Hidden Egg Challenge Allergy Testing

Blondie Boy was diagnosed with an egg allergy just shortly after his first birthday and he's been having yearly allergy tests at Yorkhill children's hospital since then. This year he tested positive but his reaction was less than previous years so we were referred for a hidden egg challenge. I'd never heard of a hidden egg challenge or read anything about it so I thought it might be useful to other allergy parents if I shared our experience.

A hidden egg challenge sounds like a cool Easter egg hunt but it is really just an extended form of allergy test. While his yearly tests consist of a droplet of egg being placed on his arm, this would use cake to see if he could handle well cooked, hidden egg--things like cakes, cookies, dried pasta, etc. It was almost two month from the allergy clinic giving him a referral until we got had his appointment for the challenge. Of course we woke up to the most snow we'd had in years the morning of his appointment but after really bad road conditions we made it.

The test itself took place on a ward in the hospital; Blondie Boy was weighed when we arrived and given a hospital bracelet and was not allowed to leave the ward until the testing was done. It was the same ward he had his original testing in over 4 years ago. After asking us some initial questions and listening to his chest (he had a cough and they needed to check it wasn't in his chest) we started the challenge.

First up he got cake plastered to his arm:

BB was actually a bit anxious about this but I told him the worst that would happen was his arm might get a bit itchy and he was a lot better. The nurse literally stuck some cake on his arm and covered it with a clear dressing. Then back to the waiting room where there were all sorts of toys, colouring in pages, a full size play house and more. Blondie Boy was also offered a Nintendo DS to play with and could have watched a DVD on a portable player if he wanted (bad Mom and Dad forgot the iPad in all the snow craziness) as well.

He didn't have any reaction on his arm so we moved on to the next stage which consisted of the nurse rubbing cake around his mouth:

Why is it that boys always have the darkest, longest lashes? It's not fair but I digress. It seems so silly but it is what is done. He continued playing with a mucky face until the nurse came back to check and again he had no reaction so we moved on.

From here he was given small bits of cake to eat in increasingly larger portions. I don't have any pictures but all the bits of cake could fit on a spoon. I'd say he probably had 4-5 rounds of cake on a spoon but I can't say for sure because I was alone with BB (who was a super star) and Baby Girl (who was not) so I didn't take notes.

After he had the last bit of cake (and by this point he didn't want any more) he was allowed to eat and drink as normal and we entered a 2 hour observation period. They gave him a cheese sandwich, yoghurt and crisps (again bad Mom and Dad forgot the lunch we were supposed to pack). The two hour wait is rough; it probably wouldn't have been so bad if it was just me and BB or if NBH had been with us the whole time but alone with a cranky 4 month old it was rough.

There were a few other children having testing at the same time for different allergens; one little girl had a reaction and basically if that happens they give your child their medicine, you have to wait for an hour and then you're done for the day. At one point one of the nurses thought BB had had a reaction but I was convinced he'd just scratched his face. Luckily they retried him with the same amount and he had no reaction so the test kept going.

It's a long five hours but the staff at Yorkhill are all really lovely and being a children's hospital they are set up to cater to children. There is a whole huge closet full of games, toys, markers, DVDs--all sorts of fun stuff to keep your child entertained so it wasn't that big of a deal when we forgot to bring the iPad. Also the nurses were really nice and showed me to a room when I wanted to breastfeed Baby Girl and there was baby change facilities in the disabled bathroom.

Since BB had no reactions at all he is now allowed well-cooked egg; 48 hours after testing you are allowed to introduce two new items at a time like cakes, cookies, pastries brushed with egg, dried pasta, Milky Way bars, etc. He is still allergic to eggs and can't have egg but that he can now have a bit of birthday cake at a friend's party is just amazing. I'm really hoping this is a sign he is growing out of his egg allergy.

We let him choose his first hidden egg treat and he's a boy after my own heart--he went with a chocolate donut. When you've not been allowed one for 5 years it is perfectly acceptable to eat it in the car on the way home.

