new kid

I am writing after having read your site for one week. A week ago Thursday Christopher, one of our identical twins had an anaphylactic reaction to eating a peanut M&M. My sister-in-law introduced us to this site. It is sobering to read anything on this board and I have had a few crying spells.
When the twins were one year old I was so excited to give them their first PB&J. I think Nicholas may have eaten some but really didn't notice because I was noticing how Christopher didn't eat any, just got it on his face as you may expect any one year old to get food on themselves. He had welts wherever the PB was on him. I assumed right then he was allergic to peanuts. I tried about three months later thinking he would get over it and gave them both some sort of peanut butter cookie. By now my boys fully knew what a cookie was and that they were a treat. Again Christopher didn't eat any, and welted where it got on him. Their pediatrician suggested I wait until they were three to give them any more. I didn't then,but as the year rolled on I thought they had had stuff accidentally (or on purpose) that had possible peanuts in them and were fine. They are four and a half now and I gave them some peanut M&M's and waited. Nicholas ate his and Christopher had only one, handed them back to me and said he didn't want any more. He started coughing, asked for a drink of water, all this time I am becoming more and more worried. He says he wants to rest and then I can hear him breathing hoarse and difficult. This was all in about five minutes and then my husband rushed him to the ER. Now here we are in the reality of this. We are taking the twins to an allergist on the 3rd of April. Until then I think I'll just go crazy.

Several things about me and mine to know.
-the night before this I rubbed PB in C's hair in an attempt to remove some gum (I had heard this works) He had kind of a welt there on his sideburn where the gum was and while I was cautious to watch him that night he seemed OK. I assumed the welt to be because of this...
- whenever C gets a scratch or say kneels on something hard or whatever, his skin welts.
-whenever C gets a mosquito bite he welts up huge, like 2 to 3 inches across, depending on how much he scratches it.
-We took him in twice for what I surmise now was asthma, he was given albuterol vapor, this was when he was, I guess, under two years old.
-I suffer from seasonal allergies, seems to be all seasons though, as I always have a runny nose.
-My hay fever seems to have gotten worse. At times my throat swells up and becomes instantly sore.
-Last few summers I have noticed my throat and roof of mouth gets itchy when I eat cantaloupe.
-Last few summers my face has become itchy when I am suffering from the hay fever. Right around my nose and mouth and my eyes feel more like they have sand in them when they start to itch.
-I am allergic to Sulfa drugs
-My maternal grandfather was deathly allergic to bee stings.
-My husband sister is allergic to penicillin

Okay, having said all this, I am wondering if anyone knows if any of these areas should be of special concern if not all and which I may lay off of because I have become a nervous wreck this last week. One great fear I have is the B-sting thing. Are there connections? We have wasps, too, around our house.
Thanks for reading this exceptionally long post. I am sure I'll have more questions and more to add to this story as they days go.

Oh, funny thing is,his identical twin seems to be fine. Little sister, 18 months, seems ok,except major diaper rash after eating oranges. Little brother, only 7 months, who knows, hopefully no problems.

C&N's mom

[This message has been edited by C&N's Mom (edited March 31, 2001).]