16 Months!

JT has hit another milestone month. I think I will continue monthly updates on his progression until probably he turns 2. He has a lot of learn and develop, so I think its fun to post about to journal when he masters a skill and also JT's grandma's can see how big their baby boy is getting.

Something that I figured out and fixed (for now) is JT's keen ability to break the cabinet locks. I posted a while ago that JT figured out how to pull on the excess plastic and over time it made the locking mechanism weak and he would be able to break into the cabinets easily. Well,. I replaced those locks twice and JT was taking only a few days rather than weeks to get the locks to open. I knew that it was time for another approach. I found a new lock- similar to the style of the "old" lock, but there are visible "teeth" on the plastic . I thought this would be more secure of a lock and also if JT were to grab it like before the "teeth" of the plastic wouldn't feel very good thus discouraging his pulling. Thankfully the new locks worked and JT is no longer trying to break into the cabinets!

Another major change for JT is we were informed that JT is in fact allergic to peanuts. I spoke with the Dr about his results and for the fear of cross contamination, JT needs to be nut free. Often times where other nuts are, peanuts are there as well so there isn't any reason to risk JT's safety, so nut free it is! In addition, we need to keep an EpiPen with us at all times in case JT accidentally ingests something peanut. First we are to give him Benedryl (which has worked when he first had peanut butter) but if he has a severe reaction, the Benedryl doesn't work, or he has difficulty breathing, we use the EpiPen an then call 911. I pray we will never have to use those pens.

Since a nut allergy is something new to our family, we are beginning to become better educated on what that means. Basically, we have to look at the ingredients of all food JT is going to have and if there are any nuts he can't have them. Sounds easy right? Well, I'm discovering that there are a lot of things that have nuts in them though they aren't nut products. How about cereal bars- the fruit kind- nope! Some flavors of oatmeal? Nuts in there too! Granola bars? Nutty beyond belief! Even plain chocolate can be produced in facilities that have nuts in there so that is off limits. We even need to keep in mind things like telling the staff at places that his food needs to be prepared separately (if needed) Things like going to Baskin Robbins for ice cream means he needs to have a special scooper because it could have been used to scoop a ice cream with nuts and the traces of nut could give JT an allergic reaction. Just need to have a different mind set with food now.

 Hi! I'm JT and I have an allergy to peanuts.

 I'm not very happy about it...

JT will be retested when he's 3 to see if his allergy has changed. There is a 1 in 5 possibility that he will outgrow his peanut allergy. Only time will tell.