Let's be friends! Find me here:

Egg Free Soft Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

I'm really picky about cookies; I'm not a fan of cookies that are hard or crunchy- I'm more of a soft cookie kind of girl, especially when it comes to oatmeal raisin cookies. Blondie Boy and I made these egg free oatmeal raisin cookies and they are REALLY good. I used my cookie scoop again but I wouldn't next time since the dough is quite sticky it was hard to get out! I think I also might add a tablespoon of honey next time just to make them that little bit more moist but they are pretty perfect as is. I adapted a recipe I found on Reci"peas" and to get my version of the perfect Egg Free Soft Oatmeal Raisin Cookie.

Egg Free Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

1 cup oats 
1 cup plain/all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup softened butter 
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup milk
1 cup raisins





Preheat oven to 350/170 degrees. Cream the butter, milk, vanilla, and sugars together and in another large bowl, combine oats, flour, baking powder, and salt together. Once the butter mixture is creamed add the dry mixture a little at a time to the wet ingredients, until combined.Fold in the raisins and spoon dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet (I lined my cookie sheet with baking/wax paper for easy clean up), spacing an inch apart. You should get 12-15 cookies depending on how large you make them.

Bake 10-13 minutes or until cookies are set and edges are golden brown. Remember there are no eggs so you don't really have to worry about under-cooking. Allow cookies to rest on cookie sheet for one minute before transferring to a cooling rack or plate to cool. I have stored mine in ziplock bags and they've kept well for a week. 

Blondie Boy really likes them so that is the best seal of approval for me They were super easy to make and I pretty much always have the ingredients in the house so I'm sure I will make them again soon. Even if you don't have an egg allergy in your family I'd highly recommend giving these a try!

Cadbury Mini Animals Dinosaurs

There is a new member of the Cadbury Animals family - introducing Cadbury Mini Animals Dinosaurs!

Cadbury Mini Animals Dinosaurs are tasty bite-sized mini dinosaur biscuits half covered with delicious Cadbury milk chocolate. With Travis the Tyrannosaurus Rex, Trudy the Triceratops, Terry the Pterodactyl, Spike the Stegosaurus and Daisy the Diplodocus, children can discover the gang of five prehistoric dinosaur friends, share their adventures and learn about their existence in a world millions of years ago Plus, there is a sixth mystery dinosaur to be identified too!

One of the best things about the Dinosaur cookies in my opinion is that they are egg free and allergy friendly! There are very few biscuits/cookies Blondie Boy can eat off the shelf so it is great to see not only are there no eggs in the ingredients, but no traces of egg either! We have to be really strict with Blondie Boy's allergy so it is great to have this peace of mind.

Blondie Boy has a lunch box at school full of egg-free treats so that when other students bring cakes in for their birthday he isn't left out and I'll be adding Cadbury Mini Animals Dinosaur to his stash. He absolutely loves them but I'll let him tell you that himself!



Cadbury Mini Animals Dinosaurs launched in Asda stores on 23rd August at a special price of £1, and Sainsbury’s on Sept 2nd at 1/3 off.

This is a sponsored post but we really do love these cookies! I couldn't get a toddler to lie about cookies if I tried :)

Egg Free Allergy Friendly Tie Dye Rainbow Cupcakes

Finding recipes that are egg-free/allergy friendly and don't contain a lot of random strange ingredients that I never have in the house can be tough. So I pick and mixed from several recipes to create my version of egg-free tie dye rainbow cupcakes. I got my inspiration from I am Baker's Homemade White Cake Mix, Spearmint Baby's Rainbow Cupcakes and Omnomicon's How to Make a Rainbow Cake. I very rarely find a straight up allergy friendly recipe I like so I end up researching and making up my own.

