My child could have (but didn’t) die and it’s because of my careless mistake.

I haven’t posted in a very long time. I am back because I want to share this recent incident that happened. It’s a true scary story. We found out Milo was allergic to peanuts when we introduced it to him when he was one year old. He is now 9 years old. He gets tested every year and he is still very allergic. Another known time that he had peanuts, aside from his first tiny dose at age one, was mistakenly given to him by his VI specialist at his preschool when we were not with him. Milo’s reactions were hives and profuse vomiting. EpiPen is always with us and we never had given it to him until yesterday.

I have been very vigilant at reading food labels since we found out he is allergic to peanuts. As the years gone by and with no incident, I have come to realize that I am not as vigilant as I used to be. I learned this because I was very careless and gave Milo a cookie that contained peanut paste. Yes, you heard me. I fed my peanut allergic child peanut. I made a horrible mistake and gave him a cookie without being thorough with looking at the ingredients. It was a chocolate cookie and by seeing that, it subconsciously gave me a reason to not have to be so detail with examining the ingredients carefully. It was wrong, very wrong. I was wrong, very regretfully wrong.

 

Milo had the cookie, got into the car and headed for hjs karate lesson. He felt bad soon after and my husband called to ask me if he ate something new. I said yes and right away I thought F—! and grabbed the box and started looking for the word “peanuts” and there it was “peanut paste.” F–K! was right. They came home and we gave him his Benadryl and waited out for his throw up. We watched for hives but there were none. This was the first time (thanks to me) that we are with him and actually know that he ate peanuts. We did not know how his body would react since each allergic reaction can be very different. It was decided we should take Milo to the emergency room because we read that anaphylactic reactions can happen hours from intake. Soon after Milo got into the car, he threw up and he informed us that his throat is very itchy. My husband called 911 and administered an EpiPen (for the first time ever). The fireman and paramedics came and took Milo to the hospital in the ambulance. Milo was still very chatty with all the firemen and paramedics so it was a very good sign that he was stable.

 

Milo stayed in the hospital for couple hours and since we are not too far from the hospital, he was discharged. Milo was a trooper and so was my husband. I felt horrible and full of guilt but none of them made me feel bad or said a word about what I did because of my careless mistake.

 

The day surprisingly went on like it was planned. Matilda had a pool party in which she attended and had a blast. She did asked me if Milo was going to die while I was taking her to the party. I told her that Milo will be okay because we took all the steps we needed to and if we didn’t, he could die. Owen was over the moon with having the firemen in our home along with the firetruck and a fire paramedic truck in our driveway. I even made it on time to Milo and Matilda’s back to school night (along with my sweaty self and an amazing amount of guilt and relief that Milo was okay).

 

The image of me not reading the instructions carefully kept repeating in my mind along with what if I can go back in time thought. I know I can’t do the latter and that is why I am sharing this with you all so that it won’t happen to you or anyone you know.

 

 

This is my story and luckily it has a happy ending. I learned a very important lesson and so did the rest of the family. Milo learned how serious his allergy can be and that it can be lethal. Matilda also learned how serious it can be. Owen learned that when Milo has a boo-boo, the firemen and paramedics come to our house. We all learned to be vigilant again. Milo learned to remind us about reading the ingredients and that he needs to read the ingredients as well and not rely on others (perfect example of how his mother cannot be trusted). We learned that we have to be more aware of others who also have allergies. My husband and I both learned that getting immediate medical help is the way to go, whether or not there is any immediate reaction.

 

It is very very important to take action when your child (or an adult) comes in contact with the food he/she is allergic to. It is crucial to go to the hospital. Reactions can take hours to happen and sometimes if you wait for a long time to do anything, the result can be lethal. It really is better to be safe than to be sorry.

 

Judgement or no judgement, I don’t care. I just want to share this because we all can get too comfortable at something that we shouldn’t. This is how I will end this post – Hi, I am a mom and today my child could have die because I got too comfortable with his peanut allergy and made a stupid careless mistake.