My Sweet Tomato!

Anyone with kids should read what happened to my sweet little Ela this week.

Ela recently has grown an appetite. My little self made vegetarian since 9 months has ditched her vegan ways. She is loving meat and I am trying to get her to eat other things besides her regular foods covered in tomato sauce. I had gone to Trader Joe's on Sunday and found some Tahini sauce.(Tahini is ground sesame seeds, lemon, garlic, and oil- I learned this after the fact) When I was pregnant I ate Falafals every other day. My friend Lauren and her boyfriend got me hooked and by the time Ela was born the restaurants owner new me by name and what I ordered. Tahini is the sauce that goes on the Falafel. I was so excited to find it! So thats how our evening started....

I cut up some cucumbers and tossed them in the Tahini sauce. I gave one to Ela and she loved it. Within minutes she started coughing. Initially I thought she was choking. I started hitting her back but she kept coughing. I pulled her out of the highchair and noticed she was turning red. I stuck my finger in her mouth to see if I could feel anything and there was nothing in her mouth. She continued to turn red and cough and then she threw up. After she got sick I looked at her and her eyes were swollen shut and lips look like a duck. I realized she was having an allergic reaction. I was SO scared! I was by myself. I called 911 and while they were on the phone I remembered reading in a Mommy book to give Benadryl for allergic reactions. Luckily I had some because Ela had been sick the past few weeks. She was so swollen at this point that she could not open her mouth or even stand up. I took a straw and got as much as I could in her throat. I then thought to go down to the lobby of my building as it would be better to be around other people while I waited for the ambulance. Going downstairs there was another Mom in the elevator who was the biggest help. Immediately when she saw Ela she asked what happened and stayed with me until the ambulance left. She is a Mom to a 3 month old so she was a great help. At this point the small amount of Benadryl opened Ela's passageways enough that she began to cough again and throw up. On top of turning, she now had red hives all over her body.The ambulance came and Ela continued to get sick which they said was the best thing for her at this point. This is when I lost it. I think that once I knew I had help I could truly let my emotions go. I was so surprised how calm I remained before they got there. The EMS workers were great and calmed me down and told me Ela could pick up on my emotions so it was important to stay calm.We arrived at the hospital and immediately she got examined,got ephedrine (Epi Pen- basically adreniline), more benadryl and Albuteral which is a steroid breathing treatment. She still was bright red and covered in hives but she began to say "mama" and run around the Triage area. Thank GOD my little tomboy was healthy! We were sent home with two Epi Pens in case of a future reaction.
Here are a few pictures of Ela on the road to recovery:

She is a messy eater...This is before.

About 30 minutes after she got meds.
Still very swollen.

About an hour after meds.
Playing while we wait for the hives
to go down.

Here is what I learned:

*ALWAYS have Benadryl in your house and know the dose for your childs weight.
Although Ela is an anaphaltic(severe allergic including closing of airways) Benadryl will slow down the effects of allergies.
* Reading (sometimes excessively) parenting books paid off
Tomasz makes fun of me for being a "Google Queen" and consulting parenting books all the time. It never clicked with Benadryl and an allergic reaction but it was in the back of my head from reading those books. It saved her life.
* Top 10 childhood allergies
I was so shocked that Ela most likely had a reaction to Sesame. I never thought about it as an allergy but it alot more common than I thought.

1. Dairy
2. Eggs
3. Fish
4. Peanuts
5. Tree nuts (walnuts, almonds, cashews, pecans, etc)
6. Sesame
7. Shellfish and other seafood
8. Soy
9. Wheat
10. Gluten

*Ela is a TROOPER!
The past few months have been rough for her. She started daycare, got the tummy flu, cold after cold, a double ear infection and now a severe allergic reaction.

I am so happy that she is healthy and ok. On Tuesday we are going to be visiting an Allergist to find out exactly what she is allergic to. They will give her a series of "pricks" with allergens on her back. Whatever hives appear will indicate what she is allergic too. This comes as a surprise as there is very few allergies in mine or Tomasz's family. I am nervous to put her through the testing but very anxious to get the results to make sure we don't give her anything she is allergic too.

Here are a few links(they don't call me the google queen for nothing)

 Anaphylactic Toddlers- What do I do?

Top 10 Common Foods to Avoid in Toddlers

Benadryl