Tie Dye Rainbow Cupcakes

Mix together:
2 3/4 cups self-raising flour (US people just use normal flour)
1 3/4 cups SUPER fine sugar (caster sugar in the UK)
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt

Add in roughly 12oz of Sprite. I added 8oz first and then a little more until it was a cake like consistency I liked. Leave it a little bit thicker than you'd like because you'll be adding food colouring next which will thin it out.

Put 3/4 cup of batter into 4 bowls and then add different coloured dyes to each bowl until you have four different coloured bowls. Don't worry about over mixing because any extra air you whip in will make the cupcakes lighter. Toddler love stirring things so that kept Blondie Boy busy.

Preheat your oven to 160/325.

Line a cupcake/muffin tray with white cupcake liners. Blondie Boy also helped out here. If you have an older child you could have them count out the liners, too. I made 16 cupcakes but if you want slightly larger ones you could do just 12 no problem.

Now spoon one teaspoon of your first colour of batter into each liner. Next drop another teaspoon of the second coloured batter on top of that slightly askew. Repeat with the remaining two colours.

Shove them into the oven; mine took 25 minutes but I had both trays in at the same time. Keep an eye on them as egg-free cupcakes can burn easily. You'll know they are done when a toothpick comes out clean/dry.

For the frosting I got lazy. I forgot I didn't have any icing/powdered sugar and didn't feel like running to the store so I made semi-homemade frosting.

Frosting
Tub of Vanilla Frosting
Zest and Juice of one Lime
Zest of one Lemon & Juice of Half of a Lemon

Mix the Zest with the Juice and let it sit in the fridge for at least one hour.

Strain off the juice (discard the zest) and add it to one tub of vanilla frosting. Mix until well combined and then refrigerate until thickened/stiff but not hard. I couldn't wait for it to firm up so I spread some frosting on rather than piping it and topped with coloured sugar (mix sugar and food colouring and let dry).

I could only find two of my neon food colouring bottles so I wasn't 100% happy with the brightness of the colours but the didn't turn out bad. Gel or paste food colouring will producer brighter colours than regular food colouring. 

If you want to be healthy you can use Sprite Zero, sub in Splenda for the sugar and leave off the frosting. I haven't figure out the Weight Watchers points but I'm more than happy to if someone would like me to do so!

I call the tie dye rainbow because the white paper looks Tie Dyed to me but Blondie Boy calls them rainbow so I've pick and mixed to again for the name. I think they are lots of fun and I know Blondie Boy and I had fun making and eating them!

Egg Free Mini Donut Muffins

For whatever reason Blondie Boy and I decided to be all domestic today and hang out in the kitchen. We started out by making home made raspberry lemonade (it's a bitch, just buy the mix) and then we made Egg Free Mini Donut Muffins with Cinnamon Sugar. Since Blondie Boy has an egg allergy most of my go to baking recipes don't work for him since they aren't egg free so I'm always excited when I find an egg free recipe that sound good.

It is actually hard to find recipes that are just egg-free since more recipes tend to be vegan or okay for other food allergies so most of what I make for Blondie Boy are recipes that just also happen to be egg free but aren't specifically designed with egg allergies in mind if that makes sense.

The recipe is really easy and it is a good one for getting your toddler involved since there is an assembly line at the end. Blondie Boy had a great time helping out but may have more than once held a donut in front of his mouth and smirked before dunking it in the butter mix. Cheeky toddlers!

I found this recipe on The Fresh Fridge and altered slightly.

