Allergy Testing

Today was the big day. I took Emma in to see the allergist to discuss her possible milk allergy. Like I mentioned before, it has been a rough road cutting out dairy, then trying to reintroduce it, then taking it back out and then trying again to reintroduce it. Each time we reintroduced it, we were supposed to watch for symptoms but then you read into every little thing and second guess yourself if it in fact was due to the dairy or if it was just a coincidence or nothing at all! Although the pediatricians had suggested not having her tested, we prayed about it as a family and I talked with another friend who went through the same situation. We decided we had nothing to lose by having her tested so we went ahead with the appointment. 

I had to laugh as we walked into the office. You could tell most of their clients are adults because every nurse and receptionist stopped by our room to ooh and ahh over the baby. After talking with the doctor, he decided to test for a milk and nut allergies so she was going to have 4 little pricks on her back. They had me lay her down on her belly and I didn't realize they had started, but when the nurse did the first little prick Emma looked up at me with the biggest little eyes as if to say "what are they doing mommy?" and started to cry. It wasn't a bad cry like shots, and she calmed down after a minute or two but it still made my heart ache for my sweet little girl. The test confirmed that she does in fact have a milk allergy (so I wasn't a mad woman reading into non-existent symptoms!) but it looks very minor. She didn't have much of a reaction which is a GOOD thing! I am allowed to continue eating small amounts of dairy to try to help her build up a tolerance for it but not go over board and cause her to have an allergic reaction. Its a fine line but I'm happy to have an answer! They would like to have us come back when she's a year to have blood work done to see more indepth how she's doing. At this point I'm not sure I'll go ahead with that. It seems a little much to put a one year old through bloodwork when she's happy, thriving and not having weird symptoms. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it I suppose.

We are off to Lowe's for a little family trip. Have a great weekend everyone! :)