Allergy Accident

Since returning to America, we have successfully avoided ANY allergy accidents. While living overseas and finding ourselves straddling two cultures and two languages, we made a few mistakes with Isaac's egg allergy. One of them was right before we got on the plane to come back. We let him have pizza that used egg in the crust and our AWANA night celebration was ruined by the need for an Epi-pen.

Isaac reentered American society with no trust for his parents (mostly his mom) when it came to food. He would ask if water had egg in it, the poor little guy. He tried to read the ingredient lists on everything even though he could barely read at the time. He was desperate to avoid another shot.

At Whole Foods today Isaac spotted a cooler of donuts. He loves donuts and has been keeping an eye out for possible egg-free options. (Yes, I know I could bake them, but baking donuts is not something I'm currently up for doing in the midst of moving in a week.) I looked on the packaging and saw that they were gluten and dairy free. Hopeful, I flipped it over and did not see egg listed on the ingredients.

Isaac was so excited about these donuts. I was so excited for him. His brother and sister were excited. We even bought some cheaper, non-egg-free donuts for Abigail and Sidge so that all the egg-free ones could be reserved for Isaac.

Then we got home. He took three bites and he just started staring at the donut. "Are you sure these don't have eggs Mom? My mouth feels funny."

I felt my heart start to race, and I picked up the box and looked again. For some reason, this product did not list eggs in the bold section where eggs are always listed. It listed it in the middle of the other ingredients -- something it never does. Eggs are always included with gluten and soy and peanuts as top allergens.

The darn donuts had eggs!

Isaac's eyes immediately welled up with tears and he started shaking. I felt such a sense of shame and frustration at missing that! I'm his mom. I'm supposed to protect him for things he's too young to protect himself from.  I told Isaac not to panic, and I tried not to panic, but the poor little guy is immediately thinking he's going to have to get a shot, and I'm immediately thinking I'm going to have to give him a shot.

(JB is never home when these things happen!)

A shot for just wanting to have a donut!

I tried to call JB. I tried to text him. No luck. I finally called the ER directly -- something I've never done before, and they were able to get him on the phone. He told me that after only a few bites, I could give him some Benadryl and watch him very, very carefully.

A half hour later, Isaac said his throat and tongue felt normal again. He ate some popcorn instead of a donut and I let him watch a movie. I also cancelled a punishment he was supposed to have had for bad behavior when we were out today. (It was the least I could do.)

I really, really, really dislike food allergies. Honestly, it is because an error is something that is totally in my hands, not his.

And now I'm going to feel like I need to check entire ingredient lists instead of just the bold section.

Big sigh ....