I am thankful to have a PA child.

Wonderfully said, Jodi! Best wishes! [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/smile.gif[/img]

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Jodi, I started a thread about this exact same subject a while ago. It was in July or right around there. Maybe August.I think we all appreciate and are thankful for our children. My Thread was about this 2 year old boy playing with my 2 year old boy and the grandmother explaining that he had a brain tumor and was getting a little spoiled because of all the pain he was going through. I would have had no idea if the grandmother had not said anything. Believe me I never in my life have been as proud and as happy as I am with my children. I saw a boy at the Barney show today that was having such a good time and the boy was blind. Here we were singing and Dancing with our little ones and he could not even see The show. That little boy had more courage than anyone I have ever seen. I always tell my children that they have no idea how perfect their own lives are. an allergy to nuts is minor and we at our home realize this. I mean is that things bother us at times with the nuts,but Oh well we god will not give us more than we can handle. I tell my children this also. Take care. Check out the thread that I started I think you would enjoy reading the posts on this subject. Claire

Jodi, my mother never thought my PA was a problem. We all worry about PA, but it sure beats alot of other things. Andy

Jodi, I just remembered that when I started The Things Kids Say thread about a month ago, when my goofy son was pretending he wasn't PA and didn't know what that meant, I had some explaining to do to him. Now, it didn't involve any serious medical conditions, but it did involve food allergies. I went through the list of food that he had eaten that day that he would consider "special", like going to Dairy Queen, that other children, because of their particular food allergies would not be able to eat at all. This seemed to pacify him and also bring him back to the "real" world. This was from a child that is very PA aware and I really think it had to do with him going for allergy testing and not having any Claritin in his body! LOL! Best wishes! [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/smile.gif[/img]

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What an appropriate topic for this time of year. I am very thankful for my PA daughter as well as her older brother and sister. Up until this year I taught at a Head Start program and worked daily with special needs children. There are so many other untreatable things out there. When my PA daughter was born she was three to four weeks early and aspirated fluids. She spent the first four days of her life in the neonatal unit in the hospital. The first time I saw her she had an IV, electrodes on her chest and a tube going from her nose to her stomach because they didn't think her esophagus was fully developed. We later found she was allergic to the formula they were supplementing her with. I was so scared. Because I had cesearean my stay was longer and we did get to go home together. I don't know how I would have explained not coming home with the baby to her anxiously awaiting brother and sister. We had to have her hearing checked when she was a month old and it came out fine. She is developing normally and is an active, happy and very smart 19 month old. She is starting to count and sing her abc's. She is one of the three lights of my life and I am so thankful for her allergy and all. Happy Thanksgiving and thank you for the chance to sing the praises I have for my children.

My husband and I were talking about this the other day and we just are so thankful to have the children we have and that they are healthy and happy. We do have the PA obstacle and it's worthy of the concern we give it, but so many things could be worse. We're also in the process of moving and all the stresses of that have been causing a lot of tension, but bottom line......we're alive and well and blessed beyond belief.

Jodi,
I'm glad you started this thread. My wife and I went through this same thing with our older son, who has an unbelievable case of ADD. It absolutely devastates your family. But I eventually came to the point where I realized there were many parents whose children were in much worse condition and I began to be thankful for his health.

Now my younger son has the stupid PA problem. He is always in danger for his life, and there is only so much we can do to protect him. But your discussion thread reminded me of how fortunate we are he can run, play, fight, and make a mess of his room. I would rather have to be extra vigilant for his safety than for him to be unable to trash his room.

I was speaking with a close family member recently, who is having difficulty conceiving. She scans the infertility support groups on the net, and picks up tidbits here and there of new information, much like we do here on this PA site. It made me think how heartbreaking it must be, to have to post about invasive medical treatments, loneliness and disappointment. We are so lucky to have our children, PA or not.

There is a 10 year gap between my nonPA son and my PA daughter, and in those 10 years I thought I'd never hold another baby in my arms. Cayley has been a miracle since she was born, and I'll take every last quirk she has. I'd rather be a member of the PA site, even with all the potential PA has for heartbreak, than not to be a mother at all. My heart breaks for women and men who want to become parents, and cannot. We parents of PAs truly are lucky, even if it doesn't seem that way sometimes.