Peanut Butter Food Challenge

Today Bryn and I spent the better part of the day at Children's Hospital for Bryn's "peanut challenge." With 20 minutes between each dose, Bryn was exposed to increasing amounts of peanut powder mixed in with chocolate pudding. Though we brought some of our own distractions -- a bracelet-making kit was her favorite, along with getting a mani-pedi, we spent most of our waiting time in the well-stocked play area by the nurses' station. For the first time Bryn played Candyland and Chutes and Ladders, though she doesn't have the attention span to finish a game. She did really well playing Perfection, without the timer on. But her favorite game was one called "Guess Who?" in which I asked her a series of questions to deduce which of 24 cards she was holding in her hand. Bryn also pretended she was a doctor, and she laid a toy stethoscope around the back of her neck, and when it was time to listen to my chest, she lifted my shirt up a bit as her doctors (three women today!) had done to her. Then she entered a prescription into the "pa-ewter," and by dialing an extension that fortunately doesn't exist at CHOP, she consulted with another doctor. About two-thirds of the way through the food challenge, Bryn started to exhibit signs of reaction. Her nose began to run a bit, and she developed pink areas around her lower lip, and eventually, more bothersome, itchy blotches in isolated spots, including the inside of her wrist and the back of her neck. She also had a loose bowel movement after her last dose of peanut powder. I wasn't sure what the verdict was going to be, but because Bryn never experienced any wheezing or vomiting, and because the pink spots all faded on their own without an antihistamine, she was given the green light to eat peanuts. I was told to expect that as she does when she eats tomatoes and tomato sauce, she might get some pink spots around her mouth and on her chin, but so long as they don't bother her, we needn't do anything about it. And in spite of her mild reaction, the doctors recommend exposing her to peanuts three times a week. Bryn doesn't like peanut butter, at least not in its creamy, gooey form, so we'll have to try cookies and some Thai cuisine. Peanut satay -- yum! All in all, it was a really good day. As she always is when she's a patient, Bryn was outstanding, and now she's really excited to resume eating her Daddy's Powerbars, which contain peanut powder.