Audrey's 3 Year Checkup

Audrey had her 3 year checkup last week - she's just shy of 3 feet tall (35.75" - 25th percentile) and almost 25 1/2 lbs (25 lbs 6 oz - 3rd percentile).  While still very little, the doctor was happy with her 3 lb weight gain since her last appointment when she was 2 1/2.  Doesn't seem like much to me over 6 months but I guess it's something.

Audrey was also retested for her peanut allergy.  20% of kids outgrow their allergy and our allergist in Iowa told us to have her retested when she turned 3.  In Iowa, it was a skin test so we knew the results within minutes.  Here, they did a blood test and were told it would be about 5 days until we heard back.  Sure enough, they called yesterday morning (a SUNDAY, mind you) to give us the bad news.  Audrey's allergy to peanuts has gotten worse.  When she was first diagnosed, her Immunoglobulin E (IgE) was 20.3.  It's now 34.5 which puts her into severity Class 4 out of 6.  Surprisingly, there isn't much out on the web about what the different classes really mean but the nurse said that Audrey's allergy is "very high."  She also tested postive again for an egg white allergy.  This appears to have gone down as her IgE was 7.79 the first time and is now only 1.45.  She's never had a reaction to eggs that we know of (not that she'll even touch them!) and she's ok with the flu shot so I'm guessing she'll eventually grow out of this one. 

I can't lie, I cried when I got the peanut allergy news.  I was so sure that she'd be in that 20% even though I told myself not to get my hopes up.  I just feel so badly for her and don't want to be constantly worrying that she'll end up sick from eating peanuts or worse.  She's so cute though, she knows that Mommy and Daddy eat peanuts and that she's not allowed to.  If we tell her she's not allowed to eat something, her first question is, "Why, does it have peanuts?"  Usually it's just because we don't want her to live off of candy or whatever cookies she's just stumbled upon!  :)  But sadly, we often do have to say, "I'm sorry, sweatheart, but this has peanuts."  She understands as much as a 3 year old can but sometimes, I can just see her face fall when she says, "Ok."  Even though I LOVE peanuts (and am still convinced it's my fault she's allergic since I ate peanut butter every morning while pregnant), I'll have to be okay with the fact that Audrey now crinkles up her nose and says "Ew" when Mommy and Daddy tell her, that yes, they eat peanuts.  I suppose making her think peanuts are yucky is one way to keep her away.  Still breaks my heart though.  But, she's an otherwise happy and healthy little girl and we're happy to keep her, allergies and all.