Another Allergy Scare

This time, a few days after Christmas, Izzy awoke in the night, crying and moaning. His arms were reddened with hives and he had a splotchy torso.

Was it the cats? Or was it some mysterious foodstuff?

We mulled over the foods of the day and two potential culprits appeared, one served up in his Christmas stocking, another in a Christmas cookie..
a quiet aside: (This would never have happened with latkes and gelt).

The first item was red licorice. Something I detest but A. loves and it shows up every year. In the past, it has simply disappeared but this year as A. gnawed on his piece, Izzy needed to have one too.

The second was a bite of a cookie made from a Snickers bar. But given that he has been eating peanut goods all year, this one was a lesser evil.

And of course the new cat...

The only way to find out what was plaguing Izzy was to make a visit to our favorite pediatric allergist, Dr. Paul Ehrlich. Much to our relief, the cat test came up negative. But the Dr. was convinced that the red licorice was the culprit. As there is no specific test for this allergen we can either conduct our own or keep away from the stuff. The latter choice seems the easiest to me.