It took me a full week to cool off before I could write about baby Kai’s anaphylactic reaction in New Zealand.
The dip that sent Kai into anaphylaxis (turned out that it had 30% cashews in it)
First of all, I would call myself a very cautious, first time baby mama. I’ve tried to keep nuts and peanut butter away from Kai. I even avoid buying nutty buddy ice cream cones with nuts on top just in case I give Kai a lick. Instead, I’ll buy the chocolate chip ones. I exclusively breastfed Kai for 6 months, continued to nurse him 6 times a day after that until he was 16 months old and we’re still having boob for breakfast and dinner. So, when I fed Kai a raisin sized bite of spinach, basil, feta dip which sent him to the hospital, I was horrified. It only made matters worse that the medical staff was very incompetent. The medical staff reminded me of the TSA in the US, very uncaring with silly procedures. If you’ve traveled lately, you’ll probably understand my comparison.
Here’s My Story:
It was 6:30pm last Monday and I was getting ready to cook Kai some rice pasta with avocado oil. In the meantime, I sat down to have a little snick snack of rice crackers and spinach dip. Kai seemed interested but like usual only interested in dipping the crackers and feeding them to me. Since I had served this spinach, basil, feta dip two nights before when we hosted a dinner party, I thought nothing of giving him a little taste. I hadn’t checked the ingredients because it was green and labeled spinach, basil, feta dip! Kai dipped a couple of crackers, fed them to me like usual then decided he wanted a taste. He had a tiny bite the size of a raisin and within a minute he was coughing, choking and wheezing. I asked him if he wanted a drink of water thinking that maybe a little piece of cracker was stuck in his throat. He said no and continued to cough and choke. After 4 minutes of intense gagging and coughing I called for help. I could tell that it was more than choking at this point. Luckily, our neighbors were home as I raced over and asked them to call an ambulance. The emergency number in New Zealand is 111. Like everything else here, it’s similar but slightly different. While waiting for the ambulance, we administered the baby hymlac maneuver and a small liquidy bit came out. 6-7 minutes later Kai was showing signs of labored breathing with listlessness. I was holding him and walking around pointing out the boats and his elmo shirt to try and keep him tuned in and awake. Soon after his nose area turned a blueish white color. White puffy hives appeared around his mouth, jaw and throat and I knew he was having a severe allergic reaction. 10 min later he couldn’t speak and would point to things and try but only a little hissing whisper would come out. Within 15 min he continued coughing intermitedly like he needed to clear his throat with a whisper voice when he tried to talk. Overall, he seemed better or at least stable.
Here’s Where I Start To Lose It:
The ambulance pulls up with two paramedics inside. One woman was asking questions and taking Kai’s vitals (heart rate and oxidation levels). As I explained what happened and his symptoms I told her I think he had an anaphylactic reaction to the dip. At the time, I was thinking it was feta cheese? Both paramedics began to tell me that’s impossible because no one can recover on their own from anaphylaxis. And because his heart rate and oxidation levels are registering normal, he seems fine. Kai is awake, very quiet and still but coughing hard every few minutes. They both said he sounds sick like he has croup. I responded by saying that he isn’t sick but has had a severe allergic reaction to something. The paramedic says she can’t look at his throat or administer any treatment or drug so is wondering if we want to go to the hospital? I don’t say it but I’m wondering what can you do? Even though Kai is acting fairly normal, we decided to go to the hospital to have a doctor check him out to be on the safe side. Luckily, we’re still breastfeeding so I can offer him the wonder drug: breastmilk.
As we rode to the hospital (15 min drive) in the ambulance, Michelle (paramedic) tried to tell me more about why it’s impossible to recover from anaphylaxis on your own. About 5 minutes into the ride, I stopped nursing Kai as he looked for moo moos. As we pulled into the hospital parking lot, he began projectile vomiting. I figured this was a good sign as he was getting the poison out.
