Nuts!!

It turns out Molly has a walnut allergy. She had the reaction on Christmas Eve, but we didn't know the cause until now. Walnuts were a possibility since she had just eaten a chocolate chip walnut cookie. But she had also been playing with an old perfume of my Grandmother's. I had my money on the old perfume!

The reaction was pretty scary because we could tell Molly was having trouble breathing. She couldn't stop coughing and had red hives all over her chest and neck. We got the doctor on the phone and gave her a double dose of Benadryl, which seemed to do the trick.

The doctor said sometimes these kinds of reactions are viral, but wanted to do some allergy testing to be safe. Molly eats peanut butter, cashews, pistachios, and almonds, so I had doubts she'd be selectively allergic to walnuts. But the results came back positive for a pretty strong walnut allergy. She's also allergic to dust mites, mold, and cats, but those don't worry me as much as the food allergy.

Now we have to go see an allergist and enter the world of epi pens (apparently there's a new one that talks) and checking food labels for ingredients. There could be other nuts on the list, but I won't worry about that yet. Poor Molls.

The good news is that we've discovered Molly is extremely brave at the doctor's office and handles blood draws like a champ (unlike one of her parents). They made a mistake on one arm, but Molly gave them the go ahead to try the other. I was shocked! Hopefully the brave streak continues because I have a feeling there's more testing in her future :(