Nate's Allergies

We had Nate's appointment with the allergist yesterday afternoon. I was not looking forward to it at all and it's all I could think about all morning. But, we kept saying once it was done then we'd have some answers and could hopefully fix his skin issues. His skin has gotten so bad and he itches so much that it's raw in several places.

The doctor looked him over and he doesn't have any hives anymore, just his eczema patches. However, this doesn't mean that he's not allergic to anything. (I learned a lot yesterday) Eczema can be an indicator of food allergies so he went ahead with the skin test for milk, eggs, soybean, wheat, and peanuts. The top two that I did not want him to have were milk and eggs. All of the foods except wheat came back positive. I was devastated. Although it may not necessarily mean he is allergic to all of them, or any of them. He could just have sensitivities to those foods. As the doctor described it, it is like getting a line up of criminals and figuring out which one(s) did it. We now have our line up and we need to play some detective work to figure out which of the foods are causing his eczema. So we have to stop all the foods that tested positive for one week. Then we can introduce back in one of the foods at a time for three days and see if he has a reaction to that food. It could be all and it could be none. It will be a difficult week and already it seems impossible to come up with meals that don't contain those ingredients, but we can handle it for a week. If this turns into a permanent thing then I guess I will really have to research recipes and become a master at reading labels.

The second approach with his skin is new ointments. He should soak in the tub of plain water for 20 minutes each night. If we need to wash him then we do so at the very end and rinse him off. Within 3 minutes of getting out we have 3 different creams to put on him. We have Bactroban (antibacterial ointment) for all of the areas that are raw and he has broken skin from scratching. We have a prescription hydrocortisone cream for the other red areas. And then we will use Cetaphil lotion on the rest of the skin. None of the areas can overlap so if we put an ointment on his knee then the lotion needs to be applied around his knee. He also recommended giving him a bleach bath, but until I look into that one further, I'm not going near it. And, he gave us some medicine to basically knock him out at night so he doesn't wake up in the middle of the night scratching. I told him he sleeps fine, but I don't think he believes me. I don't like the idea of drugging my kid up every night so I don't think I'll be doing that one either. I'll just check his skin in the morning and if it looks like there was new/more scratching then I'll go from there.

So our plan of action is to start with the ointments and see what kind of effect that has on his skin before making any changes in his diet. After a few days we will start the food investigation to see which one is the real culprit. I think secretly we're hoping that the new Rx ointments are going to do the trick, but I know that probably won't be the case.

Because of Nate's runny nose and cough, the doctor did some additional environmental tests and the ones for dogs and dust mites came back positive. I guess it's not the pet hair but the dander and saliva that people are allergic to. So if we keep Nate off Sammy's chair and wash his hands after he plays with her, if he is allergic to her, that should help. We will also get him some allergen bedding covers, because that can't hurt either way. I'm a little skeptical and not as concerned with these tests coming back positive because he doesn't have a chronic runny nose. I think his runny nose might be more from teething and the cough is just from the excess drainage.

I was absolutely devastated yesterday, much more than I thought I would be. I guess I was just thinking about the actual skin test he was going to go through and not the results. But after it had sunk in some, and I had some time to process it all, it doesn't seem as horrible or impossible as I thought. Also, he could outgrow any allergies by the age of four, so it might not be something he will have to live with forever. It was just difficult for me to hear the results. Who wants this for their child? I hate the thought of him going through life with any restrictions and just want him to have a carefree childhood, but the more it all sinks in, the more I think it is doable and we can figure it out.