I am slowly finding the mood and energy to blog. The last two weeks have been a bit of a hit and miss, and whilst the first week of school holiday is almost over, I am also slowly finding the mood to write.
Jayden - 4 yrs 9 months
The beginning of the 2 weeks started with an accident at home involving JD. My son has always had some form of allergies since he was a young infant. When he was 13 months old, he had a severe reaction to eggs when we tried it at home. That was only a quarter teasppon of egg then. Since then, we have stayed away from eggs. Also because of his allegies, we also later found out he is severely allergic to all kind of nuts.
We have had zero incidents since he was first confirmed with allergies. Over the years, we have talked to him about his allergies, raising his awareness, getting him to question everything that was given to him, and even when attending parties and social gatherings, he has since learnt to ask “Excuse me, have this got eggs and nuts in it?”. If so, he has learnt to walk away from the food gracefully without a fuss. We are always careful if someone next to him might be eating an omelette or a peanut butter sandwich. We have to make sure there’s absolutely no skin contact at all.
But 2 weeks ago, while we were making pizza for dinner, JD joined in to help. I decided to try the new jar of sundried tomato pesto my husband bought from the supermarket. JD asked if he could try the pesto and without thinking twice I just said “yes”. So he dip a teaspoon into the pesto and had a taste. Then he helped himself to the pineapples I have put in a bowl. He liked it. Well, 10-15 mins later, he came to me and said “Mummy, my tummy feels really full.” So I got him to lie down and he lost interest over the pizza even when it was done. 10 mins later when I checked on him, he had hives coming out around his mouth. I knew straight away it was an allergic reaction and gave him 5 ml of antihistamine.
I thought it was the pineapples that gave the reaction. And I also thought the antihistamine would take effect real soon. But 10 mins later, he was getting really uncomfortable and itchy. Then he started to cough, his face turned bright red. He kept saying to me “Mum, I want to go see a doctor.”
It was Sunday night, 7pm, raining, windy and cold. Most doctor surgeries are shut. A minute later, he coughed again and this time he really didn’t look well. So I grabbed my bag, keys, wallet, left Chloe with my husband whilst I calmly drove to the closest hospital and within the speed limit. I didn’r rush as the road was wet.
In my mind, I was rehearsing the whole CPR procedure I have learned. Because as you know, when a person has severe allergies, they go into an anaphylatic shock, their airways get swollen and that could impair their breathing. It was just a 5 mins drive to the hospital but I kept talking to him, listening out to him as I couldn’t turn to look at JD. When we got there, JD was in a good spirit. He even sang to me “Mummy, we gotta run run run, run as fast as you can…”.
I guess everything happened at the right timing. 5 minutes arriving at the hospital, JD went into a severe shock, his whole face turned red, puffy, his lips swelled up, his body was hot, full body shaking, he had hives everywhere all over his body, he couldn’t stop scratching. The nurse let us in quickly and JD was given all 5 different drugs to prevent his body from going into further shock.
The doctor had to give him 2 needles in his bum, and man, as much as he hated it, crying out to me “Mummy, I don’t want the needles”. Like every parent in similar circumstance, I succumb all my energy and faith, stripped down his pants, held him down and said to him while looking straight into his eyes “Jayden, I am not going to hurt you, I just want to help you get better.”
He stopped crying instantly and 2 needles went in. Then there were 3 other medications he had orally. 40 minutes later, he was completely knocked out by the drugs, and fell asleep. We kept him there under observation for a few hours and it was close to midnight when I came home with JD and went to bed. His body shivered all night due to the shock.
Chloe and my husband were worried and did not go to bed till we were home. Incidentally, my mobile phone also went flat whilst we were at the hospital.
I slept a little that night. The next day, my mind was all over the place. I so wanted to talk to someone. My hubby had to be away for a conference for the next 2 days. I kept thinking of what food have caused the allergies. After one morning, I realised it wasn’t the pineapples. It was the sundried tomato pesto. Like all pesto, which I have learned now, consists of cashews and pinenuts. Yikes. I held my breath for a while, but also breath a sigh of relief because at least it wasn’t a new allergen.
Later that day, I sat down and calmly explained to JD about the incident. I said to him it wasn’t the pineapples, but the sundried tomato pesto that caused his allergies that night. I said it has cashew nuts and pinenuts in it which I did not realise. Therefore the unfortunate incident and I was glad and proud of the fact that he knew his body wasn’t feeling right and insisted on seeing a doctor.
