Allergies!!!

Poor Taylor has suffered with allergies all her life. When she was only 9 months old we found out the hard way that she was allergic to penicillin.

(Can you see all the hives/red spots all over her body?)

Then, when she turned one we were so excited to feed her real food that we made her a PB&J sandwich. She didn't even eat it. She picked up one piece put it to her lips and that was as close as it got to her taste buds. Well...it was enough. About 1/2 later she was softly crying in her crib and we found her with her entire head swollen up like a huge balloon! Her eyes were basically swollen shut. So scary! We rushed her down to the Urgent Care and they gave her some epinephrine, a prescription for an epi-pen to be carried with here at all times and huge warning to us to be very careful that she not be exposed again. (The 2nd & 3rd exposures usually go straight to the swelling up of her throat...thus cutting off her air quickly and potentially causing suffocation and death!) So...no peanut butter for our family. We have been somewhat lucky because Taylor refuses to eat almost anything...so I don't have to worry about her just eating peanuts without us being there. (Sorry, no picture...it was too scary for me to think about the camera; however, the permant profile picture at the Urgent Care is of her with a huge swollen face! Kind-of funny!)

Since that experience, we have only had a few small scares that have easily been treated with large doses of Benedryl. But the other night we came home from a date night and Taylor seemed fine asleep in bed. Then at 4:00 in the morning she came and woke me up and the poor girls face and eyes were all swollen! She was fine about 12 hours and lots of Benedryl later...but it is still scary because we can't figure out what caused the reaction! Poor girl!

(Of course, I took pictures at 4:30 AM just to document the event!)