Deceptively Delicious

Is it safe?

This is the question Peter asks when ever he's given a new food. What he means is are eggs or peanuts in what he's about to consume.

This question is getting hard to answer.

See, Peter's pediatrician recommended that we try giving him some eggs to test his allergy. We would never dream of testing the peanut allergy like this, not unless we wanted a trip to the ER and to finally use the Epi-Pen. But the egg allergy is different. Lots of kids grow out of egg allergies. We were told to give Peter eggs to see if he was one of the lucky ones.

Our dilemma is that we've trained Peter very well. So well that he won't go near eggs. We've been trying to test his allergy for months to no avail.

So we've gotten sneaky.

It started last month when I made brownies. I can use an egg substitute for most baked goods and have them come out just fine. Except for brownies. I have tried multiple varieties and brands of boxed brownie mixes and they all come out like weird, flat, extremely greasy, chocolate cookies. So, as a way to experiment, I made them with eggs.

And I didn't tell Peter.

He had no reaction whatsoever. No spots, no swelling, nothing that we could detect. I told him a week later that the brownies had had eggs. He was pleased that he hadn't had a reaction, but he still wouldn't knowingly eat eggs.

We have since given him pancakes, crepes, cupcakes, and waffles, all made with eggs. No reaction. When we ate crepes he had crepes with cheese while Bryan and I had egg crepes (cook an egg into a crepe, add shredded cheese and maybe some lunch meat, cook it like a quesadilla, it's my favorite way to eat crepes). Because he saw what Bryan and I were eating Peter asked multiple times if there were eggs in his crepe. My reply each time was that he did not have an egg crepe, he had a cheese crepe.

And this week I told him that I never lie to him.

I know, it wasn't an outright lie, but it certainly was a fancy way to disguise the truth.

Our boldest experiment was on Saturday. We had chicken burgers for dinner and as I was preparing the buns I discovered that Peter's special, no-egg mayo had gone bad. I told Bryan I was going to use some cucumber ranch instead, but he suggested we use the Miracle Whip he had just brought home from the store for us. I did. I never told Peter what I was doing. He ate his half-a-burger and finished Cooper's as well.

No spots.

Wait, let me convey that more accurately. NO SPOTS!!!

The reason this was more bold was that the only reactions Peter has ever had to eggs came from either eating cooked eggs (scrambled, fried, poached, etc) and mayonnaise type products. The fact that he has now eaten Miracle Whip twice with no reaction is major.

Bryan and I both love eggs and are excited about the prospect of returning them to our diet. Also, if he has grown out of the allergy, that means that restaurants like IHOP and Denny's become possible eateries.

I would like to do another official test to see if he reacts at all, but I think the lack of signs of an allergy is a very good sign for us.

Now, how to convince him to actually eat an egg?