Allergies

After battling unexplained eczema and hives on and off for a month as well as cutting out dairy for a week with no results, we got referred to an Allergist by our Ped. Of course on the day of the appointment his skin was pretty clear of hives and only a couple patches of eczema to be found, nothing alarming. 

Good thing I had pictures to document his flare ups. After questioning me about his symptoms and not really getting anywhere (yes doc I'm frustrated too) he decided it would be a good idea to go ahead and do the skin test. He tolerated it pretty well, definitely cried, but it was only a 10 minute wait until the results were in.

He did not have a reaction to any foods: milk, soy, egg, peanut, fish and wheat were all negative.  Positives were: mixed western weeds, a random grass and barely cats and mold.  Not too shabby.  And it totally makes sense because after I stopped thinking about dairy his symptoms more correlated to being outside ESPECIALLY when out for the girls soccer games/practices. We are dealing with more of a seasonal allergy than a tricky food allergy and I feel very very lucky.  The doc still did not like that he gets hives off and on and reacts to cats in real life.  So he prescribed an epi pen just to have on hand.  I think this is a little over the top, but I guess it doesn't hurt to have it.   We are doing a round of oral steroids, and got a stronger cream to try for the eczema, although he said that the otc Aveeno lotion we've been using is wonderful too.  They did end up taking blood to confirm that there's no sensitivity going on the the foods, and that was NO FUN. Trying to hold a baby down, and find a vein in their tiny arm, took 3 nurses and a lab tech. But they finally got it, and 2.5 hours later we were on our way and H was ready for a NAP!  We go back on the 24th to get the blood test confirmation and hopefully see that he's totally cleared up! 

He's 10 months old today! Growing so quickly and just a sweet sweet boy.  We're going to start doing more table foods now that I know pretty much for sure that nothing is off limits. Yay for mac n cheese (he shovels it in by the handful!)