Eggs

As most of you know, I'm half Swedish.

We were last over there in 1999, and saw Olle, Elsy, Karin, Gun (she died last year), Eva, Åsa, Åke and the rest of the familjen and friends.

Matilda was 9 months old at the time and we travelled around various cities (Stockholm, Amsterdam, Barcelona and Rome) with her tightly held to my front using one of those Baby Bjorn slings. Wonderful.

Not quite so wonderful in Amsterdam, where we fed her some omelette for the first time and she suffered a serious anaphylactic reaction and spent the night in St Lukas hospital. Something weird happened in Barcelona and we had to take her to hospital there too with an asthma attack.

On return to Australia, she was diagnosed as severely anaphylactic to eggs and peanuts.

Fast forward through seven and a half years of justifiable paranoia, with medical paraphernalia always on hand and many briefings to school teachers and others. Last Friday we took Matilda to the RPA allergy clinic and, under close observation, fed her three and a half muffins. She is now officially not allergic to eggs! We are thankful to God.

Peanuts are still a problem, and we and she will always have to be careful. The paediatrician's opinion is that a large number of the asthma deaths in Australia relate to undiagnosed anaphylaxis.