Allergies

Cora

Cora's 2-year well-child check-up was last January, shortly after she had a severe skin infection all over her legs and hands. I was feeling at my wits end with her eczema, and her doctor suggested a

referral to see a pediatric allergist. Turns out there is only one peds allergist in town, so the earliest appointment we could get was in September.  Brandon ended up attending a conference out of town when she had her appointment, so I had to go alone - not my first choice when it comes to medical things. The appointment lasted over three hours. The culmination was an allergy skin test, that involved having Cora lay face down on the exam table, then lightly scratching her back with a multi-tipped contraption. Each tip also applied a different potential allergen. Then I had to hold her down on the table for 20 minutes while we waited to see which ones she reacted to. Several places immediately broke out into hives. As you can imagine, it was a pretty miserable experience. Thankfully, Jonah was at school, and Esther happily sat on the floor, chewing her way through a pile of books. The good thing about this kind of testing, is that the results are immediate. Cora reacted very strongly to fish (which I have suspected for some time) and sesame seeds. She also seems to have seasonal allergies to pollen and ragweed, and she reacted mildly to several other foods. But the doctor thought maybe that was just because her skin is so sensitive/reactive in general. So, none of those things are probably related to her skin problems, but it's nice to know she should avoid fish and sesame seeds.

Poor girl :(

While Brandon was at the conference, he attended a talk on eczema, and picked up several helpful tips. Since then, we have modified out skin care regime for Cora, and her skin is actually looking pretty great right now. She still can't keep from scratching her feet and legs if they are not covered, but there has been a huge improvement. I even got some looser fitting/non-leggings pants for her, and Cora was thrilled to finally have pants with pockets :)  I am hoping by summer she will be able to go bare-leg and actually wear shorts and dresses!!

Esther

Just like the other kids, Esther's first food was soft-boiled egg yolk. We started solids in July, and she loved it! We did egg yolks for a few days, then moved on to try some other foods. After she had a few different things, I went back and fed her egg yolks again. This particular day, we were heading to a peach orchard to meet a friend for peach picking. On the way there, I happened to glance back right as Esther had a big spit up. We were stopping for gas, so I jumped in the back and changed her clothes, since she was kind of a mess. We got back on the road, and Esther continued to spit up - more and more and more! She was fussy and getting tired, and eventually fell asleep. But she kept waking up to spit up some more, then fall back asleep. We turned around to head home, but this continued all the way home. I decided it must have been the eggs. So we stopped feeding her eggs. Both Brandon and our doctor thought that it might have just been a fluke or coincidence, so we decided to try eggs again. We finally had a weekend with Brandon at home at the beginning of November, so we gave her a hard boiled egg yolk mixed with apple sauce. Everything seemed fine, and she really enjoyed it.

Later that morning, we went to a friends' birthday party, and 15-20 minutes after we arrived, I was holding Esther, and she spit up a ton. This seemed weird, because she had really started to outgrow spitting up. Then she did it again. And again. And again! Poor girl :(  She'd be fine for a few minutes, then start coughing, and we'd rush her over to the edge of the playground (thankfully, we were outside!). She was miserable and sleepy for most of the rest of the day. So I guess she must have some allergy or intolerance to eggs, after all!

We are officially an allergy family.