Secret Ingredient

Poor Willow. As if starting a new school wasn't hard enough, she is now set to miss her second day this week. Looks like we'll be starting all over again on Monday!

It all began on Tuesday morning. I went to get her dressed and noticed HUGE welts all over her body. She was itching like crazy. I called the doctor and he could get us in that morning. "Please be poison ivy or something topical and treatable...please don't be allergies..." is what I repeated over and over in my head on the way to the doctor's. As some of you know, Willow has a bizarre allergy to peas. Yup, peas. I didn't want to add another item to the no-eat list.

We got to the office and he looked her over. Didn't take long for him to assess...hives...most likely from something she ate. The conversation went something like this...

Dr. Park: What has she eaten in the past 24 hours?

Me: Tofu

Dr.: Oh...could be that...

Me: Peanut butter

Dr.: Ah, very likely...

Me: Trail mix

Dr.: Nuts no good...

Me: Strawberries and raspberries, toast

Dr.: ooo, yeah, seems we need to do a test!

So Willow had blood drawn (she told the nice ladies she hopes to never go there again!). We received a call from the doctor tonight. No allergy to
-soy (thank god, we eat a good amount),
-peanut or nuts (triple thanks since these are dangerous),
-wheat (good b/c even though we watch gluten intake, I can't imagine giving it up),
-berries (what would we do without smoothies!),
-or eggs, dairy, or shellfish--none of which matter to us at this time.

She IS allergic to....drumroll.....CORN!!

Now, corn isn't a big deal, one might say. But upon further research, corn happens to exist in just about every food item, toothpaste, cosmetic, condiment, medication, vitamin and other random thing (read: balloons are dusted with corn powder!). Anything with Dext in front of it is corn, as are many of the other sugar compounds. Also, cornstarch is used as a thickener in many foods and even baking powder contains corn products.

Luckily, her allergy is only a 1 on a scale from 1 to 5. It could change (get better OR worse) over time. We just need to monitor it.

As for missing school tomorrow, she came down with a fever tonight (doctor thinks it is probably unrelated to the hives). She seems to be sleeping fine, now, but the school's policy is no school until free of fever for 24 hours. Bummer.