I just want to start this post by declaring my absolute HATRED for food allergies.
Isaiah has had horrific eczema for months. We've tried a zillion and one remedies and I've taken things out of my diet without much improvement.
At his 6 month appointment, our family practitioner said it was finally time to refer him to an allergist.
The very next week he had a reaction to organic pear baby food so our appointment was moved up.
I knew in my gut that this was bigger than just some bad eczema. I knew it.
And my fears were confirmed this past Wednesday. We did skin prick testing and because I eat such a wide variety of foods, we tested 30 potential allergens. Which means 33 pricks. (One histamine, two controls, plus 30 allergens.)
Within 5 minutes he had huge whelps on his back. And again, I just knew!
Our allergist evaluated the sizes of the whelps. Eggs, dairy and peanuts were the worst reactions. So as long as I continue nursing, I cannot eat those. I thought I noticed something with eggs and dairy but hadn't removed them both at the same time.
Because his skin prick testing came back as a positive reaction for soy, weaning him would be very expensive because he would most likely require very expensive allergy friendly formula.
Isaiah was prescribed two Epi-Pen Juniors (for the peanut allergy.) If we ever use them, we have to dial 911 immediately.
I have other children that have had Epi-Pens but praise God I've never had to use one.
We have a prescription cream for his eczema flares and a prescription antihistamine for bedtime.
And then I was handed a ridiculously long list of tests that they wanted to run bloodwork for. These are all the things he tested positive for during skin prick testing.
They can run tests for different parts of eggs and dairy. And our allergist wanted to see "how bad" some of the allergies were. Our allergist quite bluntly told me that if I was to remove the entire list of offenders, I'd starve and we would both be quite nutrient deficient. So she plans to only have me remove the very worst offenders to see if we can muddle through for a bit.
The list was SO long that when I got to the lab, they had to check and make sure they could take that much blood from an 18 pound baby. They could, but three sticks later they weren't sure if they had gotten enough blood.
Needless to say, I was fried by the end of the day. (Remember we did this on the day we finally ended up closing on our house!) And now we wait on pins and needles to see what other things I'll be removing from my diet.
Happy, happy, joy, joy. :(
We have started to see a slow improvement with his skin. We have a follow up appointment in April.
In the meantime, once his skin is clear again, we can start trying foods again, one new food a week.
The reaction we saw to pears is called a FPIES and is a different response than what you find with skin prick testing. It is intense vomiting or diarrhea within 8 hours after eating a food. It can cause dehydration and a shock-like response. If it happens again with any foods, we are to take him immediately to the hospital for fluids. There is not a test to see what foods will cause him to respond that way. All we can do is trial foods.
Sound familiar? This is the same sort of thing that Xander went through. Except Xander had no IgE type responses (skin prick testing.)
I only have one child with no known drug/food allergies (Julianne.) It's just so hard to believe that we won this horrible lottery again!
But, as usual, I will do everything I can for my children. I love them to pieces. THEY are blessings. I just wish they had an easier time with the allergy end of things.
~Stephanie
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