Taking a Toddler to the Allergist

 

My toddler just had her first trip back to the allergist in almost a year after rescheduled and rescheduled and rescheduled appointments. This was her first time back as an official toddler- quite a different experience from that last testing she got as a baby. They’ve always had good toys at the allergist office (she came home with a stuffed animal as big as her when she had anaphylaxis), but they really stepped up their game for toddlers.

Right when we got in the room, the nurse got her a talking computer toy, with lights, songs, and plenty of buttons to push. When she left the room, she played Elmo songs on full blast. My kid didn’t know what was happening, was a little over stimulated, but all in all she was feeling great. If the allergy office was trying to get on her good side, they were definitely doing it. I mean, not a lot of fun things happen at the allergist office, so if they want kids to come back, they probably rely on bribes. Let’s take a quick look at what wonders await kids:

• Skin tests: not the worst, but certainly not fun. Scratches on your back and then waiting 15 minutes as your back slowly breaks out in hives. Wow! Sign me up!
• Blood draws: Always a winner. At least I got to hold her in my lap this time instead of strapping her down to the table. No singing of “Old McDonald Had A Farm” is going to get them through that without crying.
• Food challenges: potentially could be fine- get to eat a muffin and yay it’s delicious (though you are still going to be stuck there 2 to 4 to 8 hours). OR could have anaphylaxis and need epinephrine. Wow! Almost dying is fun?!

I’m not sure how much she actually understands now, but I tried to give her warnings about what was going on. For the skin tests, the nurse warned her she was going to feel little pricks. But the actual scratch part was done fairly quickly. The worst was waiting around for the 15 minutes as she kept telling me “Itchy! Itchy!” and trying to scratch her back. I know buddy. I know. I just tried to keep her eye on the prize (getting to watch TV! Without her older brother picking!)

Then because she’s had a false negative on the skin tests, we had to scoot over to the blood draw lab. You could not pay me enough money to be a pediatric phlebotomist. I am having trouble thinking of a worse job. It took two of them and all of me to keep all of my kid’s limbs under control while they got the vials they needed. The good news? There was an extra treat box afterwards. She got to rifle through it all herself and picked out some sparkly beads in a long necklace. Oh! Strangle AND choking hazard. Good job baby girl!

All in all, it wasn’t torture, but it did wear me out. It was a long two hours. (Did I just say 2 hours? Yes. Yes, I did. Do you know why? Because all appointments at the allergist exist in an alternate plane where the passage of time is not measured in minutes but rather Sesame Street songs and tears and no matter how short a visit you think you are going to have YOU WILL BE THERE FOR THE ENTIRE DAY so pack a lunch and a snack and a pillow and all of your favorite toys and get somebody else to pick up your other kid from daycare. This also explains why there is such a long wait to get in. If each 20-minute appointment slot takes approximately 1 work day, I can see how they have a hard time scheduling everyone.) I was tired when I got home. My kid was tired when we got home. And after everything, we still don’t know that much more about her allergies. We have more points on her graphs of hive diameter on skin tests and IgEs from blood tests. But none of that actually tells us if she’s allergic. It just gives her doctors more information to decide if we should try any new food challenges. So- cashews here we come! Gotta go to the store and get some cashews! And cashew butter! Oh wait, it’s scheduled for over 3 months from now? Never mind.

Next week- get out your teal paint and get ready for #tealoween!