Allergy Update

Motherhood, the final frontier. These are the voyages of a Mom’s Misadventures. Its continuing mission: ….

…Well, I’m still trying to figure out the continuing mission, as it’s ever changing.

We received his blood test results back, which tested common food allergies.  It’s been known he’s had a milk allergy since birth. Quick back story, he was on Nutramigen for a milk protein allergy, and because he couldn’t digest any other formula. Milk based formulas caused blood to be in his stools. Once he was old enough to try solids we did dairy and first the allergies started flaring up through is eczema and slowly worsened over time. One day one side of his face swelled up after eating macaroni and cheese.  Another time he threw up immediately after consuming butter on a croissant.  Now, it was never formally confirmed that milk was causing this, but it definitely seemed to be the culprit.  So his doctor agreed that we should avoid any dairy. Therefore, for months we have stayed away from dairy with a lot of success.  Even without the dairy, however, he was having strange rashes pop up, we’ve been battling frequent ear infections, and he has a consistent cough and stuffy nose. But none of his “symptoms” were ever as bad as the face swelling. Doctor ordered a food allergy blood test to see if there were any additional food allergies that could explain.  We were prescribed a nebulizer to use twice a day which has helped. Thanks to the nebulizer (I believe) I’ve noticed a HUGE improvement with his sleeping. He hasn’t been waking up coughing, AND his head banging (which was very intense at night) has diminished significantly. Not sure of the link in that, and how that even ties in to sleeping but that’s where I’ve noticed the improvement.

Anyway, back to the allergies–the blood test results are in.

And, the kid ain’t allergic to dairy.  When his doctor called me I was floored and stumped. And his doctor admitted he felt the same way. All signs pointed to dairy all along. That was the link. Or it just seemed.

Needless to say, we’ve introduced dairy back. And a this point I’m not feeling very confident in me even saying it’s dairy, but he’s had flare ups. Since we brought it back he’s had a constant rash around his mouth and face. Tonight, I even noticed it down his neck.

Tomorrow morning we are seeing an allergist. I’m not sure what kind of tests they’ll do on his first visit but I am hoping for some answers.  Michael and I have considered that it may not even be dairy, that it could be our dogs.  For the past 3 weeks or so he’s woken up sneezing at least 2-3 times the moment he sits up in bed. With this, he’s had a slight fever of 99.8 or so, then it slowly goes away throughout the morning.  May be that’s normal?  He wakes up with a rash on his cheeks, and he goes to bed with a rash on his cheeks.  It comes and goes in severity as it pleases, though for about 2 (may be 3) weeks now he’s had constant red bumps around his mouth, and now flowing down his neck. At first I thought it was the silicone nebulizer mask irritating his skin, but now that his neck is breaking out I’m thinking that couldn’t be it.

I’m not looking forward to my baby being poked and prodded (possibly) tomorrow, but I am looking forward to getting some answers.

My mommy instinct is telling me all this just isn’t the way it’s supposed to be.  He’s not supposed to have a constant redness on his cheeks, and spots all over his mouth. And he’s not supposed to be stuffy and snotty and congested all the time. Then the other part of me thinks I’m crazy and that this is all normal for kids. That I’m making this huge deal out of absolutely nothing. Kids sneeze. They get sick. They have bumps and rashes. Then it flips again and I think: NO. It is something. His face swelled. He threw up. He’s on a nebulizer.

Self doubt.

I want to tell myself to just “let it go”–but I refuse to use those words in sequence any more…thank you Frozen, which is the MOST annoying movie and soundtrack on the planet. For the next 40 years no human being will ever be able to just say “let it go” without hearing Adele Dazeem.  I mean, Idina Menzel.

So it’s quite possible that tomorrow they will find nothing. Again.  I mean, that would be ideal because I’d hate for him to have allergies, but I’m selfishly thinking about how crazy I’d look to others. Guess I just can’t let it bother me. I’m just trying to do what’s best and what I think is the right thing.

At least in the end I can say the nebulizer has helped in some way.

This mom journey continues. Always leading me in to new adventures and pushing me to boldly go where I haven’t gone before. Cheesy. But seriously. One day may be I won’t wonder so much and be so curious all the time about all this.   I’m playing the life as I go along. But, I have an amazing kid who is worth every second of this adventure.

I’ll end this blog post by apologizing for my nerdy Star Trek quotes.

Here’s to tomorrow! No futuristic Star Trek pun there. Like, literally, our appointment tomorrow.
Bring it on!