Why Aiden will never eat cake again

Ok, that's not quite right, but we hope to soon find out what he should possibly never eat again. Here's the story...

Aiden was having a great time at his birthday party. Lots of friends showed up to play, and then it was time for CAKE! Aiden had a big blue smash cake that ended up having a very thick layer of icing. After having the time of his life rubbing icing all over his face, Aiden had a terrible reaction to it. We saw that his face was red when Ryan wiped it off, but after we got him upstairs to really clean up in the tub (b/c that kid got the stuff EVERYWHERE), it was much worse and he ended up with hives ALL over his face, neck, part of his back and chest, and part of his arms - basically everywhere any amount of icing touched. It looked bad enough that we rushed off to the Emergency Room with no hesitation. Camden was very scared when he saw Aiden - he immediately started bawling and was extremely worried.

This was NOTHING compared to how red he got soon after this.
His entire face, neck, some of his chest, and some of his arms were bright, bright red and COVERED in hives.

Aiden seemed to be breathing ok and wasn't fussy, but he looked terrible and was rubbing his face a lot...and he was coughing a bit. Anyone that has visited an ER knows it takes longer than it should to see someone, so by the time we saw the first nurse, the redness was almost gone - and by the time we got to see the doctor (over two hours later), it was even more almost gone, which was good on one hand, but we also wanted them to SEE the reaction. We didn't have a camera with us, so the only pictures we have are ones we took on the drive to the ER with the camera phone and were able to show those to the dr (we like to have photographic records of all of these kind of reactions, etc...). We don't have anything fancy like an iphone, just a regular flip phone, so the pics aren't the best but did what they needed to do. Aiden did rub his face a little while the doctor was with us, so some of the redness came back. They gave him half a dose of benadryl. His throat and ears looked fine, which is a good sign. My mother has severe food allergies (to just about everything you can be allergic to), and her reactions are respiratory, so we were concerned about that with Aiden, even though he seemed to be breathing just fine - good to have those things checked out.

We also talked with the lady that baked Aiden's smash cake at a local bakery, and she told us what ingredients were in the icing. We're thinking it was either a reaction to the food coloring or the soybean oil - most likely the coloring. We have a check-up scheduled on Tuesday already, so we'll be speaking with the doctor and perhaps be on our way to an allergist soon to possibly go through some testing (hopefully for just these things and not a whole lot of other testing at this time...we'll see, though). We want to do whatever it takes to make sure we find some answers so we know what to do from this point on, of course. We've had a few scares when it comes to Aiden and his skin, so we're not taking it too lightly, and food allergies aren't anything to scoff at, either. He IS doing well right now, though. :) And we're very glad we've been feeding him natural, whole (organic when possible) foods up to this point! I wonder how many babies show up to ERs and Urgent Care centers on their first birthdays from reactions similar to this? I would not be surprised if it happened more than we thought, really. I know Aiden never got any sugar or anything artificial up to this point...

The culprit...

After Aiden's dr appt on Tuesday, I will postwhat happened, if anything significant does happen. Hopefully we'll get some answers soon so we can decide what our next steps are. We keep hearing that first reactions are the mildest and the ones following get worse with each occurrence, so we definitely do not want something like this to happen again. This was bad enough!

On a positive note, the party was a lot of fun and we were so happy to share the day with so many of our friends. (Unfortunately some showed up after we left and we really missed seeing them!) We are VERY thankful for Ryan's dad and step-mom that were visiting with us. They took over while we rushed off. They stepped up in such a big way, and I don't know what we would have done with out them. THANK YOU Gary and Susan!!!

We did manage to get a few pictures. Here are the ones from the party...

2009 August - Aiden's FIRST Birthday (NC Party)

And here are August pics so far...Not too many, but there are a few from his actual birthday, where we went out to eat and Aiden got a little tiny cupcake - and some waiters from The Cheesecake Factory sang to him. :)

2009 August

If some of you out there took some pictures at the party, could you email them to us so we can have copies? Since we were busy with all that party-throwing business, we didn't get as many as I normally would. ;) Thanks! Email is daisyryan.adkins(at)gmail(dot)com.

Needless to say, this was a birthday we will NEVER forget! And maybe the most expensive birthday party we have thrown in quite a while, too (thanks to that ER bill)... We did notice that Aiden has had big skin issues come up around both birthdays so far - his tushie troubles when he was born (and the big stuff with that happened around day two) and then this on his first birthday (two days later....hmmmm....). Let's hope this isn't some sort of trend.