We Checked Into The Whakatane Hospital ER Where I Became Really Upset:
Kai seemed like his happy self for the first bit, talking, laughing and really active on the hospital bed. His hives spread to his whole body but his attitude and voice were fairly normal. As we waited in the emergency room, the nurse came in about a half hour later to weigh him. After shuffling through some paperwork and waiting for another half hour, another nurse came in and asked if he’s been weighed yet? His hives have gotten worse and my patience is completely gone at this point. I say that he’s already been weighed but she said they didn’t record it so they have to weigh him again. After he’s weighed again, another nurse comes in and asks for his body weight for the 3rd time. I am so annoyed that they are so unorganized and slow that I can hardly talk to them without hissing the answers. The room is dirty with a big huge fly buzzing around. In the meantime, Kai’s hives and rash is worse with huge red patches everywhere. He’s exhausted as it’s around bedtime now so he’s itching and screaming. Finally, after going to the front desk and asking for a doctor to check him out, a guy with a stringy pony tail comes waltzing in. He asked what happened? We told him the story and he looked down Kai’s throat with his bare hands without washing them! He said he saw some blisters on his throat, which sounds alarming to me. As I tell him that I think Kai had an anaphylactic reaction to the spinach dip, he quickly said that’s impossible because Kai would be dead by now. I couldn’t believe that he said that but was real quiet because he was so harsh. He mentioned that maybe the blisters on his throat are hand, foot mouth disease. What?! Kai is screaming, I’m completely stressed out and the ER doctor from America is casually telling me that Kai could have hand, foot, mouth disease or some viral something? He orders steroirds, patadol (tylenol) and a antihistimine. I asked him how long until the drugs come and he spat back I have no idea, I’m only the doctor and walked out. I watched the American doctor (only one in the ER) chug is coke zero and flirt with the nurses while we waited for the medicine. 15 min later and we gave him the medicine. He fell asleep but after a half hour with the medication, his whole body looked worse. After I tracked down a nurse and asked for help because he looked worse after the medication, they wanted to take a blood sample. My gut instinct said no because it’s hard to take blood from him, he’s asleep and the test will only verify how severe his allergy was not what it is. Against my better judgement, I agreed to it because some information is better than no information. It was a time sensitive test that had to be taken within 6 hours of the reaction, then the frozen blood needed to be sent to Auckland (4hrs away). This test was recommended by the on call pediatrician that the ER doctor was consulting over the phone. We only had about 2 hours to spare but we agreed to the test. The American doctor encouraged the test and said it would be silly not to take it. Taking the blood took about 20 min of screaming torture from Kai. The nurse couldn’t get the vein and was running in and out of the room with bloody gloves for more syringes while the ER doctor and I held Kai down. The doctor was glaring Kai down and grunting STOP in his face to get him to hold still. It was a nightmare to say the least. Worst part is they didn’t get enough blood to do the test and by the time they figured it out, the blood had clotted. The blood was taken for no reason. Of course, they encouraged me to do it again even though the 6 hour deadline was over. I repeatedly said, the answer is no.
One more sweet point about the Whakatane hospital was when the American ER doctor yelled at us for asking a question. I can’t remember what we asked but he shut the door and aggressively said “dude don’t interrupt me” then he lectured us about the other ailing patients in the ER that night. Unprofessional and very weird. Worst part is that he said that he had lived in Bend and the Dalles, Oregon-ewww!
Getting Admitted To The Hospital So We Could See A Pediatrician The Next Day:
The only way to see a specialist in New Zealand is with a referral or in our case spending the night in the hospital. After we found out that only one parent could spend the night AND it was a shared hospital room that fits up to 4 families, I got emotional.
The medical staff was incompetent. The hospital was filthy and now I had to stay the night in the same room with other sick families. The individual rooms are saved for contagious people. The pediatric ward proved to be just as old and dirty as the emergency ward. Kai had an IV and bandage around his arm and hand from the sad attempt to get blood taken. The ER doctor left the IV in his hand just in case he needed more drugs. Best quote the ER doctor said was “avoid feeding Kai things that he’s allergic to.” It still makes me shake my head as I write this because he seemed so dumb. Of course, we won’t be feeding our baby things he’s allergic to!
The next day Kai was as happy as a clam right before we checked out of the hospital
The night was short and loud, with a newborn infant and a young girl having seizures in the same area as us. The nurse woke Kai up at 6am to take his temperature. He never went back to sleep so I entertained him for 4 hours while we waited for the pediatrician to get there “around 9ish.” As the morning nurses came on duty they wanted to give Kai more medicine which was a mistake because he was fine but luckily I was there to stand up for him. The nurses never offered me water or anything at all. I asked for a coffee the next morning and they told me where to go to get it. They were less than helpful and not friendly to say the least. The pediatrician arrived just before 10am and after hearing my story said that Kai absolutely had an anaphylactic reaction and that any person with knowledge about severe allergic reactions would agree. Wow, I was so relieved to hear someone validate what I thought had happened. The pediatrician couldn’t believe that the paramedics and ER doctor would say anything different. He issued us an epi pen Jr and an inhaler and a liquid antihistimine. P.s. They call Benedryl the dirty drug here in New Zealand.
The next day, sitting in our shared hospital room just before we checked out
I’ll definitely be stepping it up a notch with reading ingredient labels and keeping ALL nuts, especially cashews away from Kai.
In the end, I feel like the happiest woman alive to bring my little angel home again!
Nursing 5 month old baby Kai at a EO event in Portland, OR
20 month old Kai having his “afternoon tea” in New Zealand