Egg-Free Mini Cinnamon Sugar Donut Muffins 

Notice he couldn't even wait for me to snap a pic before he snagged one!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup caster sugar (1/2 for batter, 1/2 for coating)
• 8 TBSP Butter (4TBSP melted for batter & 4TBSP melted for coating)
• Generous sprinkle ground nutmeg
• 1/2 cup Milk
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup all-purpose flour/plain flour
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 375/190 degrees (I did 180 in my fan assisted oven) and prep a 24 mini muffin pan.
2. In a large mixing bowl, add in 1/2 cup white sugar, 1/4 cup melted butter, and nutmeg and mix. Add in 1/2 cup milk and mix until combined. Slowly add in the dry ingredients (1 tsp. baking powder and 1 cup flour) until combined.
3. Pour batter until half full in muffin pan holes. Place in preheated oven and bake for 15-18 minutes.
4. While the muffins are baking, get out 2 more bowls. In the first one, melt the remaining 1/4 cup of butter and set aside. In the second bowl, mix together remaining sugar (1/2 cup) and ground cinnamon and set next to the melted butter to create an assembly line.
5. Remove muffins from oven when an inserted toothpick comes clean (It only took 15 minutes in my oven). Remove muffins from tin and start assembly line by dipping muffins into melted butter and then coating with the cinnamon/sugar mixture.  (This is the best place to get your toddler involved. Have them drop the muffins in the butter and then shake them in the sugar mixture).
6. Serve immediately or store in an air-tight container

Egg Free Allergy Friendly Vanilla Maple Whoopie Pies

Yesterday I decided to surprise NotBlondeHusband and make some whoopie pies with one of the box mixes I had in the cupboard.  Box mixes I think are great when you want to bake but can't be bothered making a huge mess or going through lots of steps. They came out lovely but the main problem with box mixes is they always call for egg or have traces of egg so Blondie Boy can't have any.


I had a good amount of the filling leftover so I decided to see if I could find any egg free whoopie pie recipes online. There are actually quite a few allergy friendly food blogs out there so it wasn't too hard to find recipes. A lot of the egg free recipes are also dairy free or vegan so in the end I ended up adapting a vegan chocolate whoopie pie recipe I found to suit what I had in the house and to allow for the things Blondie Boy is allowed to eat.


Anything you bake that is egg-free will generally not rise as much as a cookie or cake with egg in it but I think for the firs time making them and pretty much making up half the recipe they came out pretty well! I don't have a recipe for filling since I just used the leftover mix filling but you can fill them with any frosting or icing recipe or even store bought stuff.

Blondie Boy certainly loved them which is good and I thought they tasted pretty good too. They aren't overly sweet but since they are for a toddler I don't think they need to be. Also check out that last photo that is what he calls his "model face." I guess that is the little weirdo's version of Blue Steel.

Vanilla Maple Egg Free Whoopie Pies

adapted from Mom's Vegan Kitchen Recipe

Preheat Oven to 175C/350F and line a baking tray with baking/wax paper.


Mix all ingredients together by hand until combined.


1 Cup of Flour
1/3 tsp Baking Powder
1/3 tsp Baking Soda/Bicarbonate of Soda
1/2 cup of sugar
1/4 cup of Lurpark Lighter butter spread
1/4 cup of milk
1/4 cup of hot water
1 tsp of Ener-G Egg replacer mixed with 1 1/2 Tbsp of hot water
1/2 tsp of vanilla extract*
1 Tbsp of maple syrup* 


*I eyeballed these so it is just an estimate! The flavour wasn't too strong, but again I was making these with a toddler in mind.


Drop roughly a teaspoon of batter on to the lined tray making sure to leave room between the batter. Have an even number of pies as you'll need one for the top and one for the bottom. I made fourteen in total for seven whoopie pies.


Bake for 12-14 minutes (you'll know for you oven but watch as egg-free cakes go brown more quickly) and then allow to cool. 


Carefully peel from the tray, add filling to half of the pies and top with the other half. You can also do what I do and put the pies in a ziplock bag and keep the filling the fridge and make them up as you need them since a toddler doesn't need seven pies at once :)


Enjoy! 

Egg-Free Soft Sugar Cookies

Finding egg-free baking recipes that taste good as well is not always easy. So I was super excited when I found an egg-free soft sugar cookie recipe that tasted great! This is the first time I've baked egg-free and had cookie rise (normally they just stay flat) as well so that was cool! I got some Easter cookie cutters last year so it the recipe was perfect to make Easter cookies.

