Where Have I Been?

It's been almost a year since I last posted. In the past year I went back to school and back to work. It's been a complicated busy year and I mainly didn't post because I had no brainpower left to write cohesive sentences that didn't have to do with the many papers on Montessori Education which I HAD to write this year.

I hope to post some stories this summer, partly because I have missed my therapy. That is what this blog is for, my own personal therapy to deal with my kids issues. And issues have multiplied in the past year. Upcoming posts may have titles like Adventures in Asthma or Adventures in Sensory Perception Disorder or, a favorite for all, Adventures in Dealing with your child's' teachers.

Thanks to the many people who have posted comments in the last year during my absence. I have now published them.

Errupting Volcano Cake

We had a birthday party for Max on Saturday. Of course his party theme has changed MANY times over the past year. He finally decided on a Gormiti/Volcano theme. I did not have to work with fondant after all. Instead I adapted this Volcano cake recipe.

I used my own recipes for the cake and buttercream frosting. Instead of Marshmallow Fluff which contains egg I used Ricemellow Creme. Worked well.

Now we are headed out for vacation. Packing here I come.

Update

I have been in school all summer. I am studying to be a Montessori teacher (ages 3-6). Therefore my blog has really suffered. So here are some quick updates to issues I left hanging.

Tortilla Factory - Went great. Everyone there seemed to be in the know. Max had a black bean taco. No reaction! Yea!

Owen and Sesame - All tests negative. Dr. and I decided his reaction very well could have been cross-contam. Once we are back from vacation we will try an at home challenge.

Owen and Mustard - Positive test result. Grrrr! Dr. wants us to try an at home challenge. Like Owen is going to willing eat mustard directly.

Owen and his other allergies - Numerous environmentals. Eggs and milk - down. Sunflower seed -up.

Max and Weight - Max gained an entire POUND this past year. He's got to be the skinniest 7 year old on the block. Ped. is worried. Looks like we'll be seeing a GI specialist and a nutritionist sometime soon.

Here's One For You

Picking up Max from school one day last week, he said to me "Mom, we are going to go eat at a restaurant!" Stop in my tracks. "What?" "My class. We are all going to go to a restaurant!"

I turn around and head back to the teacher. With a big smile on my face and sweetness in my voice I say, "So Max tells me you are going to a restaurant." The teacher replies yes. "We've never been to a restaurant." I say. "Oh!" she seems surprised. I ask where they are going. She says she looked at the menu and it seemed there are things on there he could have. We discuss cross contamination. I end with telling her I will need to call the restaurant to see if they can safely provide Max with a meal.

Damn it. What do I do? Max will feel left out if he can't go but I don't know if I trust a restaurant to feed him. I'm also perplexed by the teachers' decision to do this without talking to me first. As a school they have been great with Max and brought him a long way academically. They support him as a student in unbelievable ways. And for the most part are very sensitive to his allergies but this is disappointing to me. I little more conversation with me would have been nice.

Responding to Questions

Sometimes people ask questions or comment on a post and I want to respond to them. I have struggled with how to do this. Do I go to their blog? Sometimes that doesn't seem appropriate. Do I just respond on my blog in the comment section? I have gone back and forth and then end up doing nothing.

So I decided to make a policy. If you ask a question in the comment section I will respond to it there. So you'll just have to check back and maybe I will get better at answering questions.

Two Posts in One Day

I had David ask how proactive we should be regarding the sunflower seed allergy and daycare/preschool. Though he broke out in hives from contact with Sunbutter when he was 18 months his test score is extremely low. As parents are now trained to use Sunbutter instead of peanut butter I wondered what I should do about preschool. Our Dr. said Sunbutter should be banned from the classroom as well.

I'm not sure if I should take this hard line. We want other parents to be empathetic to our children's health needs however when is it crying wolf? With low scores (we're talking .37), no history of anaphylaxis from or even ingestion of sunflower seed, do I really need to have it banned from his classroom? Am I going to ban milk then? His RAST for that is 8.32. Or egg, for which he has needed a previous epi? Is this really fair?

If it was just a preschool where he was going two hours a day for a couple days a week I could see drawing a hard line because this wouldn't be too much of a hardship to go without for a couple of hours. Kids would go home and have whatever they wanted for lunch. But Owen will be at the school where I will also be interning next year. He will be in another classroom until 1 and then with the nappers until 3 when I get him.

What is fair to Owen? What is fair to the other children?

I Really Can't Be In Two Places At Once

"We'll see you tomorrow at the Mother's Day Tea!" is what Max's teacher said to me that triggered the "Oh crap! I screwed up!" Owen's allergy appointment had been scheduled for months. It was too late to change it and I could not be at Mother's Day Tea and at the allergist at the same time. So, I did it. I sent the husband who was so kind to rearrange his schedule to go. I sent him with pages of notes and questions and....he came back with notes which elicited more questions from me.

I really just wanted to confirm if he is really allergic to sesame and how serious his sunflower seed allergy is. Going into daycare this summer (while I'm in school) I just want to have a good read on what his true allergies are. At this particular appointment he skin tested positive to milk, egg, peanut, mustard seed, soy, strawberry, trees, grass, dog and dust mites. David told her he eats strawberry and soy without problem and she said they were probably false positives. The peanut is new (he had a previous negative RAST). David told the doctor Owen didn't like mustard which me being the Mom knows Owen eats mustard in baked beans all the time and doesn't have a problem with it. Also the wheal for peanut and mustard seed was the same size as the strawberry and soy, so couldn't they be false positives? The only thing he skin tested negative for was sesame...

"So we are clear for sesame?" I ask my husband. "I don't know, she didn't say" was his reply. "She didn't skin test sunflower seed?" "No, she didn't" So instead of clearing up my questions about sesame and sunflower seed we have new allergies to worry about.

I took him for the blood test yesterday. Owen was great, Max was a pain (and he wasn't the one getting anything done.) I'll wait for the results and try to sort things out with the doctor.