Allergies...

For those that have seen Miss B, you know that we have struggled with eczema pretty much since we brought her home from the hospital.  Our pediatrician felt that it was probably just the dry, harsh Utah air and that she would grow out of it, but fast forward 18 months later and we are still struggling with it.  She gets so itchy sometimes that she won't sleep through the night. :(  Because she has failed to grow out of it, our pediatrician recommended that we take her to an allergist to see if there was an underlying allergy we had missed.  We already knew she was allergic to penicillin from a prior ear infection.  So, off to the allergist we went.  Here she is being tested for 20 environmental things and 11 foods:

Not a very pleasant experience!  She was quite happy though to get a sucker after all the pricking was done:

So, what are we allergic to?  Well, as far as the environmental factors, she hit positively on four.  Ragweed and weeds in general, although these will mostly affect her in the fall.  She also hit positively on cat dander and dog.  I have mixed feelings about this.  The allergist said that usually environmental allergies tend to get worse with time.  He also asked if we had any pets.  I told him we used to have a small dog.  I couldn't help but make the correlation that B's eczema was really bad (I mean, huge patches on her face, arms, and legs) when we had Sophie.  I asked if we would need to replace the carpets in the house (not that I would mind, but it is a huge expense).  He said for now, no, because we are also dealing with food allergies.  Depending on the food allergies turn out, this could still be a possibility.

Food allergies.  Here is where I am really overwhelmed.  B hit positively on three, but they are huge.  The doctor informed us that food can provide "false positives," but we are pretty sure that 2 of the 3 are really positive and we are testing the third right now.

B's biggest allergy is soy.  It created the greatest reaction (although I'm really not sure how "severe" her allergies are, something I need to ask when we go back in 3 weeks).  Soy is in everything.  No lie.  You look on lots of labels and it is as prevalent as high fructose corn syrup.  He wants us to avoid things that have  soy listed as a major ingredient, and if it is minor try to avoid it if we can.  Things that I didn't know included soy: spaghetti sauce, canned tuna fish, cereal, granola bars, peanut butter....yeah, the list goes on.  We are pretty confident that this is a positive allergy since her pediatrician tried us on a soy formula in hopes of curbing the eczema as a baby and she constantly threw it up.

Second allergy: egg whites.  We also know this is a true positive because of some skin reactions to egg whites we've had in our home.  What does this mean?  He wants us to avoid feeding her straight egg (scrambled, fried, etc.) as well as things like french toast, mayonnaise, and salad dressings.  Did you know root beer can be clarified with egg?  I didn't either. :(  I do need to call the office today though and find out if we need to avoid things like pasta (that are made in facilities that have egg).

Third allergy: milk.  Yep, milk.   Now this one, we aren't sure 100% so we are in the testing phase right now.  Essentially this means removing a lot of dairy: no milk, cheese, yogurt, etc.  She can have this in baked goods again.  We are concerned though that it might be the real deal since she has had eczema since she was born and the only two constants from then until now were the dog and a milk based diet.  This is where I am overwhelmed.  If you combine these three allergies...what do you feed your child?  We are starting to get creative and it means making a lot of things from scratch.  We are really praying that the milk is a false positive. :)  But for now, we have delved into the world of rice milk, which she really seems to enjoy.  We are also on an extensive skin regimen with cremes, baths, and an antibiotic in hopes we can finally get this eczema under control.

Its a lot to take in, but we do feel we are doing the right thing.  I should add that last night we did spaghetti and we just kind of put some plain tomato sauce and seasonings on Bailey's dinner and she washed it down with rice milk.  It was the first time she didn't break out into a rash afterwards...so was it the soy or the milk? :)  Who knows!