Survivor of The Peanut Butter Challenge!

Caleb did it!!!  He survived The Peanut Butter Challenge!!!  What in the world am I talking about you are probably wondering?!  It sounds like some Man Vs. Food episode or something doesn't it?  Well, as many of you probably know, Caleb has had nut allergies since he was 11 months old that were discovered when I accidentally cut his non-peanut butter sandwich with a knife used to also cut my sandwich containing peanut butter that resulted in hives all over his face.

A second incident happened when he was about 15 months old and I gave him an apple from my salad that had walnuts in it that again produced hives on his face.  Caleb's allergies were never life threatening by any means, but still it was a bit scary worrying that something could happen and also somewhat of a nuisance to constantly remember to tell people "no nuts" and check labels and so on. 

Anyway, last month he had both blood testing and skin testing done that came back negative for peanut allergies, and his allergist suggested that we come back in for The Peanut Butter Challenge (I totally thought the doctor was kidding at first but it is really what he calls it).   So this morning we headed over to the allergist's office for a 3 hour trial where the goal was for Caleb to eat 2 Tbsp. of peanut butter over the duration of the time with no reaction - and he passed with flying colors!!! 

He started out with 1 tsp. of peanut butter, waited 20 min and then the amount was gradually increased followed by a 20 min. waiting period until he finally got it all down, and then we waited an hour just to make sure nothing happened.  I'm so glad I thought last night to take some things along for us to do because the doctor hadn't mentioned it and we would have been super bored.  Fortunately we had along Runny Babbit, a High Five magazine, a Boxcar Children book and cards to play war - so the time passed pretty quickly.  After the testing, we made a necessary stop at Landis to pick up some peanut butter M&M's, Eagles touchdown sundae and chocolate peanut butter ice cream to celebrate!

On the downside, Caleb did get fairly large hives on his back last month when they tested walnut, hazelnut and pecan on his skin and the bloodwork came back positive for those as well, so we're still not totally in the clear, but for him to eat peanut butter is huge and for that I am very thankful!!  The doctor also did say he would keep monitering the tree nut allergies and maybe this time next year he can take the "Tree Nut Challenge"! 

This picture is of him with his bag all packed ready to go for his challenge (he was so excited), and the very top picture is his first bite ever of peanut butter!!  He loved it!