Zara's Allergies

Daniel and I have been concerned for quite some time that Zara has allergies, she is prone to runny noses and nearly always has dark circles under her eyes. Zara saw a Dr. a few months after we moved to TX who agreed with us that she was showing signs of outdoor allergies and prescribed Zyrtec. I am not a big fan of medicating so we didn't give it to her much. When her symptoms started to worsen this Winter as the mountain cedar pollen intensified, we started giving her the Zyrtec and have noticed improvement.

Anyway, we had assumed that Zara's allergies are mostly environmental, pollen, mold, dust, ect... That is until I read "Is this your child?" By Doris Knapp I checked this book out at the library and it was eye opening. Suddenly a lot of things I've noticed about Zara are coming together. Just from paying closer attention to what she eats and how she acts, Daniel and I have suspicions that she has sensitivities to corn (moreso the proteins than corn syrup), tomatoes, strawberries, and red food dye.

When we brought up our findings to the Dr, she was intrigued by the idea that food sensitivities could cause changes in behavior, but she didn't dismiss us as crazy. She outright said that parents spend the most time with their children and she is a firm believer in parental instinct being more valuable than medical testing. Allergy testing may or may not confirm our suspicions, but we are going ahead with a blood test anyway.

Zara had specific tests for the foods we are suspicious of, a test for the major food allergens, and a test for the main environmental allergens which includes those specific to the region we live in. Zara is not fond of medical procedures, however the blood draw went very smoothly, thanks to the advice given in this amazingly timely blog post on the Tranquil Parent! We took a portable DVD player for the waiting room, I gave her some candy (sugar supposedly dulls pain sensations) while we waited and a sucker after the draw, and we prepared her the morning of by letting her watch this great video about having a blood draw (located in the "Getting Treated" section). The lab techs were blown away when Zara greeted them "Hi Phlebotomists!"