I am positively reeling. Sucker punch to the gut, or baseball bat type reeling. If I may say so, that it saying something. I'm talking, that if it were here, I could polish off a whole package of Oreos, or a quart of ice cream. I'm stunned, I'm panicked, I'm absolutely reeling.
I have been an allergy parent for 6 years. My 6 year old K has had no less than 4 rounds of skin prick testing and 4 rounds of RAST blood work. He had his most recent round of skin testing in April and they happened to include corn.
He tested positive. The lovely nurse practitioner said it could be a false positive due to high pollen season. I shrugged and went along happily. She wanted to rule it out by including it on the RAST panel they were running because K's peanut skin test was negative.
The bloodwork came back yesterday. There was no ruling out. It was confirmed. Corn. An American boy living in the suburbs has both positive skin and blood tests to corn. This isn't a kid who lives adjacent to Alice Waters in Berkeley. A suburban American kid in East Tennessee.
No really...corn. Not gluten, not nuts, not milk, all of which seem to be at least somewhat understandable in today's society. But corn. Not in the top 8, with no labeling requirements to address it, corn.
WTH????
The NP said she would like us to remove corn from his diet until we come back July 22.
Corn?
For the first time in my life as an allergy parent I honestly don't know that I can do strict avoidance. I am leaning towards only removing closer to whole things. Actual corn, corn chips, corn muffins, use of corn meal, etc.
Really, could a kid who existed almost solely on ketchup, chicken nuggets, fish sticks, crackers, french fries for how many years be allergic to processed corn? The ketchup, nuggets and crackers are all laden with it.
On the flip side, we have had many unexplained instances where after eating a meal K has described his body as tingly. We have had many instances of that with mixed vegetables. That was the reason she put corn on the spt panel. We thought he was making stuff up.
No popcorn? No Fritos? A Southern kid who can't eat cornbread? No nachos?
My grocery bill just went up by $150/month if this is going to be our new reality.
I am honestly rather paralyzed in terms of what to do.
Corn???
Thursday, June 3, 2010
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This is how I felt when J was tested for wheat... kind of gobsmacked. I want to be all rah rah you can do it but a) it won't be fun b) you'll be cooking from scratch basically buuut we did avoid all corn/HFCS and it was sort of okay but only because J hadn't really discovered the joys of junk food yet. It's just like when you first started.. you'll get to learn what you can use, huh? It's just crazy and I feel for you!
ReplyDeleteI’m sorry Lynne! I know it seems immense now, but I have every confidence that in a few days, weeks, months, you are going to find your footing with this and knock it out of the park just like you have before. I look up to you in so many ways with the allergy stuff and yet I know your panic – it seems so BIG and IMPOSSIBLE. Now. I know you’ll get it though. ((hug))
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to let you know I'm thinking of you! One day at a time - I totally understand your anxiety/fear/frustration.
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