4/21/09

Allergy Baby



Silas is my allergy baby. He has shown signs of allergies since the day he was born, literally, he broke out in a rash from everything that touched him. He had to be suctioned many times a day while he was in the hospital as a newborn because of all the mucous he was creating in response to his new environment and nursing.
He was severely colicky for the first three months of his life, even though he was a very easy and tolerant temperment. His tummy would fill with gas and he would scream for hours and hours. Usually at night...all night. Fortunately that improved by three months old and he was an angel baby after that...when he wasn't having ear pain.
At about three months old he started with ear infections...which I have now read can be caused by allergies too. He had so many ear infections (at least one a month) that he had tubes put in his ears at 11 months old.

He was one big rash, he was prone to eczema which became horribly bad once he started solid food. We tried every cream and remedy on the market. It wasn't until I discovered he was allergic to eggs (which I baked all our bread, muffins and cookies with) that his eczema cleared up completely.
We also discovered at about a year that he was allergic to peanuts after he found a piece of peanut butter granola bar on the floor.
We are now, under the instruction of his allergist, strictly avoiding all tree nuts as well.
We are also avoiding shell fish because of a high likelihood of him developing it and some extended family with the allergy.


This is Silas' latest new reaction. He had a severe reaction to Kiwi last week much to my surprise. I was sure he had kiwi before but apparently he that was just his "sensitizing period" in which he was starting to develop the antibodies against kiwi. This time when he had it his body was ready for a full on, but misguided, attack. You can't see the texture of his skin on the picture but he had welts all over his hands , wrists and face. His top lip swelled up, his voice got raspy and he started to get wheezy. Just from a piece of kiwi. So we are adding that to the paranoia list. Allergic reactions like this tend to get worse with each exposure so another piece of kiwi and we'll be in the ER for sure. Potlucks are a nightmare. He takes his little backpack everywhere we go. Spare pants, pull-ups, wipes, benadryl and an epipen. And of course a peanut free snack just in case we find our selves somewhere that he can't eat the food.
I'm a little concerned with his nutrition, especially if we've now opened the Pandora's box of fruit allergies. He is an extremely picky eater...when he eats at all but he usually loves fruit. I'm hoping that I can still feed him lots of exotic fresh fruit this summer. We also have a yard full of strawberries, blue berries, sour cherries and raspberries...purely for his grazing enjoyment. I would hate to have to start digging up berry plants because Silas is allergic to them. Uggg. Allergies suck.


This is an old picture of my little guy only a few months old. He woke up in the morning like this. I still have no idea why he looked like that. I think I had used some stain remover on his sheet at some point. It was more like a chemical burn than an allergy. He has very sensitive skin as well so I have to be careful with detergents, lotions, soaps etc. This has improved somewhat with age.
We found out when he was only a few months old that he is also allergic to penacillin. His whole body turned bright tomato red...similar to the look he's sporting above only on his whole body.


This picture was just funny in a really goofy looking kid sort of way. " Help Dr. my eyes are too big for my head!!" and my tongue feels funny.

My other two kids have no food allergies (that I know of) and have never had any problems with ear infections. They all have very sensitive digestive systems though. I'm still trying to get to the bottom of that one. No pun intended. Aili and Roman both have had their tonsils and adenoids removed due to their incredibly large and obstructive size. Getting those removed made a huge difference in their overall health. I'm hoping Silas will be able to pass on the tonsil and adenoid problems. After all he has enough of his own unique issues.

There are so many theories thrown around as to why so many kids of this generation are developing serious allergies. It is definitely a problem that is on an alarming rise. Non of them so far have held any water or haven't later been discredited. I had kind of assumed or hoped that this trend wouldn't affect any of my own kids. I didn't really picture myself as an epi-pen mom scrutinizing everything my kid eats. The only thing that really makes sense is that he was genetically prone to them anyway and he drew the genetic bad card. I think the fact that he is the fairest one of my children is not necessarily a coincidence either. I don't know if there is any link to lack of pigment and allergies but for some reason no one is surprised that he is the allergy kid.

Posted by Picasa

3 comments:

DropYourAllergies said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Grandpa Steve said...

It is greaqt to keep up with your life. Keep sharing your life and heart.

I don't have many allergies but kiwi is one that I don't like the tiggly mouth! One person, I can't remember, asked if I was allergic to strawberries. I guess in a similar category. I don't know....just offering info.

Most of my allergies are preferential not physical....

Stephen said...

Kiwi = Tiggly Mouth = Oral Allergy Syndrome ( OAL ).

Usually OAL = A larger Enviro Allergy Presence.

Enviro Allergy presence = Achoo