Nathan's Allergist Appointment

Yesterday morning we went to the allergist for Nathan's appointment. Usually we go altogether, but with three people it is really difficult to schedule them without doing it way far in advance. So I scheduled his sooner than the rest of us because we had school papers to get filled out by the doctor. Nathan has a latex "sensitivity" that we found out about when he was 3 months old. Back in the day, they still wore latex gloves to change the babies' diapers at the daycare. The first day was fine. The second I picked him up and he had welts on his arms and legs; everywhere they touched him with the gloves. The child looked like he was being abused! Poor thing. Ever since then I have done everything I can to make sure that our house and his surroundings are latex-free. This includes toys and school supplies, etc. It is amazing to find out the amount of items that have latex in them or on them! There is a really good article that was published by a teacher about her adventures with a latex allergy student (click on the word to read the article). Here is the latest list of items identified by the spina bifida foundation as containing latex along with latex-free alternatives. We decided to start 504 paperwork for him this year since I can no longer control who he comes in contact with. In the past, I would just have to worry about a few teachers needing to know and keep in close contact with them about items that they used in class. This year, for the first time, he is going to come in contact with 10- 15 different teachers on a daily basis. Having the 504 will make it easier to make sure that he is as safe as he can be when he is away from home. He is 9 and even though he has lived with this his whole life, he still forgets and touches stuff that he doesn't know for sure about whether it is latex or not. (This especially happens when it comes to a cool or neat object he has never seen before.) So now he has an epi-pen just in case. The doctor told us that there is really no reliable test for the allergy to assess just how allergic he is to it. Also, there is speculation that latex sensitivity becomes compounded over time and exposure, so the epi-pen is more as a precaution than anything. I am usually really good about checking with the company for any product that I am unsure about. I recently contacted the Bic company to find out if their pens had latex in the grip. The guy responded with, "I am pretty sure it is not latex based." Well, hopefully it is not. The fun of allergies!