thinking about how fortunate i am

I think this puts everything in propestive.
We are very lucky, P A can be controlled,
cant it

Sorry for the mis spelling I mean "prospective"

Claire,
I know exactly what you mean. My PA daughter is my 4th and the only one with PA. At first I cursed myself and peanuts and wanted to blame someone or something. Although it is a challenge keeping her safe everyday, I am grateful I wasn't dealt a more difficult situation. I believe God gives us what He thinks we can handle and also the added strength to deal with it. God Bless all those who have added worries about their children, aside from the ordinary things we worry about every day!

Claire, Cath & Linda-Jo: Amen! I praise Him every day for the blessings He gives us. I too have 4 healthy children and my 4th is the only one with peanut allergy. Certainly, it keeps us all on our toes but when you look at what others are dealing with...some moms & dads spend days & nights in hospitals while their little ones are poked with needles and other very extensive testing.

I've been on both sides. I have had to see my oldest son endure painful medical testing, including a bronchoscopy (they go into the lungs and biopsy while you are awake), I have had to see both my boys have ph probes shoved down through their nose into their esophogus, only to be left there for 24 hours hooked up to a computer. I have also gone through two tests for cancer for my son, one of them being a biopsy of a tumor..but I have also seen my sons play baseball, football, be well liked, and enjoy life. PA has not ruined their lives, nor has the reflux or the asthma...if anything it has strengthened them. They aren't so quick to judge others who are different, they tend to care if someone or something is hurt, they tend to understand things better, and they understand other's ailments. So we are blessed and my boys will make wonderful caring fathers some day.

Every night, even after the most hectic of days, I lay in bed and thank God for my children, they are the loves of my life and every moment with them is special and important. PA gets us down sometimes but all I have to do is look at how sweet and full of life my daughter is and I don't let the worry weigh me down. MKRuby I'm so sorry for all you've endured. Best wishes to you and your family and to all of you out there dealing with life's challenges.

I posted somewhere else where I had contacted MUMS who provide you with penpals with children who have the same difficulties your child does. Of the 5 that were given to me, they were not only dealing with PA. There was a long list of stuff. I was too embarrassed to join MUMS because my son has only PA, asthma and environmental allergies.
Of course, I wish he didn't have the PA, but he does. There is a Robert Munsch book and there is a lullabye in it that we sing each night when the kids go to bed and then I go up and sing it to them later when I'm going to bed. Maybe during the day the Mommy has said "These kids are driving me CRAZY". But each night, she goes and sings: "I will love you forever, I will like you always, As long as I'm living my baby you'll be." It's wonderful and the whole story is actually great because in the end, when the mother is very old and can't sing the song anymore, the son sings it back to her. I really think that most of us, aside from being in here discussing PA and dealing with whatever we have to to ensure our child's safety at school, etc. don't really see the PA label most of the time. We see the wonderful, beautiful, intelligent, active children that we have and are thankful for them! Best wishes!

------------------

I tell my husband the same thing all the time. "It could be worse" At least we can control this allergy. we have had 2 SIDS deaths, 1 Downs baby & a 8 yr old suicide because he had Cystic Fibrosis.All couisins of our chidrens, 33 kids ages 4 mos - 27 years on my husbands side & 7 kids ages 15 mos - 23 years on my side

Yes, things can always be worse. I work within a clinic that deals exclusively with birth defects. I only see the children when I go do mail or I leave for the day. It's sometimes very painful to look at these little children in wheelchairs or oxygen tanks or with body deformities. I think it hurts me even more to look at the parents. You have never seen such exhausted people, desperate to have a conversation with other adults who understand. They are also the strongest, sweetest, most enduring people in the world-children and parents alike.