eggs

The next discovery was that Chloe had a possible egg allergy.

It wasn't too difficult to avoid giving her milk, because at nine months she was still nursing several times a day and we'd give her juice to drink. I honestly don't remember when we started giving her rice milk, which is now a staple beverage for her.

Anyway, we hosted a family reunion party at our house on June 22. My husband's three sisters and their families came, along with his mother and her husband.

My oldest sister in law made potato salad, and her recipe--quite delicious--calls for hard-boiled eggs and of course mayonnaise.

Chloe was a little fussy and in order to help me eat, she took Chloe on her lap, and gave her a baby carrot to gum (she had no teeth yet).

There must have been a smear of mayo on the carrot because after about ten minutes I noticed that Chloe's upper lip was blotchy and swollen. There were red circles that looked like hives.

I gave her some benadryl (which the doc also prescribed we have at hand always) and it cleared up within about twenty minutes.

I remember feeling a little concerned, but not too alarmed. It was a little bit of a mystery. Knowing that she had a definite milk allergy, this came as a possible, and we decided to just avoid egg for the time being. No scrambled eggs for Chloe!

Unfortunately, this meant all quick breads, pancakes, and things like that. By this time, we were giving Andrew scrambled eggs, banana bread, and pancakes, but we couldn't do that for Chloe.

It was a little bit of a difficult summer, with me not eating dairy (no ice cream on the swing in the front yard!) and trying to figure out things Chloe could eat to help her grow. She was getting a lot of pureed veggies, rice cereal, baby oat cereal, juice, and of course, breast milk.

Let me stop and say what a delight Chloe is to be around. I haven't said anything about her personality, but she is absolutely cheerful and sweet. She loves to be social and smiles all the time. She won't put up a fuss when it's time to go to bed. The only time she cries is when she's hungry.

With these allergy discoveries, we were fast eliminating good sources of protein for her, and that wasn't going to help her grow.