Allergic Reaction

Scary.  If it is only one word I could use to describe seeing my baby’s eyes start to swell, red blotches appear on his cheeks, neck, arms, behind his ears, around his lips and the irritable crying and scratching of his face.
It couldn’t be the banana.  He’s had it before.  Not his favourite compared to the sweet potato, but he didn’t have a reaction like this.  If I was to play Columbo (he was an old detective from a show back in the day), I would deduce that it was the Milupa rice cereal that I mixed in with the banana.  It was the first time that I’ve used it.  When I introduced rice cereal for the first time before, I used a different brand.  Gerber I think.  I can’t recall since it was my mom who did some grocery shopping for me for a couple of weeks while I had both kids and Franklin was going through his complications.
Considering Franklin had allergies when he was young (he grew out of all of them, but he did have to take allergy needles once a week for several years)  I have been following the general rule when introducing food to your baby.  Feeding him one food every 4-7 days to see if there is a reaction before introducing a new food.  Once all foods (except honey, peanuts, high nitrate vegetables, etc) are sampled, you can start combining foods.  Then the flavour bonanza really begins.

But, I digress.  We first called Emergency.  Then they directed us to telehealth (1-866-797-0000) to speak to a registered nurse to help us decipher if we should go to Emergency, doctor’s office, or stay put.  Since his breathing did not seem impaired and after several other questions, she recommended giving him Benedryl.  We decided to go to the doctor’s office.  Emergency would be several hours, his breathing did not seem impaired, his lips were not turning blue, and I wanted to at least have a medical professional see him.
As soon as he saw him, our doctor said ordered for us to have him tested for allergies right away and get him some benedryl.  Stop feeding him bananas, the new rice cereal, and avocado (he had some a little bit of blotches on his skin).  Seeing him in the daylight, he looked worse that I thought.  Both of his eyes were red and swollen.  But, at least he was not crying and was laughy baby again.  The doctor said to give him 7ml.  The benedryl bottle said 2.5ml/dose.  We gave him  5ml.  After a few hrs he was looking better.  His eyes were still a bit swollen, but he seemed to be on the mend.
I am not looking forward to him going through an allergy test when he is so young.  It is a necessary evil to scratch his tender skin.

Now, I’m a little freaked out to move onto the next food.  Hopefully, butternut squash is not a problem.
Gave him another dose (3ml) and it’s almost all cleared up.  Thank God.

This makes me re-think the ‘no nuts at school’ rules they have.  Is it fair?  How about if it’s one kid out of a school of 100?  I remember some of the teenage baby-mama’s I knew who would complain right left and centre.  They would argue that peanut butter was the only thing their kid would eat or it was the only thing that would be affordable for them since the baby-daddy didn’t pay up.  Why stop only allowing peanuts?  Should they ban other foods also?

I just know that I support it.  Peanuts are in many snacks or may be in a contact due to the way it is made in the factory.  It’s not worth the risk to our little kid’s life.  I pray Lucas doesn’t have that problem.  Carrying around an epi pen to save his life sounds very scary.  I feel for those kids and parents now.  You just never know what or when it may happen.

Healthy Banana-Blueberry Muffins

As pretentious as I think Martha Stewart is, I have tried several of her recipes and 90% of them have been great.  So, below is one of them I tried yesterday.  I had a craving for banana muffins.  Not too sweet.  Not cakey.  This was good and as fairly healthy.  See my notes below to see my own touches.  So, if the bananas on your counter top are looking overripe, don't throw them out; they'll add even more flavor to these muffins.

• Prep Time 20 minutes


• Total Time 45 minutes plus cooling


• Yield Makes 12

 

Ingredients

• 1 cup whole-wheat flour (spooned and leveled)


• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour, (spooned and leveled)


• 1/4 cup wheat germ


• 1 teaspoon baking soda


• 1/2 teaspoon salt


• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature


• 1/3 cup granulated sugar


• 1/3 cup packed light-brown sugar


• 2 large eggs


• 2 ripe bananas (about 1 pound)


• 1/3 cup reduced-fat (2 percent) milk


• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract


• 1 cup frozen blueberries

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners. In a bowl, whisk together flours, wheat germ, baking soda, and salt.


2. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugars with a mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. In another bowl, mash bananas with a fork (you should have 3/4 cup); stir in milk and vanilla.


3. With mixer on low, alternately add flour mixture and banana mixture to butter mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture; mix just until combined. Fold in frozen blueberries.


4. Divide batter among muffin cups. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean, 25 to 28 minutes, rotating pan halfway through. Let cool in pan 10 minutes; transfer muffins to a rack to cool 10 minutes more.

NOTES:

• I used graham cracker crumbs since I didn't have wheat germ


• Googled wheat germ substitute and this was an awesome answer for it "oatbran, it is granular like cornmeal, it is good to, flaxseed meal, even cornflake crumbs or graham wafer crumbs they are not only a binder but add some fiber to the cookies, cakes or breads, just remember they also absorb moisture, with molasses it is fine but a sugar based recipe requires a small amount of extra moisture, honey, molasses, glucose and brown sugar are what is known as hydreants, meaning they keep or absorb moisture from the air to keep thing moist for longer periods of time."


• I did half with blueberries.  half with out.


• I used fresh blueberries


• I used 2 1/2 super ripe bananas and mashed to a little more than 1 cup


• If you want to cut the fat even more, substitute half the butter with applesauce