I've had allergies since I was a baby. Between foods and environmental, I've got it covered. Some I grew out of, others got worse.

When I was little, I had no stuffed animals. No carpeting. No pets in the house. I was allergic to grass, and living on a farm, that made for a BIG problem. I couldn't even walk barefoot without my feet cracking and bleeding from grass. It stunk big time.

These days I can do the barefoot deal, but I have more food allergies (chocolate included). Spring is horrible when things are blooming. Fall is horrible when things are decaying. Turning on heat (I have hot forced air) makes things dry in the house and the dust flies around more. I have some huge Honeywell HEPA filter machines going in different rooms. They help. I'm sure having 8 cats in the house doesn't help at all, but they aren't going to leave anytime soon, so I deal with it. I'm on Singulair, Advair, I have a rescue inhaler, and I take Zyrtec most of the time.

Allergy testing, depending on how they do it, can be a pain. My allergist drew a few vials of blood and ran tests that way. Other people I know had allergens placed under the skin or whatever they do, and see how they react that way. I preferred the drawing of blood to that. RAST and PRIST testing I believe is what I had done. Food allergies have to be narrowed out by focusing on the offending food one at a time, at least that's how my mom's allergist did it for hers. Mine, my doctor and I figured out by how I reacted (hives, migraines etc...) when I ate them. I kept a log book of what I ate, how I felt, and what reactions I had.

Allergies can be a pain until they are managed, but they can be dealt with, and Jonah doesn't really have to suffer. If there are food allergies, there can be alternatives, and sometimes you don't realize what you are missing because you just don't have it. Chocolate is still something that I get mild reactions to, but I'm not a fan of the taste, so I don't really care that I can't have it. Strange, huh??? I'd be more upset if I couldn't have fruit, because that's what my mom usually gave me for snacks and dessert instead of chocolate treats.