My bestest friend in the whole wide world, Caroline, has graciously informed me that one of the yummiest fast-food restaurants in the world, Chick-Fil-A, uses peanut oil in their frying.

*sigh*

I'm somewhat surprised because peanut oil is extremely expensive in comparison to vegetable oil.

However, if you browse through the Chick-Fil-A website to find why they use peanut oil when there are so many people allergic to it, you find information stating that when peanut oil is prepared for commercial use, the peanut protein is taken out, and it's the protein that folks are allergic to. Theoretically, a peanut-allergic person could eat foods fried in peanut oil.

So now I'm waiting on a call-back from the nurse in the office that saw Gracie to determine her allergy to see whether I should be super-vigilant when it comes to peanut oil, not just the peanuts themselves, or whether she can eat commercial peanut oil.

Once it was thought that if you developed a peanut allergy in childhood, it was a lifetime thing. Now doctors are saying that peanut-allergic kids have a 20% chance of outgrowing it by the time they reach school age, but the likelihood is decreased when they have another form of allergies. Unfortunately, Grace has eczema on her legs, which sort of rules out her growing out of her allergy.

Man, that's frustrating. Chick-Fil-A is one of my favorite places to eat, although I haven't been there since I moved here. They're sort of a southern thing. But they have the awesomest waffle fries that are to die for.

I guess that's yet another place we can't eat, along with Thai restaurants. Oh well.

Trying to get a hold of Grace's allergist is an interesting experience. He's only in the county one day a month. The rest of the time he spends at his clinic in Tacoma. I think we are supposed to schedule an appointment to see him before we leave Washington; I think she's supposed to be seen once a year or something like that. When I saw her allergist in October, I thought we were moving to Tennessee, so I have a huge list of possible allergists to visit in Tennessee. Now I have to ask him for a list of referrals in Rhode Island.

Being a mom is such fun stuff, isn't it??