Mackenzie's Update - 4 months in the making

The last you saw, Mackenzie was getting her hair cut.  I would like to let you know, that she in fact has had her haircut a couple of times, and no, we didn't leave her in the chair for the past 4 months. 

Mackenzie will turn 17 months old next week.  I can not believe that she is already 17 months.  To me that just blows me away.  She is developing into the funniest little person I know.  The looks she gives me sometimes just cracks me up.  She is one of the most affectionate little babies ever, and loves to come lay on you, hug you, hang on you, and she is always wanting to be picked up. 

She has started talking and has a few words in her vocabulary.  Mostly "B" words.  She is starting to push back when her sister is demanding of her and stand her own ground.  She loves to play with anything that Ellie is playing with, and is already inssisting on using silverware at home because Ellie does.  Somedays, I wish she would go back to eating with her fingers, as I think more would make it in her mouth and less would make it in the dog's mouth.

Around Christmas time, we were all up visiting my parents in Conifer to celebrate Christmas with the family.  My Mom prepared breakfast that morning, and it was really the first time that Mackenzie was interested in eating eggs.  She ate an entire scrambled egg, first one ever, and almost immediately started to develop this nasty red raised rash all over her body, she had snot pouring out of her nose, and had adverse stomach issues to it as well.  This was really our first experience with a reaction to food for either girl.  We gave her some benedryl, and she was fine. 

Shortly after this, Mackenzie wanted a snack after school, so I gave her some Ritz Bitz (peanut butter).  Almost instantly, she started wheezing, and couldn't breath very well.  Again, gave her Benedryl, and she was fine. 

We had mentioned this to our pediatrician on a couple of occassions, and they said that allergy testing really wasn't accurate for small children, and it wasn't worth the pain that it put them through.  After a second bout with peanuts (I messed up and gave her something) we saw a different pediatrician (for an ear infection) and mentioned the potential allergies again.  She agreed to send us in for testing (but I still think she thinks I am a nut case).

So a few weeks ago, I made the allergy testing appointment for Mackenzie, and off we went.  They tested her for the top 10 most common allergenic foods, peanut oil, dogs, cats, and apples. They can test for over 600 things, but based on Mackenzie's back size, we limited it to these items.  I wish we would have included tree nuts as well as some of the seasonal allergens, but that will have to wait for another day.  Within 2 minutes of starting the scratch test - her back looked like this:

Showing that she is already reacting to some of the tests.  After 10 minutes, the nurse comes back and reads the results.  The measure the diameter of the raised portion of the reaction, as well as one other thing to determine the severity of the reaction.

Mackenzie had a mild reaction to milk and soy products.  This helps explain why everytime her system is already compromised (with a cold, ear infection, etc.) milk doesn't sit well in her stomach.

She had severe reactions to dogs, cats, eggs, and peanuts.  The Dr explained that she would probably outgrow the egg allergy by the time she was 4, but the others she would probably have her entire life.  So now, we are armed with epi-pens and benedryl everywhere we go.  She has her stash at school too, just in case.  We will be back at the allergist office in a couple months to get an update, and maybe schedule more tests.  We will see.

As of right now, Mackenzie weighs about 24 lbs, and was 32" tall at her last check up (15 months). I will depart you with a couple of pictures from the last 4 months. I promise I won't wait another 4 months to update the blog with information on the girls.

First Piggies / Playing LPS with Ellie