still allergic

i may have mentioned a long time ago that finn had a pretty severe reaction to mustard around 14 months. his face was covered in hives and his eyes started to swell. we took him to get tested and while his blood test came back negative, the allergist warned that he may have been too young to get good test results on this sort of allergy. a few weeks later he touched a chicken salad with mustard in it...just one finger...and then he touched his face. within a minute he had a red, splotchy hive in the shape of his finger.

since then we have avoided any sort of mustard. it's a pretty easy allergy to deal with because there isn't a lot of hidden mustard. we avoid lots of pot luck style salads at gatherings and skip using it in family recipes (much to our dismay - we love mustard!!). we have epi pens and benadryl and aside from the few times we've administered benadryl, we haven't had any scares. in fact, we even thought he probably had outgrown it by now.

but last week we were out for sushi and finn had some spicy california rolls. i noticed his lips swelling a bit and his cheeks and chin had hives. i did a make-shift allergy test by putting wasabi paste on one cheek and the spicy sauce on the other. sure enough, the spicy sauce caused a reaction. i could only assume there was some sort of mustard in it as everything else in the roll he'd had before without issue. the reaction went away but i made him another appointment to be rechecked.

today he had the back skin test and sure enough, he reacted to the mustard sample. the hive wasn't as big as the control positive, but it measured large enough to be a legit allergy. people have a hard time believing a mustard allergy and now i can tell them for sure that he is currently allergic via a skin test. we'll follow up with a blood test this week and go from there. he'll be rechecked yearly and the dr. thinks he may still out grow it.

for now, we'll hold the mustard and continue informing people that yes, he does have this allergy. yes, it is real. it surprises me how many people act like i'm making it up!