One Less Worry

When Alex was born, I was super hyper in the way that an inexperienced first time mom is prone to be. There was a whole world of dangers out there that our over media-exposed brains are forced to process. Chemicals in diapers! Vaccines and Autism! Baby seats that harm rather than protect your baby during a crash!

I've now addressed all of these and more. While I'm not as concerned about chemical burns from diapers, I do cloth my kid. I've got a really great Britax car seat that I would never have discovered on my own. I owe that one to Facebook and Sarah Yarborough. He's had vaccines, and while I am personally no longer concerned about links between Autism and vaccines (I've done my personal research, so I'm not looking for a debate here) I do have Alex vaccinated one shot per visit. I do this to minimize the guessing game that would be involved were he to have multiple shots and then have a reaction.

This brings me to my biggest worry to date:



Ah yes... the dreaded peanut allergy. Alex's cousin Josh has the allergy and it's worried me a bit. While Dennis and I may not be peanut junkies (aside from Dennis' hardcore addiction to Peanut M&Ms) we do have things in the house that include nuts, are surely "from a plant that processes nuts and nut products," and occasionally crave the random PB&J. I was hoping not to have to go through all the machinations of school notes, reading every line of every product I bring home and medic alert bracelets. I have mad respect for the parents that have to do this... anyone who has to worry about a simple common item causing anaphylaxis in their kid, I don't envy you. So I thought about the ways I could knock out this worry. Hand the kid a cracker with peanut butter and have a spoonful of Benadryl ready to shove down his throat? Take the peanut butter jar with me to the Pediatrician and feed it to him there? Or better yet, feed it to him in the drive of the local emergency room? Then I had one of those moments where I talked myself off the over-protective ledge: "Amy, you're being ridiculous. It can be a serious situation, but you are making WAY more out of this than you need to, considering Alex has had Honey Nut Cheerios and taken a bite of your Snickers Ice Cream bar with zero issues." So I bought a jar of organic PB at Giant (might as well allow myself this little fraidy cat concession) and brought it home. I gave Alex a teeny bit on the end of his baby spoon. He smacked his lips, gave me look and reached for the jar. I had to pry him away from the gooey goodness with promises of his first PB&J this evening as long as there was no reaction. So far so good, which makes for one less worry.