Ah hah!

His lips were much bigger, but you can still see some swelling...

We have been totally stumped over Max's allergic reactions. First reaction: BJ's blackened chicken pizza. The problem is that he has eaten tons of pizza and never had a problem. Second reaction: Macaroni and Cheese. But again, he has eaten lots of mac and cheese and it never phased him. Third reaction: Subway wheat bread. Huh? Who swells up with monkey lips from eating bread? I did some detective work and discovered that both the pizza and the subway bread contain sulfites (preservatives). Sulfites were my only hunch. We have given him cheese (dairy), berries, nuts(almonds), eggs, soy, wheat, and just about every highly allergenic food since his first few episodes and have not seen a reaction. That is until tonight. We decided to make mac and cheese because he wouldn't eat anything all day and we knew it was the one thing he would eat. We were right. He gobbled it up, but before he could finish his lips swelled up so big he could barely open his mouth. We squirted some (probably way too much) benadryl down his throat and waited very quietly for any sign that he was having trouble breathing (our cue to call 911). Luckily he seemed ok (laughing and dancing means ok, right?), and the benadryl started to reduce the swelling right away.

Moral of this story: No more mac and cheese for Max!

To console him, we pulled out his favorite food: blueberries. Blueberries are not my favorite food because they make a huge mess and I have to soak his clothes in Oxyclean (works like magic) everyday. I finally figured out that I could take his shirt off and save myself the trouble of washing it. It only took me 2 months and a bucket of Oxyclean to figure that one out.