“Rock Paper Scissors!” Or “Asthma Allergies Children Oh Shoot!”
Remember the Rock Paper Scissors Game? Paper covers Rock, Scissors cuts Paper but Rock crushes Scissors? Your big brother pounds the back of your hand with his closed fist? You unsuccessfully retaliate by trying to pinch his flattened palm with your scissor fingers? Good times...
Now, as an allergy parent, I play a new game that goes something like "Well he hasn't outgrown any food allergies this year but his hay fever wasn't so bad!" Or - "Wow this weather is sure making his skin flair up but have you noticed that we haven't an accidental food reaction in a while?"
Like other parenting plays, mine involve Superstition and Odds, Hopes and Fears.
Which is why, my Guest Post for a wonderful site called
Asthma Allergies Children, I wrote about the irony of being blindsided by my son's asthma despite his food allergies
and my prior experiences with asthma. This piece illustrates how sometimes all parents think they can control all the Players they are going to let into their Game.
When a Cough Isn’t “a Cough”: Asthma Sneaks Up On Mom
By Susan Weissman
My son was three years old before he revealed the limits of his lungs. Eden’s onset of allergic asthma occurred after what already seemed like a fair lifetime of severe food allergies. When the Big Kahuna – peanuts, milk, etc. – rode in on his blood work just after his first birthday, our allergist has been crystal clear: “Watch for signs of asthma.” Of course. I understood about asthma. Or at least, I thought I did. As a child, I used to hear my mother’s coughs in the mornings; successive, deep and wet, quelled by sips of black coffee. Cigarette smoke, musty hotels, pet dogs, horseback riding – our family tried to avoid Mom’s triggers, hoping to spare her the uncomfortable antihistamines followed by a craving for 7-Up, a beverage she never drank unless medicated as such. Sure. I could keep an eye out for asthma....
Read full post at: Asthma Allergies Children...
What I Do Now: