Food Challenge: Soy

So today was the big day. I was up very early to try to get some work completed before the appointment. After that, I nervously packed-up the soy milk and soy nuts. We ran my oldest to daycare and arrived just in time for the 8 am appointment. I was nervous. Anxious. Curious. Excited. All at once. It’s really hard to put into words how I felt.

Our challenge started with 1 soy nut. Myself, my husband, and the nurse sat and watch my son eat it. I released a deep breath I didn’t know I was holding when the first one went down without problems. Luckily, he liked them and immediately asked for more. That was quite the relief! I was a bit nervous he wouldn’t care for the soy. I do think it helped that the soy nuts were seasoned. The nurse came back and gave him an additional 5 and then 10. Each time 15 mins apart.

After the 10 nuts, the nurse found two tiny spots. One on his left hand and one on the middle of his back. We waited 20 minutes and had to be cleared by the allergist. Luckily we got the all clear and could continue. We then did 20 and then the remaining of 1 serving. We then waited 1 hour in the waiting room. Finally, at almost 4 hours, we were cleared to eat soy.

Our instructions: he must eat soy no less than 1 serving each week but can eat as much as he wants. We need to notify her if any reaction occurs because he shouldn’t have any response to it. Otherwise we go back to life as normal, except we now get to eat soy. Here’s the other bonus. She said that it is possible that now that he is eating soy, his other allergies should go down. So, she wants to test him again this fall, a little before 6 months from the last check. So, I’m even more hopeful we will get to have something new for Thanksgiving…maybe.

At his last lab draw he came back negative for Mango and Shellfish. The nurse who called me said that we should wait to try shellfish because of his age and that we could probably do mango after this soy challenge. I asked the allergist and she said the Little Guy was probably old enough to try the shellfish at home but to hold off on the Mango. People allergic to cashews can have a cross allergy to mango. We’ve tested the Little Guy for peanuts but not for tree nuts. So she wants us to hold off on mangos and get tree nuts tested at our next appointment.

So our next step will be to do a few weeks of soy and then try out some shellfish. I can honestly say, I can’t wait to add some shrimp to our diet! I’ll be crazy nervous though since shellfish is often an anaphylaxis type allergy.

Thanks for all the thoughts, prayers, and kind words as we prepared for this. It’s such a good feeling to feel supported.

• Posted in: Food Allergies ♦ Food Challenge ♦ Uncategorized
• Tagged: allergies, allergy issues, Food, food allergies, food allergy, Food Challenge, medical tests