Not all cereals are created equal.

Who would have thought beginner baby cereal would have skim milk powder in it? We had another scary episode with Jude last night. I bought a new brand of oat cereal, as Sobey's doesn't carry the brand I usually buy. Jason was away skiing for the day, and we were looking forward to having him home soon as I fed Jude his supper cereal, the new oat cereal. He was loving it, couldn't get enough. It wasn't until he got some on his hand and then rubbed his eye that I noticed something was very wrong. His eye started to swell and there were hives where it had touched his skin, and then his whole face became red, he started drooling as his tongue must have been swelling. YIKES!

We quickly called Papa John, and he and Vanessa rushed over to help. We bundled Jude up and took him to the Children's Hospital where it was going to be at least a 2 hour wait to see a doctor. That fact, and the fear Jude would catch whatever all those other sick kids had, led us to leave. Jude recovered quite quickly, about 30-45 mins from when he ate the cereal, and fell asleep in my arms like nothing had ever happened.

Today we went to see the doctor, and she advised against allergy testing at his age because it would just be introducing more allergens into his system. Thus, she recommended going back to just the rice cereal for a couple of weeks, then reintroducing the oat cereal that we know is ok. Any new foods are to be introduced VERY slowly. A bit on his lip or on the inside of his wrist to see if he has a reaction. We also now have baby Benydril in the house, an antihistamine, so if he ever has another episode we can quickly give him that to take down the swelling and itching.

We think it is the skim milk powder in the cereal, as when he reacted to the mashed potatoes they had butter and milk in them. That's the only thing we can think of, as his old oat cereal didn't have skim milk powder in it.

He's back to his old self today, laughing and smiling, so it's all ok. I have to admit that I don't think I've ever been so scared, and I'm sure the drive home from the ski hill was a long one for Jason as I phoned him crying that something was wrong with Jude. I guess this is what parenting is all about, boy do I have a lot to learn!