Nate's New Diet

For the first week after the appointment with the allergist, we tried just going with the new prescription creams and not making any changes to his diet. It was going well, very well in fact. His skin was clearing up dramatically and we thought all he needed was something to stop the whole itchy cycle (red-itch-raw-worse-more itchy). And it was doing well for about four days and then his skin had a little flare up. Nothing too bad (considering what it had been) but enough that we thought 1) the creams aren't the cure all and 2) even if they were, we don't want him on creams everyday forever. So we started the elimination diet on Sunday. This way we can rule out or find the foods that might be affecting his skin. So no milk, eggs, soy, or peanuts for a week. It has been a struggle to cook and find things he will eat. So far there have been days where I have cooked/prepared several different things without any luck. You would think he'd be starving! Which, sometimes he is hungry and will go to the pantry and request things and I have to tell him no (which breaks my heart!). So while it may not be the most nutritious of weeks, he is surviving. Starting on Sunday, we will introduce milk back into his diet for 3 days and then continue to do so with all the other foods.

So far, there doesn't seem to be much change. His skin was already clearing up pretty well by the weekend, so there isn't a noticeable decrease in eczema patches. There have been a couple of days where he doesn't itch at all and then there have been a couple that he itches like crazy (certain spots--hands, knees). So it's hard to say what's going on. Part of me still thinks those foods cannot be the cause if he's still itching and his skin hasn't cleared up completely, but I am willing to wait and see what happens by the time we are all done with this process. If I had to guess one of the foods, I might say eggs. We fed him a toddler meal one evening last week and that night he was itching pretty bad and his skin was pretty pink. There are a lot of eggs in the toddler meals so we thought it might be that. My other hypothesis is that the heat is having a large impact on his skin. It seems like ever since it started warming up it has become more of a problem, yet his diet is the same as it has been since this winter. So we will see how it goes and what happens.