Peanut Poison

My son is allergic to peanuts.  This has been a hard, slow, gradual process of understanding and accepting.   It sounds so trivial yet it has really impacted our life .  . . learning to navigate childhood without peanut butter and jelly sandwiches? No bag of peanuts at the ballgame? No Drumsticks? No CrackerJacks? No Reese's on Halloween? What? We've been lucky to have very few issues with reactions until now, but recently he received something edible that had been tainted with peanuts at school. (Still not sure exactly what it was.)   But whatever.  Little guy ate it.  Body broke out in hives.  Throat started to close up.  Henry got to take an ambulance ride by himself to the ER. 

Finding him at the ER looking like this was . . . terrifying. But the doctors were so great. They immediately epi-penned him twice, Benadryl, steroids, the works.

So now I am the mom at the birthday party who says, "I'm so sorry, but   . . . what is in this cupcake?" And I'm the mom who tells Lucy she can't have a peanut butter sandwich in the same house as Henry anymore.  And now I carry a peanut allergy kit.  I had this brilliant woman on ETSY make a peanut allergy bag for me to leave with babysitters, church, etc.  Here's what's inside. 

Clorox wipes for wiping down surfaces  Wal-Dryl single serving allergy meds (Benadryl won't make it anymore . . for some reason) And . . .the Epi Pen, obviously PS- The woman who made the pouch did awesome work: www.elliemarshallsews.etsy.com Just taking it one peanut-free day at a time.  *sigh*   *Have you had a similar experience? *Any advice? *Thoughts?