Veggie Burgers are officially off the menu.

I have tried Veggie Burgers before, but switched to a new flavor to shake things up a bit. Well, mission accomplished I guess. On Sept 14th, I put the cut-up squares on Davis' tray and placed a whole burger on Jack's plate and returned to the stove where I was finishing up the grown-up dinner. Jeff came in a few minutes later and said, "Have you seen Davis' face?!!" He took the tray away, told Jack to stop eating, and I grabbed the empty package from the trash. Sure enough: the new flavor contained eggs.

Here are some pics taken about five minutes after he ate 1/4th of the "burger." Still smiling, of course.

We immediately told Jack to stop eating it and watched his cheeks slowly turn a bit rashy. A few minutes later he said his stomach hurt really bad and he needed to lay down. We encouraged him to try to go potty, but he laid on the living room floor moaning and holding his tummy. I carried him to the restroom and he immediately had crazy diarrhea. He started to get a little scared and started crying.

We had the Epipen handy but while he complained that his throat was hurting, he did not seem to have trouble breathing. He asked if he could go to bed early and we put him down at about 7:40 pm. I called Ask-a-Nurse and she advised that we move him from his bed to the couch to monitor his breathing. She said that she does not usually want patients to sleep right after a reaction because they can slip into comas while they sleep... it's similar to how they don't want patients to fall asleep shortly after a concussion. I both HATE it and APPRECIATE it when nurses give me too much info about all the things that COULD happen to one of my children.

We monitored him for several hours and then went to bed, thankful that everything was okay. We gave both boys Benadryl right after it happened and Davis' face cleared up right away and Jack was back to normal by morning.

It was a scary reminder of how diligent we must be with reading labels, checking with restaurant chefs, and being prepared with Benadryl and the Epipen no matter where we are. This journey is certainly not over.