I guess it's a good thing I have an uncommon name!
15 October 2006
How many of me
How many of me
All is not lost! Hope springs eternal!!
While at the Navy Ball, we mentioned to one of Kurt's former shipmates that Grace had a peanut allergy. She suggested that we try soynut butter, and I managed to remember to look for it at our local foo-foo grocery store. Lo, and behold! We found a whole line of soynut butters, including creamy and chunky styles!
I actually sort of want to try the chocolate soynut butter flavor. Yum yum!!!
The soynut butter tastes funny, although Grace probably won't notice a difference because she's never had real peanut butter. So now I can make her peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, Ants on a Log, and even peanut butter cookies! YAY!!
It's not all bad.
It's just going to take some vigilance. For example, our local foo-foo grocery store likes to put out samples of stuff, and we've never really paid attention to it and just given Gracie whatever there was. Today we saw they had a plate full of cookies out, and there was a sign in front that said some of the cookies had been made in plants that also process nuts. No cookies for Gracie because all the cookies were sort of mixed in together, and I don't know quite what her allergy level is. I'm thankful they're very good about marking that sort of thing. I guess way back in the day it was a LOT harder to protect your kid from peanuts because the labeling of products wasn't as thorough as it is now.
That said, I do know Grace isn't insanely allergic to peanuts. We've never been vigilant about it before, and it was only now when we gave her a big piece of peanut butter cookie that she had a reaction to it. The allergist said she probably wasn't extremely allergic to it, bad enough to cause a reaction, and if she gets peanuts over and over again, it will go to the extreme. There is also the chance that she could possibly outgrow her allergy. The allergist said that in recent years, the chance of outgrowing a peanut allergy has risen to 10% of cases. That's still a minority of peanut allergy sufferers, but it used to be 0%.
Strict avoidance is key.
But Grace is not so allergic that we can't have it in the house at all. We'll get the final answer this week when we find out the level of antibodies in her blood, but I've had peanuts around her without feeding them to her and she's been fine. The reason that some schools and even some airline flights absolutely forbid peanuts if a sufferer is present is because some people will react just by inhaling little tiny bits of peanut in the air. As long as I keep peanuts away from Grace as much as possible, she probably will never get to that point.
And I am much happier knowing that there is an alternative to peanut butter. Granted, I will still have to tell her and educate her about her allergy, and if little Susie wants to share her PB&J sandwich with Gracie, she'll just have to tell her why she can't have any. But I'll be able to make her own PB&J sandwich so she won't stand out as much.
You just gotta find the silver lining in the clouds sometimes!