Dd's OIT for PA, an update

[aggiedog]

Dd had her appointment today.  It went well.  Met the new allergist there.  He was young-ish, very nice, very down to earth.  Discussed dd's recent reaction to her PN dose.  He felt there was a good chance it was precipitated by being outside all day combined with the raw spot on her gums.  Given the reaction he recommended another year on maintenance.  If she is reaction free next year, we try a tolerance test.  No PN's for a month, then eat some.  He was very pleased with her PN numbers.  0.64 now, 5.60 in 2010.

Discussed her new TN numbers.  He thought it might be more of a cross reactivity with environmental allergens and more of an OAS type thing, which would be good since those allergies stay localized to the mouth.  Did a skin prick test for enviros.  Nada. She's not allergic to any of them.  Sooo, new TN allergies. He recommended complete avoidance.  I told dd before the appointment that her blood test showed new allergies but I wasn't sure they were correct since she ate Nutella (a third of a jar in one sitting 2 days ago) without a problem.  She told me her mouth was indeed a little itchy when she ate it.  Argh.  News to me.  So, no Nutella in our house.  No great loss, it has the nutritional value of marshmallows.  The doctor said TN's, fish, and shellfish were the most common late onset FA's.

He said 60-70% of OIT kids seem to grow into complete tolerance but there seems to be no rhyme or reason as to which kids it would be.   

So that's about it.  I really didn't pepper him with questions, and I wasn't really surprised by anything.  OAS and enviro allergies would have been nice, but it is what it is.

[Macabre]

Oh, wow. I'm sorry.  I thought of y'all today.

[aggiedog]

Thanks, Mac.  So far the TNA's are a nuisance more than anything.  Mildly itchy mouth with nothing more. Goes away with an antihistamine.  I think now it just means we have to go back to asking everyone what's in the food, and I guess reading labels more carefully.  You have the sesame allergy, right?  Any common hidden sources?

I also asked the doctor about portable antihistamines, since the fast melts, etc, were off the market.  He recommended Zyrtec and the like.  Small pills, easy to carry.  Made sense to me.

[CMdeux]

Just now seeing this.  Bummer.  Her reactivity to TN sounds similar to DH's.

He doesn't find it 'scary' to live with in the least.  Just annoying.  He also really just asks about high risk foods since his threshold is so high that anything else, he can 'figure it out' with little risk.

So he asks about:
desserts, cookies, chocolates, pastries, salad dressings and salads, and 'crust/crumb' coatings on meat, poultry, and fish.  That's about it.  He also just plain AVOIDS those items that are probably made with his allergen (walnut)-- carrot cake, baklava, and brownies-- no matter what he is told about them.

[aggiedog]

Yes, CM, that's what we've been doing with the pecans and walnuts.  I just now have this nagging feeling, wondering if I should be super anal about x-con, etc, in some effort to prevent the allergy from getting worse.  That may very well be me reverting to pre-OIT PA mode.  I don't seem to know what to to with an in-between sort of vigilance. 

I would much prefer to not be super anal.  That is alot of work and alot of stress, and life is pretty good right now.  Dd is going to a new week long sleepover camp this summer.  I'm trying to figure out how spooled up I need to get.  It will be at a college and she'll be eating in the cafeteria for much of it.  She's not an adventuresome eater and would be happy eating noodles 3 meals a day.

[aggiedog]

Dd got back yesterday from her camp. No problems with the food, had a blast.  We'll just keep plugging away with her daily PB and re-evaluate next year.  I'm stressing less about the TNA's, and just not buying things that are contain/may contains or feeding her obviously nutty food out and about.  Seems to be working for us.

[aggiedog]

A bit of an update on dd's non-PN FA's.  She's supposedly allergic to sesame and hazelnut.  This weekend she had fried rice with a good dose of sesame seeds and Nutella, all with not even a hint of a reaction.  While neither are huge doses, she does not seem to be all that sensitive at least.  FWIW.

[Macabre]

That's good, because with sesame, going off to camp would be more if a production.