If you're American you'll know what I'm talking about when I say a soft sugar cookie or Lofthouse style cookies; if you aren't just know it is a tasty, soft cookie topped with an obscene amount of frosting (is anything but obscene acceptable anyway?). The cookie itself isn't super sweet but the frosting more than makes up for it. You can find the original recipe on Kids with Food Allergies.

Egg-Free Soft Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup salted butter 

2 cups sugar

1 Tbsp vanilla

3 tsp dry Ener-G Egg Replacer plus 4 tbsp water (whisk REALLY well until foamy)

5 cups flour (divided into two lots)

1 cup buttermilk 

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda (Bicarbonate of Soda in the UK)

1/2 tsp salt

Mix together butter, sugar and vanilla in a mixer until well combined. Add Ener-G mixture and mix until incorporated.

Mix together 2 1/2 cups of flour with the baking soda, baking powder and salt.

Alternate mixing in the buttermilk and flour, slowly until combined.

Then slowly add in the remaining 2 1/2 cups of flour mixing on low to start (so you don't spray yourself with flour) and speeding up once combined. You could mix this in by hand but if you have a mixer, why?

While you are doing all this your kitchen helper can build a house with ice cube trays, baking powder and Pez dispensers (optional).

Chill well. I'd say how long you need to chill it but I accidentally turned my fridge off so I have no idea since my fridge was not working! You'll want the dough to firm up enough to make cut-outs though so at least an hour.

Once chilled pre-heat your oven to 350F/175C and line a baking sheet with wax/baking paper.

Roll out on a floured surface and cut out into fun shapes. Blondie Boy really liked this part. I covered my dining room table in cling film/plastic wrap and then dusted that with flour to try and help clean up.

Bonus points if you can tell what these shapes are; our cookie cutters were 
pretty ghetto and didn't work that well. I also shaped some into oval/egg shapes using my hands.

You can sprinkle with sugar now if you aren't a frosting person. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until cookies have risen and are lightly browned.

Let cool and then decorate! I used glitter gel writers for Blondie Boy's cookies. What was supposed to be a chick (but had no beak or feet?) reminded me of the Twitter bird so I couldn't help myself!

For myself and NBH I topped with Betty Crocker frosting (should be white but I had chocolate opening already) and pink sugar. I've just been spreading on a generous amount of frosting as we want the cookies that way the frosting isn't sitting out since it should be refrigerated after opening. You can totally make your own buttercream if you want but we had tons of ready-made in the house.

This recipe makes a LOT of dough. I use some to make the cookies you see here and then baked off another 6 large eggs the next day AND froze a big log of dough for another time. Just roll dough into a log, wrap in plastic wrap/cling film and freeze. You can then cut off cookies and bake from frozen. Just add on 2 minutes cooking time.

If you don't have an egg allergy in your family you can replace the Ener-G with 2 eggs whisked but personally I like these as they are plus it means you can lick the spoon to your heart's content :)

Lemon Shortbread with Lemon Frosting (Egg Free and Allergy Friendly)

I love to bake but it is tough to find recipes that don't include eggs and since Blondie Boy is allergic to eggs that means he doesn't get to help me bake very often. I decided to try and find a recipe online that was egg free and allergy friendly we could try together. I found a recipe for lemon cookies that used Ener-G egg replacer and decided to give it a go. 

Blondie Boy had a lot of fun being my helper and best of all no eggs meant he got to lick the spoon! Who doesn't like the lick the spoon? Now I have no idea if they turned out as intended since the recipe had no reviews or photos but we liked them. 

I tweaked the recipe a little so below is my version of Allergy Friendly Egg Free Lemon cookies with Lemon Frosting. They have a consistency similar to shortbread and the lemon frosting gives them a tangy taste which would make them perfect to have with a cup of tea.

