It's crazy to think how far we have come this year with her peanut allergy. OIT has been amazing for Ruthie and for our family and has changed our lives so much. I know I say that a lot but I think until you have had a child with a food allergy you don't understand the paralyzing fear that you feel every single day. To be able to go to the pool, a friend's house, or out to eat and not spend the whole time watching not only what your child is putting in their mouth but also what other children are putting eating is so amazing. When Ruthie was diagnosed we had no idea OIT existed. We never thought a day would come when we wouldn't have to worry about food. When I first heard about OIT it seemed like something that would maybe trickle down to us from the big medical centers many years in the future. We will forever be grateful for the discovery of our amazing doctor in a small town 2 hours from us!
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| Ruthie and Dr. Williams, her wonderful OIT allergist! |
So back to yesterday. Ruthie updosed to 12 peanuts a day. She will do her challenge in a month and then will be on a daily dose of 8 peanuts from then on out. Ruthie has been an absolute rockstar about eating her peanuts. Many kids who do OIT can't stand the taste of peanuts and dosing is really a struggle for them (and their parents!). After her last updose, to 10 peanuts, Ruthie started complaining about every day about how many peanuts she was having to eat. I agreed...it was a lot. I promised her that I would talk to the doctor about it at her next appointment and she soldiered through her 2 weeks of eating 10 peanuts. So at her appointment yesterday I talked to the doctor and he gave us a list of equivalents for 8 peanuts. So we can either do one and a half of those thing to make 12 or we can do one of the equivalents and then 4 peanuts.
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| Those are some yummy options! |
I was pretty nervous about switching because some kids have reactions to other forms of peanut (like peanut butter or pb2 powder). We decided to do her dose in the office with nutter butters. I SO wish I had videoed her reaction. She ate about half of one and then said "Is this peanut butter? Because it's GOOD!!" It was precious.
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| Nutter Butters are delish! |
Today we did her dose in peanut butter to equal 8 peanuts and then she ate 4 actual peanuts to make her dose of 12. I put the peanut butter on apples (one of her very favorite fruits). She thought that was delicious as well!
Ruthie's allergist also had a special treat for her at her appointment yesterday. Since it was her last updose he gave her a gift card to Cold Stone! She was SO excited. All the kids were there and he told her she could treat everyone to ice cream. She thought about that for a minute then asked me if I had money. I said yes. She said "Good. You can buy everyone else's. This is MY gift card!" It took me quite awhile to convince her to let me use the gift card for everyone but she finally agreed. She was so excited about her gift card. It was really cute. She carried it around and didn't let it out of her sight until we got to Cold Stone.
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| Enjoying Cold Stone! |
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