We got Oscar's allergy test results back this week. Everything is the same still except for egg white wasn't detected. This was previously low with the last Rast test but the intolerant test that we got sent to America was exceptionally high. I don't really know what this means! We have decided to play around with egg yolk initially and see what happens. The nurse told us Oscar's IGE levels were exceptionally high at 3019. The normal level for children is under 100. I told her that was great news as they used to be 4020! Oscar is quite upset as he was hoping he might be able to eat cheese and yoghurt. When we told him his results he said "But I've never eaten cheese in my whole life. He actually has, four years ago and obviously can't remember what it tastes like. We have tried some of the dairy free cheeses but they haven't been well received!
Oscar has managed to start the night off in his bed all week. He still itches and wants to go into our bed but we are standing firm on him having to fall asleep in his bed at the start of the night. This has been the first week back for Term 2 and Oscar has woken up at a normal time in the morning and has been on time every day! He's still slow as a snail getting ready but seems much more settled and happier to go to school.
Harry's doing so well. His stomach is nearly healed. He is sleeping well and is now saying every night before bed that he's going to sleep in his bed all night long. Not quite the case yet but certainly heading in the right direction.
I mentioned in my last post about the incident at kindy with Harry getting his hands on a birthday cupcake. I sent an e.mail to Harry's kindy asking if they would consider asking parents to bring in non food treats for Birthdays. The staff had a meeting about this and believe the cultural part of sharing food is important so they will be keeping things the same. I challenged this answer by asking if cultural is more important than health, not just Harry's. Some weeks there are multiple Birthdays and cakes and food treats are being handed out to children. According to
the Ministry of Educations first chief education health and nutrition advisor, Grant Schofield, the average N.Z child consumes 17 teaspoons a day! Click here to read MOE's new health advisor's article
A scary thought!
Anyways long story short I ended up in tears as it is upsetting knowing my children have to feel excluded for no fault of their own. The main issue for me is I have no control in an environment where people I don't know are handing food out. That really is a scary situation for us. Unfortunately some food for our children is poison to their wee bodies and people who haven't encountered allergies don't get that.
I want children to be able to celebrate their Birthday at Kindy. I really do, but believe it doesn't have to be with food. Children wouldn't care in the least if they were given a piece of cake or a balloon.
However Kindy want to make Harry feel included so have offered to do some baking with him at Kindy that they can keep in the freezer so there will always be something there for him.
I was asked by a friend if it was me that had an issue more than Harry. I thought long and hard and realised it's both of us. He's the one that gets upset and I'm the one that has to pick up the pieces. I did ask him what he wanted when children at kindy are eating birthday treats and he replied with "I want to eat cupcakes too".
I feel like everyday we have to fight to keep our children healthy. After all these years you would think we would be well accustomed to this. I guess it has mostly become routine but every now and then we have to go into battle a bit harder than usual. I'm sure anyone reading this that deals with allergies on a daiy basis will understand this and know how isolating it can feel.
At the end of the day we have to do what we can to try and keep our children healthy and happy.
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