The Results are in... Dog Dander, Milk, Eggs, Peanuts, Soy, Wheat

So what do the above items have in common? They are all things that came back positive on Tommy's allergy test.



Oh boy.  But it does explain a whole heck of a lot.  It explains the scary vomiting episodes, the over abundance of mucous/constant colds, and that wretched awful eczema.  It's very nice to finally have some answers.  There are definitely worse things in the world.  We are lucky that it's only food allergies and that he will hopefully grow out of them soon.  It will be difficult to deal with at first but we will figure it out.  Turns out, there are lots of people who have kids with these same allergies.  I have lots of people I can contact, commiserate with, get recipes from, etc etc.  Talking to them is very encouraging.

Tomorrow we have a doctor's appointment with an allergist so we will learn more.  What we know now is that egg whites and milk are the highest intensity.  Then dog dander and and peanuts are on the same harshness class.  Then soy and wheat are lower but still considered moderate to high class levels.  Yikes.

So I guess it's a plus that I'm still nursing him because after cow's milk and soy milk, we're not really sure what to feed the poor boy to make sure he gets all the nutrients he needs.  That's why we're seeing an allergist.

But that also means that I have to change my diet too.  It's possible I may be going on that super fad Caveman diet until Tommy weans.  Meat, fruits and veggies and that's about it.  Hoo doggie. That's brutal.  No cheese, no breads, no pre-packaged foods, no candy????  I doubt I will do that.  I will resort to making my own damn bread out of alternative flour and crap before I give that up.

So stay tuned for more allergenic updates after tomorrow.  I'm sure we'll have plenty.

For now, enjoy some pictures of a fairly rash-free Tommy.  Here he is in all his glory, free from the photoshop attacking I usually have to do to the rash on his face.

He's SO HAPPY at the doctor's office!!! 

Taking most of the dairy out of my diet has really really helped. But he broke out on his back on Friday night after I ate eggs at Cracker Barrel for breakfast that day.

Now we know!

Rash Review

Tommy had his doctor's appointment on Friday. It could not have come sooner.  On Wednesday, his rash started seeping.  

 I gave him a bath and cleaned it up a bit.  It didn't look infected so I wasn't extremely worried, just a little worried.

 It looked much better after a bath.  But of course it was still bad. :(

Our dermatologist was young (probably close to our age) and she was very nice and understanding.  She examined him and asked lots of questions and then made her diagnosis.

Classic Eczema.



That's the only thing I could think of when she said that.  CLAAAASSSSIC PEG!
So... classic eczema.  Seriously???? That's all it was? We actually got lucky and got in to see her in 3 weeks, instead of the 3 months that every other new patient has to wait.  If we would have still been dealing with this when he was 9 months old, I think I would have gone on a murderous rampage.

Anyway, she said with eczema his skin doesn't have the barriers to block out allergens. So he's probably allergic to many things in the environment which explains why we couldn't narrow it down to just one thing.

She gave us a prescription cream, a triple antibiotic, and said to use Cetaphil lotion.

This is after two uses of the prescriptions.

This is day 2.

 

Just a LITTLE better, don't you think?

Poor kid.  The doctor said we should see improvement in 2 weeks and he should be pretty much over it in 4 weeks.  Oh Sweet Relief.  

NOW we have to work on sleeping at night.  He still scratches but maybe a third of what he did before.  But at night he must forget that it doesn't itch because he's still getting up a lot.  I expect this to improve soon though.  IT WILL! I NEED SLEEP! 

But what a relief.  No more straight jacket shirts with mittens. :( 

Oh who are we kidding, he loved it. ;)