Our third appointment was another one that Adam, my husband, took Eli to and was only a one day appointment. Because these appointments happen all year long, and it is during the school year, we try to keep the trips as short as possible. They fly down one day, stay the night in a hotel, get up and go to the appointment, then fly out later that day or night. It is a quick turnaround.
At this appointment, Eli challenged poppy seed (also related to tree nuts), which he passed and is now a part of his morning maintenance foods. For the first time, we really began the plan in earnest. They introduced two new foods in the clinic which we would then start dosing him with at home. The first was mustard seed, the second mare’s (horse’s) milk. He was able to have both with no reaction, so they sent him home with a plan for dosing with both foods, starting with very small amounts, increasing each week, until the next appointment several months later, where he will challenge both of these foods.
I will admit, I have never actually heard of mare’s milk and the idea was kind of strange to me, but we’ve been dosing on it now for about a month and things are going well. The mustard seed is a little easier in that they put the doses into gummies that he eats, so I don’t have to prep anything. We have a whole shelf in our fridge for all of his dosing foods, a good chunk of our chest freezer for the whole cycles dosing, and a whole bunch of strange tools and needle free syringes that I have yet to find a good place for.
At the food allergy institute, they’ve been able to formulate gummies for all of the various nut allergies, but with milk and egg allergies we do all of the preparation at home. I will share more once I have some of the prep behind me, it is a lot to process and a lot of responsibility to know that my correct preparation of the food is make or break for Eli. I suppose that is how most of his life has been for us, but this feels a little more intense.