Journey

February 1, 2011 was a day I can remember clearly. I was in the throws of a 40 hour VBAC labor with my second child, a boy. We were so grateful and excited that the Lord had blessed us with another child for us to take care of. Little did we know that the Lord had plans for this little boy. I will refer to him as Bubba Fett.

When he was a month old we moved across the country from IL to UT and moved into my brother-in-laws basement apartment. When he was 6 weeks old he broke out into full body eczema.

 In this picture you see all the eczema on his face. 

If you look you can see all the eczema/severe cradle cap on his scalp. 

He also cried, screamed and puked until very late in the evening. I tried to figure out what was wrong. Going on elimination diets, going to what some called as voodoo doctors (Energy Kinseology therapist) dermatologist, pediatricians, ect... All to find out what was wrong with my little boy. Something to help him. Anything to help him! We were given Derma-Smooth oil to use on his scalp and skin after baths. We were also told to use CeraVe lotion. They helped some but he was still always broken out. 

When he was five months old we went back home to Illinois for vacation twice while we were there he broke out in hives. I couldn't figure out a correlation between the two. I thought it was so weird. We were at two different houses. They didn't use the same laundry soap or anything.

At 8 months of age he grabbed his sisters peanut butter sandwich and broke out in full body hives within seconds of touching it. He did not put it into his mouth.  I freaked!  I knew then what the correlation between the other hives were. On one occasion I had made puppy chow/muddy buddies with peanut butter and trail mix.  The other occasion I had eaten a sundae with peanuts on top. Both times he had gotten fussy and I picked him up without washing my hands. Who would have thought that he would have an allergic reaction from something on my hands! 

That day I called Primary Children's hospital and got him into an allergist as soon as I could. It took a month but when we finally went to see him I told him what happened and I asked if they could test if he was allergic to dogs. I was told that the dog thing really didn't matter and he didn't want to test him for it. I demanded that he did as we lived with my brother-in-law and they had two dogs. A day later the RAST test results came back. His peanut allergy number was a 27 and his dog was a 50. We needed to avoid all peanuts, were given an epi pen, antihistamines for itching, and it would be best to leave the place with the dogs. 

How devastated I was, my poor baby! But I thought then maybe the eczema would go away. I was exclusively breastfeeding so that meant I also needed to avoid peanuts. 

A month later I started to suspect eggs and dairy as allergies. I had given him a bit of egg and an hour later he threw up. This happened on 3 separate occasions. Along with the incessant screaming the ezcema was still bad, although we hadn't moved out of the house with the dogs yet.  I went back to the allergist. BAM. Also allergic to eggs and dairy. Those were gone from my diet as well, although harder to avoid. 

After he was a year we changed allergists and found out that he was allergic to the previous things but his RAST numbers continued to go up. We have also found out that he has more allergies.  Soy, Walnuts, and Sesame.  As well as cats and elm trees.

We changed topical steroids to desonide. They advised us to use it everyday indicating that we needed to take a break sometimes but if he had a flare to continue to use it. He was also perscribed Elidel and when the insurance wouldn't pay for that anymore Protopic.  And also Bactoban for infections. For some reason he was still constantly flaring, constantly itching, always having eczema.

When he was a little over two I talked to the allergist about it. Asking why is he still having eczema if we were avoiding all of his allergens? The answer was in 50% of cases eczema is not related to allergies. I called bullsh*t on that and asked for another allergy test. All of the numbers on his RAST test were again increasing. (I thought they were suppose to start decreasing, I was told there was a 90% chance he will grow out of most of the allergies) and he was diagnosed with TWO more. WHAT THE HECK IS HAPPENING? Wheat and Corn too? What is he suppose to eat? Why do they keep getting worse? I asked these questions over and over. I asked the allergist, my family, anyone who would listen.

At the rate we were going he wouldn't have anything to eat eventually because he would just be allergic to everything. At this point already he only eats Rice, Rice noodles, Fruits (not tomatoes), Veggies (not corn), and some meats that do not have corn in them (Almost all processed meats have corn derivatives in them, or they are made from corn fed animals.) Not only can he not have the things he is allergic to but he also cannot TOUCH the things he is allergic to. Or touch something that has touched something he is allergic to.  How am I suppose to protect him, put him in a bubble? How am I suppose to make him better if the doctors don't even know? I went to a nutritionist and all she basically told me is to give him supplements (oh but guess what? They have corn too). No one has answers, no one can help me. The doctors say, oh well just keep giving him his medicine and hopefully someday he will grow out of it. Until then, we have to try and maintain the best skin possible. Give him bleach baths (WTheck? NO WAY). Do the wet wraps on his skin with the Topical Steroid. Give him baths everyday, don't give him baths everyday. No one can tell me what the best option is for my son. No one can tell me why his allergies keep getting worse or why despite all attempts to avoid his allergens he still has eczema.

So....I went looking for myself. I am a researcher by nature and love to find out all of the information possible. Some people see that as an issue. That it is not normal to always question everything. Doctors hate it because they want to be the all knowing person. People think, oh you just goggle too much. But if know one has the answers then what do people expect a mother to do?

There has to be an answer somewhere. There has to be other people like my son that have found answers!!!! What are they? Find out what I have found in an upcoming blog....