Being a preschool teacher, I have had a few children with allergies to one food or another. I have always been known to say that I don't know what I would do if my child had allergies. Guess I spoke to soon because we recieved test results today from Michael's allergy testing 2 weeks ago and well,
I have a child with allergies.
Michael has had "extreme" baby exzema since he was very little. We have been in and out of doctor's offices, had a
few several ointments, creams and oral medications prescribed and yet nothing seemed to really do the trick. Finally, two weeks ago we were able to get him into see a pediatric allergy doctor who immediately did blood work (His back was too broken out to do skin testing) and sent us home with an entire page full of bathing and ointment instructions to get his skin under control. I spoke with the doctor this afternoon and the numbers (not sure how these work but will hopefully learn more soon) were very high for peanuts/tree nuts (96) and eggs (72). He is also allergic to beef, wheat and soy. He told me at this point to stay away from seafood also. I mentioned an "incident" that we had with a Recees peanut butter cup when Michael was about 9 months old. He got ahold of one and ate just about the whole thing till I caught it. (Insert total mom guilt moment right here). Within 20 minutes of eating it, he started puking and acting a little funny. Very scary moment for me! He was fine and I chalked it up to too much sugar at one time. Um, that wasn't it! So the doctor said, "That brings me to my next point, you need to carry an Epi pen for him also." Woah, what??? That made it all very real and scary for me. So over the next couple weeks, we will become more educated, aware and careful when giving Michael anything to eat. He is also highly allergic to dogs. Kind of a bummer considering most of our relatives and friends have dogs, we do not.
After 16 months, it is a relief to know what the problem really is and be able to move on from here to help my little man feel better!
April 2010
This picture was taken the week of Easter, we took him to Children's Hospital Urgent Care clinic in Bellevue on Easter Sunday. Thank goodness for an auntie who doesn't take no for an answer!
March 2011
Great Wolf Lodge, last weekend of March. His arms and legs have been broken out for several months now.
Oh I hope that a change in his diet will help him feel better! That picture from last year is so hard to look at!
ReplyDeleteAllergies like that are hard to work around, but it will be worth it!