Friday, November 7, 2008

Life After a Successful Egg Challenge - Answers and Questions


Eggs have re-entered our home and there is rejoicing all around.  We have made brownies, pancakes and scrambled eggs.  I am sorry for those of you still egg less ones, but eggs really do make things easier for the cooking impaired such as myself.  The brownies actually taste ok, and don't double as a stepping stone for the garden.  The pancakes can be removed from the pan without a chisel, and actually resemble a pancake.

However I am still uncertain about this whole egg thing.  Previously Conor had never really reacted to cooked egg.  He ate lots of things with egg cooked in it and I never noticed anything before.(not that I was a little bit slow on noticing these things before).  He seemed to really react to raw egg, or things like meringue powder that I put into icings.  How do I know if he will react to these things now, and what if he does???  And if he gets some eczema, how do I know if it is exacerbated by the eggs???

Now here is my other really stupid thought.  He used to be allergic to eggs, and now he ate one.  How do I know he is still allergic to peanuts.  Sure I remember a few years ago when he ate on and his head blew up to the size of a basketball, but how do I know he still is.  I am thrilled that he has not had a peanut reaction since, and it means we are doing a good job keeping him safe, but the part of me thinks denial is a river in Egypt wonders if I am just being paranoid in my anti-peanut crusade.

Don't worry, I know he is still allergic to peanuts.  We will navigate the waters of our own journey with eggs one egg and one day at a time.  We got some new answers I really like, but why do I still have so many new questions.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The theory over here (Australia) is to bombard them with whatever food they've passed a challenge for, in order to keep their tolerance up. The only really eggy thing my 3 year old will eat is french toast, so we have that twice a week. I worry about the exzcema too, but it's no different now to when she was on no egg at all.
With the nuts, she has had some mild exposures (accidentally ate a hazelnut praline chocolate last christmas, and at easter was in a kitchen where peanut rocky road was being chopped, with bits of peanut flying everywhere), and it was interesting to me to see her lack of reaction. I am keen to get to a nut challenge as soon as the allergist allows, as now they're not sure that extended food avoidance might not be making some allergies worse.
It's such a damned if you do and damned if you don't situation!

Jennifer said...

Kate,

Thank you so much for telling me about your situation. It really helps me to hear how other people and other places deal with it. Conor has been eating eggs in waffles and cookies, and so far everything seems fine.

Unfortunatly I do not think a peanut challenge is in our near future. Oh well, eggs are better then nothing.

Jennifer