Allergy Scare

Yesterday, I tried to poison my little one.

I came home from the gym and he came rushing to me in the kitchen. Hubby told me he didn't touch his formula while I was gone so I picked up a glass of milk from the kitchen counter and gave it to him. It is not unusual for us to put his formula in our drinking glasses so I really thought it was his formula. When the white liquid touched his mouth, he gagged and spit it out, prompting me to take a sniff from the glass. I realized right away that I gave him his brother's cow's milk. That's when it all started: his first severe allergic reaction.

I don't think he even ingested anything because he spit it out right away, but the fact that the milk touched the inside of his mouth triggered all these reactions:

He started gagging, attempting to vomit but there was really nothing in his stomach at the time. He was drooling so much. He kept his mouth wide open as if he didn't want to taste his own saliva. After gagging several times, he managed to throw up some bile. He continued to drool and was screaming the entire time. He didn't want to drink anything, not even iced water or breast milk - two things that he never refused before.

My husband, having experienced these extreme reactions before, warned me to watch for anaphylaxis: wheezing, breathing difficulty or swelling of the lips and tongue. We gave him a dose of Benadryl which knocked him out after a while. But although he was asleep in my arms, he still wouldn't close his mouth and he continued to salivate plus he would kick and scream every few minutes. He was restless.

After reading up on dairy allergic reactions online, I learned about the metallic taste and tingling sensation in the mouth that people experience during a reaction and it all made sense to me; the drooling and the open mouth.

I've never really realized how bad his allergies were until this frightening experience. I am very grateful that we didn't have to run to the ER, but I dread to think of what could've happened had he swallowed even just a drop of that cow's milk. I am glad that his senses are apparently equipped to distinguish the things he is allergic to. The experience also opened my eyes to the challeges we will continue to face in his lifetime.