Guess we won’t have to worry about Harmon picking the cashews out of the bowl of mixed nuts at Christmas (who DOES that?)!

Not too long ago, I was bitching up a storm about kids and their damn peanut allergies. Harmon loves PBJ and I KNOW he’ll eat it but I can’t pack it in his lunch because some kids in his class are allergic. Well, all that bitching came back to haunt me when we were in Chicago on vacation.

My sister, Stacey, offered to watch the boys after work while Kevin and I shopped so we stopped to pick up something for Harmon to eat for dinner. We searched for old reliable – PBJ – but could only find CASHEW butter and jelly so we bought it. About 45 minutes into our shopping trip, I got a call from Stacey. She said Harmon didn’t like his sandwich so I told her to make sure he ate everything else and we would bring something back for him to eat when we returned. Problem solved. Just a few minutes later, Stacey called back again and calmly explained that Harmon is PUKED. She’s not sure WHY but she would love for us to get back to the hotel ASAP. We practically jog up Michigan Avenue all the while thinking WTF. When I open the door to our hotel room, I see Harmon sitting on the couch looking like a blowfish. His eyes are all puffy and swollen, his nose is running like a faucet and he’s having some trouble breathing. He’s already puked so the ONE BITE he took is out of him, thankfully. I had some Benadryl so I gave him some and then I TRIED to get him to calm down. He was crying so hard, probably because he had NO IDEA what the hell was going on. I held him for about an hour and he finally settled down and then got totally ravenous. Kevin ran out to get some dinner (so glad the Cheesecake Factory was less than a block away) and Harmon ate the whole time he was gone. He then ate what Kevin brought back too. By bedtime, his breathing was back to normal and most of the swelling had gone down. The next morning, he just looked a little puffy, like maybe he had just been crying.

He has had small reactions to food before (some face puffiness from scrambled eggs and a measle-looking rash on his chest from fish) but NOTHING like this. When we got back home, we went to see our pediatrician who promptly a) wrote us a prescription for an Epi-pen (YIKES) and b) referred us to a pediatric allergist. Our appointment is Aug, 19.

Since the great cashew incident of 2009, I’ve learned a lot about peanuts versus tree nuts. I’ve also replayed that night in my head many times. I’m glad he only had one bite and I’m glad Stacey and I didn’t decide to “play the heavy” and make him eat the rest of his sandwich (we often have to do that – he IS three, after all). I’m also glad he didn’t LIKE it – can you imagine? I think we all aged about 10 years that night, especially Stacey. Here’s hoping we don’t discover any other such allergies along the way.

And, to all those allergic to peanuts, I am so sorry! I feel you!