So the day had finally arrived that our Nat could try and have her very first food with milk baked in it. Her milk levels had fallen enough that she could begin attempting to consume foods with milk baked in them. It had been a long 10 year haul, but it was finally here. She was so excited. Our baked milk challenge was finally underway.
As with our previous egg challenge, I was given a recipe this time for muffins to bake for the challenge.
I wasn’t so much worried about baking them as I was about Nat liking the taste of them. She was going to have to eat a couple of them for the challenge so having them taste decent was certainly part of the goal. Of course she helped me. After all, she said they were her muffins and they needed her touch.
Our day started early. We live about two hours away from her allergist and our appointment was at a bright and early 8:00 a.m. Nat couldn’t eat two hours before the appointment, but needed to eat before the two hours so that she didn’t consume the allergen on an empty stomach. (You got that….right?) So here I was at 5:00 a.m. forcing her to eat so we could feed her food that might send her into anaphylaxis about 3 hours later. But guess what…she can’t wait!!!
Upon arriving, they did the usual vital check and we were sent to our room. The doc came in, did her overall check with Nat, grabbed the muffins I had baked and walked out to leave us wondering if we had made the right decision. Up until this point, I had actually tiptoed around the subject, hoping my husband wouldn’t change his mind and cancel the appointment. He had been against doing the challenge all along until I had finally talked him into it. So if this went downhill, I was certainly going to be the blame. (So I suspected). At some point though, you just have to do what’s best for your child. Her levels looked good enough to try this, so why not. You have to eventually give them the chance at a better life and if this is what you have to do to get there, then that’s what you do.
So the doc finally came in with her first bite.
You feel anxious, nervous and relieved all at the same time. What if it works, what if it doesn’t, have we gotten our hopes up for nothing, have we gotten her hopes up for nothing? An emotional roller coaster occurs with the simple act of one bite of a muffin. Nevertheless, we were through it and we were on our way to a new beginning…Hopefully. So we waited for whatever might happen to happen. So far we were in the clear.
So as you can see, as always, Snoopy was there to help her though it and also helped us pass the time.
We played cards and watched movies. She was doing so well, we were given permission to leave our room and stretch our legs for a bit. Riding the escalator up and down can be quite interesting. Due to the fact that she had failed her egg challenge a few years ago with only a one hour monitoring period, we had a couple extra hours tacked on to today’s monitoring period just in case.
We were down to the last bite and then it happened.
NOTHING!!!
That’s Right! She Passed! Our baby was given the all clear to eat foods with milk baked in them. We were so excited. The first thing she asked the doctor was could she eat Goldfish now? Yes, she has always wanted to try Goldfish crackers. It has always been at the top of her list. So plans were already in the making for her Goldfish party. It was an exciting moment all around. We knew that she was on her way to a new start with milk and she knew that she was going to get her Goldfish.