The Incredible, (In)Edible Egg

In my quest to find finger foods that Gwendoline will actually eat, I decided to try scrambled eggs. There is a lot of conflicting information out there about feeding eggs to babies. Some sources say to wait until the baby is one year old; other sources says eggs- both the yolk and the white- make a great first food for 4-6 month olds. (More info from a reputable source here, if you're interested.) So with Gwendoline being three days shy of 9 months old and no family history of food allergies, I gave her scrambled eggs for breakfast yesterday. She broke out in a rash on her face, chest, and stomach within a few minutes, so I called her pediatrician. The triage nurse told me to give her Benedryl if she seemed itchy (she didn't) and watch for any respiratory distress (she didn't have any). Her pediatrician called me back later in the afternoon and said we should probably go ahead and have her tested for food allergies, specifically egg, just to be safe. Apparently an egg allergy can be pretty serious, so he's taking her little rash very seriously. We even have an EpiPen in the diaper bag now, just in case.

I took her to the lab for the test this afternoon. I was pretty nervous and scared since the food allergy test requires a draw blood from her arm just like an adult. Her arms and veins are so tiny! And she's so wiggly! It just seems like needles should not enter that equation. But as I was signing in at the front desk, the door bell jingled behind us. Guess who it was!? DADDY to the rescue! Jeph surprised us at the lab after deciding to take an extended lunch break to hold his baby girl's (and nervous wife's) hand. What a treat and relief! Gwendoline handled the blood draw like a champion- she didn't cry or even flinch! She even stared at the needle action for a while. Since her veins are so tiny, it took a minute to fill the big vial, so she did get a little annoyed with having to sit still for that long. Jeph and I couldn't believe she didn't seem bothered by having blood drawn. What a blessing! We should have the test results back in about a week, just in time for her 9 month wellness check. Though this is not an ideal scenario, it will be nice to know which food(s), if any, she's allergic to, rather than relying on trial and error. There's the silver lining! I'll update the blog with the test results in a week or so.

My brave girl and her Garfield band-aid.

Enjoying a beautiful spring day!

Someone found the monitor camera...