In a moment of bad momminess (I was tired
and she was begging) I gave Eve a peanut butter cracker. One of
those sandwich crackers with a barely there layer of probably
fake peanut butter in the middle. While the general guideline
is to wait until a child is at least one year old before
introducing peanut butter, I figured she would be ok since we
have no food allergies on either side of the family, Lex has
had no reactions to anything and Eve so far has had no reaction
to any foods either. Ten minutes later she looked like
this:

The rash didn’t seem to bother her,
but I felt awful! I put them both in the tub (bath time anyway)
and washed her face really well, all the while mentally
preparing myself for a trip to the ER. Luckily it cleared up
quickly and was barely noticeable an hour later and completely
gone when I put her to bed 1.5hrs after the cracker incident.

I emailed Dr. Shu, our old
pedi, because she is a fantastic pedi and uses email
religiously. She said it could most definitely be a nut allergy
and said to get in touch with the pedi on call tonight to see
what we should. Conveniently the pedi on call is Eve’s regular
doctor so we had a nice chat. She said to not worry about it
for now, since the rash is gone and Eve is sleeping comfortably
with no swelling or breathing problems. We will discuss more at
her 1yr check up in a few weeks and we may have her tested for
nut allergies. Obviously I will not be giving her peanut butter
again in the near future. I feel so guilty. I know, logically,
that she would have had the same reaction had I waited two more
weeks, but emotionally the guilt is still there. I also HOPE
HOPE HOPE it was a fluke and she doesn’t really have a nut
allergy because peanut butter is a staple in this house. If she
does, it must not be too sensitive because she’s spent her
whole life, including in utero, around the stuff.

Anyway, let’s all hope she has no allergies
and it was just a strange and random coincidence :)