Tidbits

[jethrien]

- ARR got into the preschool we were hoping for. Hurray! We have officially cleared one of the most notorious hurdles of New York-area parenting. His school goes up through 8th grade, so if he's happy and doing well there, we theoretically don't have to deal with school admissions again until high school. (Which is another whole ball of stressful wax.) So after the info session, parent classroom visit and interview, child classroom visit/interview, five page application including four essay questions, and follow up parent session, we're all set.

- ARR has yet another ear infection. They've put him on a different antibiotic, which is stronger. Unfortunately, it's also nastier. Plus Chuckro is allergic to it. So while ARR will happily take the pink stuff, getting him to drink this is a two person job involving physically restraining a flailing toddler who's wailing "Don't like! Don't like!" and spitting antibiotic everywhere, which we then have to frantically clean up before too much of it spends too much time in contact with Chuckro's skin. Good times.

- ARR's milk allergy continues apace, and the egg allergy is getting worse. On the plus side, the peanut allergy is getting a little better?

- I'm getting used to the rhythms of the new job. Half the company is in Israel, and we've got offices in Europe, Colorado, the West Coast, and Singapore, so we all live on Skype all the time. I'm used to getting in relatively early and having half an hour to organize my day before shit hits the fan. Now, when I get in, I've got three quarters of a day worth of email from the Israelis waiting for me. And three quarters of a day worth of requests. I spend the first several hours in fire drill mode, and then have time to organize things in the late afternoon. I'm having to completely rethink my working patterns. I'm sure I'll get used to it, but it takes some adjusting.

- The snacks here are impressive. It's not necessarily a good thing. I've been eating way too much because of stress and ego depletion. I'm sure as I get more used to the options and get more of a rhythm, I'll get this under control, too. But sheesh. There's guacamole and blackberries and brownies and chocolate covered dried fruit and kettle popcorn chips (which I accidentally combined with the guacamole because I misread the label; not a good combo) and a ton of other stuff. Dangerous.

Comments

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I was reading recently that they think not exposing kids to peanuts earlier is contributing to greater development (and more severe) of peanut allergies. It'll be interesting to see how the training for parents goes as they pursue this line of study more. There might yet be hope!

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Thing is, I ate peanut butter all through pregnancy and nursing, and we gave him peanut butter a little before his first birthday. (You're not supposed to give them any before then because it's also a choking hazard--it's too sticky for little people who don't really understand how to swallow solids well.) He was fine with it for about six months, and then the allergy started developing.

We've been trying to get some egg into his diet in very low concentrations. But he's had reactions off of bread with trace amounts of whey and almond butter that was made in the same facility as peanuts, so the low levels of milk and peanuts aren't really much of an option at this point.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I wonder how well allergens from food cross the human placenta. I actually have no idea. I know that humans have much more exchange across the placenta than does most of the species I work with because of their different interconnectivity between dam and fetus. It's kind of batty.

Allergies are just a fascinating jumble of problems, aren't they? I mean, aggravating as fuck, but the reactions are as individualized as the people who have them. My sister's boyfriend is allergic to every type of tree nut but not peanuts, one of the most common and aggressive allergies out there. I'm fairly allergic to all things hay-fevery and cats, but I need to take pills to be in the same room as plants and my cats run all over my face with no reaction. It might be that ARR does eventually move past severe reactions with time or they get worse. It's just literally impossible to tell which way it will break (although you have some previous exposure evidence to weigh new exposure risks against). Just batty.

[mithras03.livejournal.com]

Woo hoo! Congrats on the school! \o/

[cubby-t-bear.livejournal.com]

I like tea and seaweed snacks and that flavored water. The seaweed gives me something to munch on, caffeine is a decent appetite suppressant, and the flavored water is a good substitute for juice.

Survival strategies in the worlds of free snacks (definitely first world problems).