The food allergy that never was

Last Wednesday I was able to get Ezra in to see the allergist.  I was a little annoyed, after making the 1st appt. after lunch that I still had to wait 20 minutes, but regardless we were able to get in and that was the important part.  I sat down and talked to the allergist, showed him pictures and discussed my diet.  He agreed that we should test for just about everything that was regularly in my diet- I eat all the high allergen foods just about every day.  I had discussed RAST testing (a blood test) with my pediatrician.  I guess it's the first step in most allergy testing; however, it has been proven lately that it's not super effective and often comes back with tons of false positives.  I was a little nervous about the standard allergy testing and I had talked to so many people that said I shouldn't put my infant through it if I didn't have to.  But clearly, I chose that I'd rather know if my kid was highly allergic to anything than taking a chance later on.   The doctor promised me that babies were the easiest to do this testing on.  I was skeptical.  Ezra was tested for dairy, peanuts, soy, wheat, tree nuts, 2 or 3 other things and even cats.  He didn't even flinch.  I was ready to sing and gave him his Nuk and everything in preparation for a screaming child that I'd have to hold down while he was 'scratched' 13 times.  But nothing. He looked at me like nothing was happening and he was none the wiser.  It was awesome knowing that I hadn't tortured him to figure out what he was allergic to. 

When you get allergy testing done this way, you have to way 15 mins. for any reaction to occur, so during this time I fed Ezra.  As if planned, he broke out with a pretty impressive rash to show the doctor.  The doctor took pictures and was kind of surprised, I think, to see how red he was.  He then checked his arm to look for the culprit and..............drumroll.............................................................
NOTHING!  My little baby is allergic to nothing!  woo hoo!  At least not the big, life threatening ones!  A huge relief.  Still doesn't really explain why he turns red when he eats but the doctor says that he's not worried, especially if it only stays on his face.  So, hopefully all this allergy talk was for nothing and that'll be our final experience with food allergies.  Hard to believe it was that easy.  Of course, we'll keep an eye on things if the rash persists or it gets worse, but I can really breathe easier knowing that everything I'm eating isn't affecting Ezra.  Makes my days a little easier.  Now that we know he's not allergic to anything, we'll be starting solid foods soon! I can hardly believe that he's ready for such a milestone! 

Allergies be gone!