No Combos for Daniel

Yesterday afternoon, Angie (my wife) called me at work to tell me that Daniel (our 14-month old son) was having an allergic reaction to something he ate. This has happened many times before, as he is constantly putting whatever he can find into his mouth. We've seen it happen with actual foods, too, especially stuff with milk or cheese in it, although this has been happening less frequently lately. Usually, he gets a mild-looking rash around his mouth, occasionally stretching up to maybe his cheek. We usually give him some baby-Benadryl and he is fine almost immediately. This time, however, Angie seemed to think that we may need to take him to the hospital. Having only one car, this meant that I needed to run home and check on things, in the event that it was a real emergency. When I got home, Daniel's left eye was swelled up like he'd been in a boxing match, he seemed fairly tired, and the remains of a rash were still visible under his bottom lip. Also, his cooings and attempts at words had a distinct raspiness about them. It turns out that since he'd been having much less of a problem with dairy stuff lately, Angie figured it would be okay for him to try one of the Combos she was having with lunch, theorizing that if he did have his usual mild reaction, she would give him some Benadryl and everything would be fine. He did not have his usual mild reaction. I'm really wondering now if he didn't find something else to eat when she wasn't looking, because that was really the worst reaction I've ever seen, and he's been doing this for a couple of months now. In the end, Angie gave him a little more Benadryl than she normally does, and he cleared up in just under two hours. Which meant that I had to go back to work for the last two hours of the day after all. Still, that's better than if he'd been seriously ill. It's rough seeing your helpless one-year-old look like he's just lost a fight, knowing there's nothing you can do for him besides pray and hope he gets better. Pretty rough.

davis