Saturday, May 8, 2010

Allergies?



Just when I thought I had heard all the excuses possible for putting off brushing teeth, Jazlyn has come up with a new one . . . . she is allergic to brushing her teeth. This announcement came this morning as we were going through the morning routine and as usual, the last thing to get done was the teeth brushing. As I put the toothpaste onto the toothbrush, she stated that she was allergic to this action and announced that she could no longer brush her teeth.

After I got over the creativity of this 4 year old's stall tactic (Poppie, her grandfather, is an allergist--so this seemed like an appropriate path for her to go down) the teeth were brushed without an anaphylactic reaction.

I think I have been using this same excuse with some activities myself, come to think of it. I am allergic to paying bills, organizing my office, throwing out (actually--recycling) clothes that I no longer wear or want, and the biggest allergy of all--exercise. Yes, I admit it. I am allergic to exercise. But as Poppie would tell his patients, the best treatment for most allergies is to desensitize yourself to the allergies by exposure to the very thing that you are allergic to, little by little, so that you eventually are no longer allergic to that thing. Well, that is a simple explanation for it--it's a little more scientific than that, actually!
So, I am now going to desensitize myself to this allergy to exercise. Maybe the first step in this desensitization is to actually put on the exercise clothes today--maybe tomorrow, I might actually do a little exercise! Don't want to rush this thing--I could have an anaphylactic reaction!!