What Crill? Where?

GQ Handsome at the Zoo

OK, so I took the animals to the Chaffee Zoo on Monday, parentals included. I know... I questioned my sanity.  We actually had a really fun time.  I even got a bit of sun on my face with sunscreen on...go figure.  It was a beautiful 70F... I know, ain'tcha all jealous???


Anyhow, we took the kids into Stingray Bay, where you can reach in and pet the stingrays and horseshoe crab rays as they pass by...oh and the occassional tiger shark as it whips around. Andante happend to be my only child brave enough to stick his hand in with me and touch a ray. It was actually kinda cute,.. he was SO into it until he touched it and then he was like "OH HECK NO"... he kept wiping off his hand on his jeans. They do feel kinda odd... like the underside of a washed mushroom. Yeah, ok...  lol

Once we got out of Stingray Bay and put him back in the stroller, he started reacting. So I washed him down, dosed him, and was on watch. It went down within in the hour and he slept off the effects of the Benadryl. When we got home last night and after his bath, we noticed he was breaking out again... same spots. I thought maybe it was the baby toothpaste he was using, but he has used that before, no reaction, so I was not so quick to blame it on that. Thanks to the one we call Doc from the TKWFA Group, I am thinking it was time for more Benadryl and at that moment, I didn't realize it.  You know how it is when you are trying to get a youngin out of the tub, let alone 3 of them!!! So we dosed him again, waited, and he went to sleep.  Next morning, the reaction was gone.  Yea!!!

But now... I have to worry about what it was that made him react... and honestly, it scares me to death.

I called the Zoo on Tuesday. In the meantime, while discussing the reaction/possible allergens, another TKWFA Mom told me her son had a reaction similar to Dante's at their Stingray Bay attraction in Chicago. When the zoo called back, they said all they put in the water are different kind of salts to make it more "ocean" like. So I asked if they could call me back with the different kind of salts

Duh! moment: I asked them to have a list of the different kinds of salt in the water if possible when they called back the st time.  I know, not everyone listens!

The Zoologist finally called back after lunch with some information.  Apparently, reactions have happened at the park before, yet, the only warning to a possible allergen is when you buy the food to feed the rays.  In the food pellet are Crill, which are an ocean shrimp, and a major food source for most ocean fish. 

What Crill?  Where?  And what the heck is it???  Shrimp???  Great... just lovely!!!

When you buy the food pellets, then are you hand a pamphlet, where on the back it warns of possible recations if one has a shellfish allergy.  No sinage, no nothin'! 

OK... this policy is GOING TO CHANGE!!!  Trust me!!!  But, on to the more pressing issue...

The synthetic mixture of sea salts they use is called Instant Ocean.  After finally talking to 5 people and emailing their lab, one of the technicians emailed me back with the ingredient list for my allergist to go over.  (That only took until yesterday to come in!) I emailed the info on the Instant Ocean over to the allergist so he can analize it, because even though my vocabulary has become remarkably expanded with 15+ letter words that I actually know the meaning of, there were some ingredients on the list that I just could not find via a search engine. 

Yes, Virginia, there are things that one cannot find on the internet.  Imagine that!

What worries me though is the possiblity that we have discovered a new allergen for my son.  Granted, our household already avoids shellfish thanks to Nando, but poor kid... what he needs is not ONE more allergen to his already extensive list???  We already have to test for things that he has had violent reactions to during the year like yellow dye, nitrates, and cinnamon... but now shellfish???  Sigh...

Does it ever get easier?

Seriously!

TinaMarie