Watch out, Breakfast. Here comes Oscar!

We are celebrating a victory in our house tonight!  Oscar not only survived an egg challenge, but passed with flying colors.  If you're wondering what an egg challenge is, read on! If you're not wondering, you should read anyways :)

Several years ago, when Walt (yes, Walt) was merely 18 months old, we discovered he has a peanut allergy.  Turns out, after confirmation from the allergist (like we needed that. I mean, look at those pics!), it was a pretty severe allergy.  Fast forward to Oscar and we were avoiding peanuts just because we were anyways.  I was always nervous about the typical allergens, but this one surprised me. He had been eating foods like waffles and even baked goods, but one day right after he was one, I gave Oscar some scrambled eggs. While not nearly as severe as Walt's peanut reaction, he definitely got rashy.  It was also at this time that Oscar was putting up a pretty hefty fight with "reactive airway disease" #asthma.  He was in and out of urgent care and even made a few trips to the hospital. Since there were lots of factors going on, we decided total egg avoidance was the way to go (if you're curious, we did a full panel blood test on Oscar. His high-risk allergens were peanuts and eggs).  The following year we did the skin test for both and they both showed high reactions.  

Over the last year, Oscar's asthma has been very well maintained. With the help of an amazing pulmonologist/allergist, we were able to find the right balance of preventative meds. Now that we had that under control, I was ready to take a second look at eggs.

And so was Oscar. We had to do a lot of coaching to undo years of programming that eggs are bad. Oscar is SO well aware of his allergies (like brother) that he'll ask if a piece of gum has eggs or peanuts.  


We must have done something right. This is his eager (anxious?) face right before his first bite
In a nutshell, here's the challenge. At the doctor's office, in a very controlled environment, Oscar would eat tiny amounts of eggs, wait some time, then try a bigger dose. We started with something like 1/16 teaspoon.  Vital signs are taken before the eggs then 30 minutes later (before the next dose). The eggs were simply scrambled eggs that we made and brought. Nothing to it.

Vital signs 
Eeeek! Eating eggs!

And waiting as patiently as possible
I don't really know what I expected. I think I figured he's at least get some hives or get a little red around his mouth. Nothing.  Not to mention he LOVED the eggs. This poor guy didn't get to eat breakfast and was teased with tiny tastes of eggs every half hour. He was a champ through it all and requested tacos for lunch, so that's what we had!
The final dose in a medicine cup
We were at the doctor's office from 8:30a until about 1p. The last dose we had to wait a full hour. He passed with flying colors. Dr. Moore suggested that we probably not serve breakfast tacos for dinner, but that he was free and clear to eat eggs. He said that the clinical reaction is 95% accurate, so I feel pretty good about this. I think what we are MOST looking forward to is enjoying cake and cupcakes at birthday parties!


And here is the little Stinks man on the way home. He was so tuckered out from his big morning!