That was 2 weeks ago now. I did not blame myself for the incident and neither did I embark on the guilt trip. Because the main thing is I identified the reaction, followed up with the necessary actions, got to the doctor at the right time, JD got treated and recovered. It’s important that as mothers we do not blame ourselves, because we can be on that guilt trip forever. So whilst at the hospital, I told myself in words “Pris, you are not going to blame yourself for this.” Because knowing myself, if I have blamed myself, my week would just go downhill from there. So I had to stop the guilt trip before it started.
It was just more of the shock and lesson I learnt that shook me up a little bit and left me feeling slightly disoriented for a number of days.
For now, he is back to normal. I still carry the Epipen (adrenaline shot for allergic reaction in times of emergency) with me everywhere I go, continuing to check all labels, checking the food when we dine out…
JD is due for another allergies follow up in August. Oh, and we also since consulted a naturopath about his allergies condition, and JD is now on a health kick diet of NO corn, maize, cow’s milk based product, chocolates and white flour.
Here’s a shot of the Ninja JD snacking on a big bowl of fruit salad for his afternoon tea.
So in the last weekend, I spent 2 hours in the supermarket studying every food label, buying brown rice milk, stocking up on more wholemeal flour, wholemeal pasta, wholemeal cereals, brown rice, thinking creatively of healthy snacks that don’t use any of the above.
He is doing very well. On his last day of term 2, his teacher gave each of them a Freddo frog chocolate. He gladfully handed it to me, said he would swap the chocolate for somethingelse. Another day someone offered him a glass of bottled orange juice, he politely declined and said “No thanks, I don’t need it.”
Chloe - 1 more day to turning 2
Chloe, apart from her snooty nose is doing fine.
She said some funny things. The other morning, upon hearing the rain, she exclaimed out loud, and this time in Mandarin:
“妈咪， 滴滴嗒嗒， 滴滴嗒嗒， 下雨了”！
She is talking well, very chatty, very curious, very friendly, love her brother, love her friends that come around everyday.
Her favourite saying in the morning is “Wake up mummy, good morning mummy, wake up 哥哥， good morning 哥哥， bye bye daddy!”
Sometimes she sounds like the DJ greeting us on the radio station, hee!
She rushed to the gate every morning, reporting back to me whom have arrived. She run to the children, saying “Hello, good morning” really really close to their face. She knows every child by their name. When it’s home time for the other children, she knows to pick up the right bag, right water bottle, right shoes for the right kid. She is quite an observant child, watches every move around her, and imitate. Oh, she is funny.
She is also Miss Independent at this age. She has to try everything herself. Climbing into the car and her car seat. Putting on her own shoes. Taking off her own clothes. Undoing her own nappy. Pouring milk into her cereal bowl in the morning. So to not crush her desire to be independent, I let her do most things but by factor in extra 10 minutes into most things so that we won’t be late for school, appointments and etc. That way, there’s not much frustration involved, she gets to learn, I am on time and it works out well.
She is turning 2 tomorrow. 2 years old she is going to be. Not a baby, but still the baby in our house :)
Some cupcakes we baked earlier in the week to celebrate with all her friends. These cakes, apart from the icing, are super healthy as it’s made with wholemeal flour, no eggs, olive oil, and very very litle sugar.
Me
Oh, I am okay. Tired some days that’s how I would put it.
My mum asked me to drink chicken essence which I have been faithfully doing. But I need to go see my herbalist for hebs to supplement my qi. I am feeling quite depleted of it lately.
I was very moody and tired the weekend just past. I felt drained. Somehow as the school term ended, my whole body also felt the need to rest and recharge. I was tired of looking after so many children in a week. They have all been incredibly demanding and challenging.
So to sort out my messy thoughts, I cleaned out my children’s clothes from new born to now and was shock at how much clothes they have. With a boy and a girl, there’s almost double of everything. I have cleared it all, some pass onto friends that are expecting, some to charity, some I kept for keepsake.
I don’t want to put a pic of me up here yet because 1. I need to go trim my eyebrow 2. My hair needs a cut and perm again. Yes, look is still important to me 
As a family
We are going away on a short trip tomorrow, 4 days 3 nights somewhere down south. We just booked the accommodation 2 hours ago and I hope for a good break.
