ALLERGY ATTACK

I planned to write about Erin’s one year old update after the Birthday Celebration (which was held one day before her birthday) post, but something else came up -

My poor baby had a BAD ALLERGY ATTACK on her first birthday!!!

*sigh*.  I am still traumatised.   :(

 Lengthy Recap of what happened: 

On Sunday, we spent almost 5 hours at Houz Depot, looking for things for our new house.  We did stop for a short tea break at OldTown kopitiam though.

After the shopping trip, baby Erin fell asleep in the car.  She was still sleeping when we reached home so I transferred her to the spring cot where she continued sleeping.  

She woke up crying around 6+pm and kept scratching her head.  I just thought she didn’t get enough sleep.  Made her a bottle of milk then we got ready to go out again for dinner.

In the car, she kept on crying and fussing.  She refused her milk, refused my attempts to breastfeed her (unusual!) , refused her baby crackers and even started throwing her body forwards and backwards while just crying away.   My initial thought was that she was too  tired/hungry/sleepy to drink her milk and then probably made herself too distressed with all the crying.  But after a while, I started to get worried when she just won’t stop crying. We even stopped by the roadside for a while to let her calm down (which she did) but then she started crying again when she got into the car.  

We quickly changed our original destination and chose to just stop by at the nearest coffee shop for dinner.  Hubby ordered food while I carried her around. (she stopped crying when we arrived).

I brought her to a nearby fruit shop and got the shock of my life when I saw under the fluorescent light that her entire face was red and blotchy! Her body had red spots too.   I went back to the shop and showed hubby and we rushed out with the uneaten food and drinks on the table. (and with Elyssa asking why she can’t eat her yong tau foo!)

We were in a panicky mode by then. The red marks seemed to be getting more and more. Frantically drove past four closed clinics (it was a Sunday night) and were contemplating going to the emergency ward of the nearest hospital.  In the end, we drove to a 24 hour clinic near our house.  During the drive, I managed to breastfeed her and she nearly feel asleep. “Nearly” cos I prodded her once in a while as I was  a  paranoid that she may lose consciousness!  When we reached the clinic, there were many people waiting  but I requested to see the doctor immediately.  The nurse allowed us to go straight to the treatment room.

Doctor confirmed it was an allergy attack. Told us if there was a second attack within 24 hours, we shouldn’t even go to the clinic but to rush her to the nearest hospital. Yikes!  He said her airways were clear and decided against an injection as the dosage would be too high for Erin.  Gave her oral medication instead.  As for the cause of the cause of the allergy attack, he said it could be due to pretty much anything.  In terms of food, the only new thing she ate that day was EGG! During our tea time at OldTown kopitiam, Erin sat next to hubby and he used his spoon (he was eating half boiled eggs) to feed her porridge.  So, EGG is currently the main suspect!!   We told the doctor that she had egg but it was approximately 4 hours before the allergy attack.  He said up to 12 hours still possible.  :(

Anyway, we went to my parents place after the doctor visit. They were shocked seeing poor Erin’s condition!  She has such fair skin so all the red blotches were clearly visible.  But slowly, we could see the medicine taking effect – she was back to her playful self and the red blotches slowly subsided. 

So, that was what happened on Sunday night. Luckily no secondary attack within the next 24 hours.

I am pretty devastated. I’ve seen how allergy affects kids and I know if it’s a serious allergy, it can be a  long, long battle to fight.    :(

I am still hoping that hers is a mild case.  Maybe she’s only allergic to half cooked eggs and not fully cooked eggs.  Maybe it was something she touched in Home Depot. Maybe that was a one-off incident that will never happen again.  Maybe….. Maybe…….  *sigh*, my poor Erin.