Saying Goodbye to Peanut Butter

May 12, 2010

Saying Goodbye to Peanut Butter

I got "the call" today from my son's pediatrician. I was expecting the phone call, with the results of last week's extensive blood work which was mostly routine. My son has autism and a list of food sensitivities including but not limited to wheat and milk. My husband is allergic to tree nuts, so we'd been playing it safe and avoiding tree nuts with my son as well. The pediatrician had added in RAST testing to the routine blood-work to test for the various nut allergies, including peanuts, and also pets - cats and dogs. Since our old dog had passed a few months ago I had noted improvement in his asthma symptoms and before adopting another dog I wanted to make sure that it wasn't the dog after all.

So, when the doctor told me my son had a lower, Class 1, reaction to dogs I wasn't real surprised given my own observations. I could handle that and made a note to call my friend who runs a dog rescue who was looking for a dog for us to call off the search. My doctor then went on to tell me that our fears and concerns about tree nuts were nothing to worry further about and that my son didn't carry the same allergy as his father. I breathed a sigh of relief, but only for a second.

She then floored me.

The pediatrician shared that even though he wasn't allergic to tree nuts that my son's blood-work showed a moderate to higher reaction, levels between Class 2 and 3, for peanuts. She went on to ask me if he had ever shown any type of allergic reaction to peanut butter. Of which he eats a moderate amount of. My answer was "No" but that he'd been getting a reddish circle that was like very chapped lips that seemed to come and go for no apparent reason. Could that be from peanut butter? I'm not certain. But, per the test result we are to "stop the peanut butter" until more extensive allergy testing can be done by a pediatric allergist.

I haven't broken the news yet to my son about the peanut butter. I haven't gone into my cabinet and thrown out the jar or banned it from our house yet. I'm still wrapping myself around the idea that we have yet one more forbidden food in our house added to the pre-existing list. I know that this is a must-do and that it is a serious situation. I know that we have been very lucky that my son has not previously reacted in the past 9 years from his somewhat regular peanut butter consumption or from being in the proximity of others enjoying peanut butter. I'm feeling very angry right now that my son has to strike yet one more 'regular' food from his diet.

I feel like my child already gives up so much and peanut butter is just one more thing on a long list of sacrifices that he makes daily. My son lives gluten free and dairy free and he handles this already difficult diet quite well. He can't have a sandwich on bread, unless you count the overpriced gluten free bread that resembles styrofoam and is stored in the freezer. He can't have a big glass of chocolate milk or tollhouse cookies. He can't have Kraft Macaroni and Cheese or a slice of delivery pizza. His version of the childhood staple of PB & J was served on rice cakes and it was almost like the last remaining bit of kid-food he had left. As if living with the daily struggles of Autism weren't enough he faces the demons of the allergy monster daily while avoiding wheat and milk.

And now we will say goodbye to peanut butter. Peanut butter, I'll miss you.

New Jersey Moms Blog post by MaryTara. MT blogs her adventures in parenting two beautiful children on the Jersey Shore, life with autism & without it, the gluten & casein free diet, and vaccination choice issues at The Bon Bon Gazette and raising a child with amblyopia at Adventures in Amblyopia.