MD Now

While we were in Florida last week, we lost a day on Monday after Sean woke up with a rash from head to toe. To be sure that it was indeed a rash due to an allergic reaction, and not anything else, we called up Blue Cross, filed a claim & headed over to MD Now in Boca Raton.

We are not 100% sure what caused his reaction, but he woke up with it on Monday morning (and it got a bit worse than what you see in these images). We first tried Benadryl, and it got worse. We waited the recommended amount of time, and gave him another dose of Benadryl, this time the 6-11 year old dose on the box, like the hospital did when he had his allergic reaction to Peaches a few weeks ago. This reaction wasn't the same, the peach reaction became hives, and this stayed as a rash, but from head to toe. It was all over his body. We finally decided that we'd seek medical attention just to be sure, so after some phone calls & some recommendations to MD Now, we headed over there. We saw a doctor, and she told us that it was indeed an allergic reaction, and to keep giving him benadryl until it clears. She also said that it could take up to 1-2 days to clear. And it did take an entire full 2 days to clear 100%. She also mentioned that he will indeed need the 6-11 year old dose of Benadryl, and not the 3-5 year old dose which I started out by giving him, but since he's not a small boy for his age (just turned 5, but in size 6/7 clothing), that the 6-11 year old dose would help him better.

I made a note of everything he ate on Sunday, (multigrain cheerios with milk for breakfast, a salami sandwich, potato chips for lunch, anniversary cake, 2 strawberries, and then chicken nuggets for dinner with chocolate pudding for dessert). We think it might have been the strawberries. We had a fruit salad out on the table on Sunday at my great-aunt & great-uncle's place in Florida, where we went for lunch. Originally someone was going to give him some strawberries out of the bowl, but I said not to, because there were some mangoes, and possibly another fruit, which could have been nectarine, we are not sure. So to be safe, since the strawberries were mixed in the same fruit salad, I told him to not eat them. But then my great-uncle said he had a brand new box of strawberries, that did not touch any of that stuff, so we washed him 4 strawberries, and then my grandmother removed 2 from his plate, and she cut up 2 for him and he ate the 2 and never asked for the other 2. If he had eaten more, and it was the strawberries that caused the allergic reaction, then who knows how he would have woken up on Monday morning. He said that he didn't itch as much as the peach allergic reaction. And he had no issues at all this time with discomfort breathing.

The doc at MD Now told us to avoid all fruits now until he sees the allergist (which we have an appointment at the beginning of March). However, since we were home on Friday (the boys convinced me to play hookey from daycare), and Sean begged me to try apples, his fave fruit, I peeled him an apple and with Benadryl handy I let him try it. He was fine, no reaction, and no reaction since. So I've let him have apple juice again, (always diluted with water anyhow) and he accidentally tried orange juice yesterday, but was okay after drinking orange juice as well. He's so happy to not have to eliminate those out of his life, unless he develops an allergy to them later on, that's another story. I guess we'll see exactly what is causing these reactions soon, March is not that far away.