specifically for Disney and are on literally every corner, in every park, are still safe to eat. Much to the elation of my kids! They had one at every park. Four ice creams in five days. Yum!

The Guest Services has a packet of papers that you can read to see what restaurants have what allergy issues. While this is a great thing to have, it is a little difficult to understand. They have all four parks listed and sometimes things are in different parks and well, it was confusing. However, we told the chefs at each place that we had a peanut allergy and they were very helpful.

The only issue we had was leaving our backpack in the stroller. I tried to keep it with me at all times but sometimes with a certain ride it wasn’t feasible. The problem with this is that it is where we kept the epi-pens. I was worried someone would steal our backpack.  I finally had my husband keep an epi-pen in his jeans so that we would always have one with us. Turns out we did have something stolen from us but it wasn’t the backpack.  Someone stole our newly bought ornaments from under the stroller. We decided to do one last ride and while we were in line or on the ride they stole our ornaments. It happens.

All in all, a wonderful, and practically worry-free vacation. It’s awesome!!

Alex is at an acting camp this week. He will be there for 3.5 hours Mon-Thurs and then from 9-4:30pm on Friday. This is the first time Alex is in charge of his epi-pens on his own. The first time he is in charge of giving himself an injection if the situation warrants. This is scary stuff for him and for his momma. We went over the use of  his epi-pen yesterday and today using the trainer. He already knew the basics but we wanted to be sure he was ok with the actual action. He did well. This morning I went over the things he needed to look out for in case of a reaction. Things like his tongue feeling larger, his mouth/tongue tingling, difficulty breathing and feeling as though his throat was constricting. This all scared him but I told him he had to be prepared for anything.

At first he was a little too nonchalant for my taste. “I never had a problem in school” he told me. I explained that he had to be prepared in case he touched someone who had peanut butter residue on their hands. It is acting camp so who knows what kinds of things they’ll be doing. Shaking hands is very possible. Now that I think of it I probably should have sent some baby wipes with him. Mental note for tomorrow.

So, this is a first for us. I am hoping that 8-years-old isn’t too young for this. I know he has to get used to it at some point but he’s still my baby and I worry. A lot.

My hope is that even if the law isn’t passed, the new principal (yes, I have to start over with a new principal this year) will call our allergist and find out what this new law entails. If our kids can’t outgrow this allergy then we need to do our best to advocate for their safety.

Um, yeah. That didn’t happen. Not even remotely close. His wheal size doubled to 25mm. Yes, 25 mm! That’s huge! At 16 mm they consider that a person will have a reaction 100% of the time to peanut protein. Yeah, he way surpassed that. I’m disappointed, I’m angry, I’m just plain deflated. I never expected this. I don’t know why I never did, I just didn’t.

I asked, again, about desensitization. Our allergist is not sold on it. She doesn’t feel that they have figured out a good way of doing it yet. The steps to even be considered for the trials include a skin test, blood test, and, horrifyingly, an oral challenge to prove you are allergic. I think desensitization is a great gift for the kids it works on. The problem is knowing who it will and will not work on. You just don’t know.

The good news? Peanut allergies are so publicized that more and more people are aware of it and do things they can to prevent kids from getting exposed. Restaurants are using less and less peanut-containing products. Schools are realizing that it isn’t going anywhere and more students are entering school with these allergies. All of this makes life a little easier for kids and families with peanut allergies. For that I am thankful.

Some day I would like to see a remedy for peanut allergy. Until then, we will continue doing what we can to eliminate exposure.

When he sees the allergist in April I’m going to see what her opinions are on maturity level. I’m sure it depends on the child but there must be some ballpark age that kids “get it”.  What do you think?

He also had an allergist appointment during that time. His wheal has gotten smaller (now 12mm) but he is still very allergic to peanuts. I know that every peanut allergy is serious in that we never know when the reaction will be anaphylaxis but Alex’s wheal and spread results indicate that he is 100% guaranteed to have a reaction if exposed to peanut protein. The only unknown is what that reaction will be.

Alex was only diagnosed with a peanut allergy because he ended up with a rash and a very swollen eye when he was 20-months-old. I had given him peanut butter crackers that morning. The third time he was exposed to peanuts. I believe the other two times gave him a small rash as well but nothing else was out of the ordinary.

For the first three years I just got his RAST test done every year. He varied between level 2 and level 3 with the blood test. Then before he started school I felt that he needed to see an actual allergist. His kindergarten year he saw the allergist in December and his wheal was 16mm. He was also diagnosed with cat and dog allergies (which we already knew), a spring tree and some kind of fall weed. I believe there were 23 pricks in all. Thankfully he was not allergic to any other food product including tree nuts.

I have to explain to people sometimes that peanuts are not actually nuts at all. They are legumes like peas etc. The look on their face is usually pretty funny.

So, that’s that. We have 37 days left in our summer vacation. Around day 25 or so I will be meeting with the new teachers and discussing protocol for this coming year. Fingers crossed it goes well!

1. One day Alex’s class was going to have a pizza party. I mistakenly assumed that was their lunch. I know, we should never assume something but it was pizza! Anyway, the principal called saying Alex didn’t have a lunch and wanted to know what he could have from the a-la-carte items. As we talked she informed me that they have a lunch that is cheese stick, fruit, yogurt and juice box. Fantastic! He’ll take that.

About two weeks later we were really scrounging for lunch and I asked Alex if he wanted to buy the cheese stick lunch, he did. When I asked him that night how he liked his meal he said it was good and he even got a roll and mashed potatoes. What? I guess because the principal walked him throught he lunch line the first time she only let him get the things I mentioned. I explained to him that he can only get what was in the first meal and then we decided it was just better to pack every day.

2. He has his own table in the cafeteria. It’s a small table and no one sits there at any other lunch. His teacher is kind enough to check lunches and see if any children have peanuts in their lunch, if they don’t then they can sit with Alex. Thankfully there are plenty of kids who want to sit with my little man so he has never eaten alone.  One day he was with two of his good buddies and popsicles were given out at lunch. The cafeteria lady (she walks around and helps kids open things etc.) looked at the popsicle and told Alex he could have it. Now I’m sure she read the ingredients but since there is no law for “may contains” I don’t know for sure that it was safe. He had no problems so it was fine but I had to explain to Alex, again, that he can’t eat anything at school that I haven’t said is ok. His teacher buys their snacks off the list I provided so I know that snack time is ok but I never thought the cafeteria lady would let Alex eat something. I explained the best that I could that sometimes adults mean well but it isn’t always safe. Ugh.

Hopefully the rest of the year will go without incident. This journey can be exhausting sometimes!