Everyone within the allergy world will agree, you're always on the look out for unsafe items, or things which could cause a reaction.
It's a 24/7 job, and incredibly tiring to do so. But to not do so, risks the chance of your little one suffering a reaction.
So, imagine when you are on full alert, and something still manages to breach the defences!
My god do you feel guilty!
And that's exactly what happened to me a couple of days ago!
School broke up for the summer holidays, and as is the tradition, a leavers/end of term party is always held the afternoon of the end of term.
As soon as I got back from work, off I went with Chloe and Callum to the party, being held at the village hall, where they had a great time playing with Chloe's school friends.
When the party finished, all the children headed on to the village playground, next to the hall. Swings, roundabout, slides and so on = a great place for them to expel some energy.
Whilst there, I found out, after more than 4 years of living in the village, there is a walnut tree in the playground.
The reason I found out.... Callum came up to me, holding what seemed like two innocent looking green balls. One of the mums (who also has an allergic child) immediately exclaimed that they were 'unripe walnuts', and then asked me what would happen.
Oh god!!!!!!
This was totally unchartered territory for us. Callum carries an epi-pen due to his nut and tree-nut allergy. We'd never encountered him holding an unripe walnut before!!
Having thrown the offending articles over the fence, I made a sharp retreat back home. As I had absolutely no idea how Callum would react, I needed to be safe rather than sorry, and wanted to have his full arsenal of medicines to hand, just in case.
Within 40 minutes, his hand had started to swell and become very sore!
And this was just from an unripe walnut, still in its outer case!
Luckily, with antihistamine and steroid cream, we were able to control his reaction. And the next day, it had gone down considerably.
However, I think it's safe to say, nuts are still clearly a no go area!
And maybe the playground needs to be for now as well....!