Ingredients

Cookies

3⁄4	cup	softened butter (about 6oz)
1⁄4	cup	sugar (plus 1tbsp)
2 1⁄2	tsp	Lemon Juice (1/2 a lemon)
1	tsp	grated Lemon Peel (zest of 1 lemon)
1⁄4	tsp	vanilla
1 3/4	cup	all purpose flour
1	tsp	Ener-G Egg Replacer
1⁄8	tsp	Ground Cloves

Icing

1⁄4	cup	softened butter (about 2oz)
2 1⁄2	tsp	Lemon Juice (1/2 a lemon)
1⁄4	tsp	vanilla
1	cup	powdered sugar (icing sugar UK)

In mixing bowl, beat butter for 2 minutes on medium speed. Turn speed down to slow and gradually add in the sugar. Mix for another 3 minutes on medium-high speed and scrape down sides as needed. 

Zest the lemon before you juice it or it will be really hard to zest after. Pour in the juice, peel and vanilla. 

In a separate bowl, blend together the flour, Ener-G Egg Replacer, and cloves. Slowly add dry mix with butter mixture. Mix on slow for a few seconds and then on medium until incorporated; repeat until all the flour is mixed in. Place dough on flat surface, roll into a log shape, cover, and refrigerate for an hour. 

After the hour, preheat oven to 360 degrees F (180C). Replace chilled dough back onto surface and cut into 1/4" circles. Set cookies on a non-greased tray so they are not touching (cookies will not rise so you don't need mush space)

Turn oven down to 350 degrees F (175 C) and bake for 15-17 minutes or until lightly browned.

Let cool for 10 minutes before apply Lemon Icing (recipe below).

In a medium bowl, beat ¼ cup soft butter (I used Lurpak spreadable because I was out of butter) for 3 minutes. 

Scrape sides and add in 1 cup powdered sugar, 2 ½ tsp lemon juice (the other half of the lemon) and ¼ tsp vanilla. Blend on slow for 8 seconds, then increase to medium-high speed for 4 minutes, scraping sides as needed. Frosting will be thin but not watery. Add more icing sugar until desired consistency is achieved.

Sizzling Pubs

I'm going to be honest here: I wasn't expecting much when I agreed to check out our local Sizzling Pub. I'm not really a fan of chain pub-restaurants and their reputations aren't necessarily the best, however Blondie Boy, Not Blonde Husband and I had a really nice evening.

First of all the staff were lovely. Blondie Boy has an egg allergy and it can prove to be quite a problem when eating out.  Our waiter had no problem with checking which of the children's meals did and did not contain egg and even went as far as to read labels to double check instead of just asking the chefs. This was great: so, so helpful.

So here is what we ate:

BBQ Wings & Fried Mushrooms

My J20 was Glittery!

NBH's Angus BBQ Stack Burger

My Steak and Chicken Fajitas

Cheese, Tortillas & Fixings

BB's Grilled Chicken, Beans & Chips

The Most Massive Sundae I've ever seen

The portion sizes were extremely generous and we were both surprised with the food. Was it the best meal we ever had? No of course not but it was tasty and extremely good value for money. I was particularly pleased with my fajitas as I've had my fair share of bad British interpretations of fajitas but this was well seasoned and not overcooked. NBH and I split the Mega Supercurlycrunchielistic Choccaberry Sundae and we only got about half-way through. It was really tasty but HUGE!

The face of someone very excited for ice-cream

We went on the weekend but Sizzling Pubs have some great offers through the week and for the school holidays kids eat for free through the end of February! It really is great value for money and I can't say enough about how friendly the staff were. There are locations all through out the UK and I know I will certainly keep my eye out for one the next time we are on a road trip! 

Transatlantic Blonde was provided the meal to review but all opinions are our own.

Blondie Boy's 2nd Birthday

It was Blondie Boy's Birthday on the 5th and I think he had a pretty awesome time. As always all his treats were egg-free for his birthday and if I'm honest I thought the pancakes, cupcakes and cake were all super tasty if I do say so myself!


We had his party yesterday at The Life Craft in Glasgow and all the kids had a great time with messy play (painting, playdough and more) and got to decorate their own tote bag to take away! Can't recommend it enough if you are looking for a children's birthday party in Glasgow. Instead of blabbing on about BB's big T-W-O I will let some photos do the talking!

Yay Birthday! Woke up to presents and Egg-Free Mickey Pancakes.

Auntie Katie got him his first car! He calls it "Elmo car"--it is read with googly eyes!

Birthday Boy requested Purple Frosting for his Egg-Free Chocolate Cupcakes

Come Inside, It's Fun Inside! Fantastic Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Birthday Party at the Life Craft

An Eggcellent Adventure

Today we went Yorkhill Children's Hospital for Blondie Boy's appointment with the allergist. A few months ago we asked our GP for a referral and after his referral we got a letter from Yorkhill saying they approved his referral and he'd be allocated an appointment later. It took just under three months from our GP's referral to his appointment today.

If you are in Glasgow, be warned, parking is an absolute nightmare around Yorkhill. We left ourselves plenty of time and luckily NotBlondeHusband only had to loop around once after dropping us off to get parked. We went to our appointment and the first thing they did before we even started waiting was check Blondie Boy's height and weight.  The scales were just a big chair which I personally thought was pretty cool. 


We got there about 20 minutes early so I was surprised that they actually saw us early. We spoke to the Doctor and explained how BB has eczema and the reactions he has had to eggs. We also told her about his penicillin allergy and she asked us other questions about how he is in general. Then we got sent upstairs to test for peanut and egg allergies.


Again we didn't wait long and a nurse came and brought us through to another room. She drew four x's on BB's arm. Two were controls: one of saline for the no response control and the other was a histamine which would be the response control. The other two were for egg and peanuts.  She dropped a droplet of each liquid next to the appropriate X and then made a "dent" into the droplet with a metal spade. She didn't break or scratch the skin, just pushed it in a bit. Blondie Boy was totally fine with all of this and then got sent out to play for 15 minutes.


The waiting room was amazing: there was a full size play house, kitchen, rocking toys, fire trucks, books, play food, musical toys--basically any toy any child could possibly want--and most impressive they all had working batteries!  I overheard an older boy getting to choose a Nintendo DS game to play while he waited, too. Blondie Boy was in heaven and played away happily while we waited. 


After the fifteen minutes were up we went back into another room and it was clear to see he had two red welts on his arm where the histamine control and the egg droplets had been. The nurse drew around the two welts in pen and then stuck a bit of clear tape on them to take a tracing and taped the tracing to a report. Blondie Boy got his arm wiped off and we headed back downstairs again.


I should say as there are a lot of different outpatient clinics running at the same time we did see some visibly sick children. Blondie Boy wasn't bothered but as a Mom I did notice it and if you have older children they might ask questions. Questions are great, but just thought I'd put that in there. I should also say every staff member we came in contact with was so friendly and smiley which was lovely.


We had another wait and then went back to see the Doctor who confirmed Blondie Boy is allergic to eggs. He's not allowed any eggs, including eggs baked or cooked in other foods, and had a prescription antihistamine in case he has any allergic reactions.  We'll have to go back when he is four to re-evaluate and it is totally possible that it is an allergy he will outgrow. Since he had no reaction to peanuts we got the okay to try peanut butter so I think a trip to Costco for American peanut butter is in order.

We didn't get much in the way of information other than a pamphlet on what to do in case he has an allergic reaction. I'm not sure what other information I was looking for, but I guess I maybe expected something a bit specific about his allergy.


I had no idea what to expect when we went in today so I thought maybe there might be another Mom out there who would benefit from knowing what happens.  So expect to see some egg-free baking recipes and if you have any I'd love to hear them! I make some mean applesauce pancakes so I'm sure I can adapt other recipes to be Blondie Boy friendly, too.