Tuesday, May 28, 2013

We WILL Get This Kid's Health Figured Out...Right?

That's how I feel right now about Abraham.

He's finally growing well enough to keep the doctors happy.  But, the poor little guy is still battling other issues.  He's got horrible eczema on his legs that his dermatologist had us treating with steroid cream.  We finally got a referral to an allergist though who says the eczema is definitely caused by some kind of allergies, most likely food, and to stop using the steroids because they are causing hypopigmentation of his skin (lightening it).

Then this weekend we ended up in an urgent care clinic because the poor baby was up screaming for 4 hours in the night and his eczema had flared up horribly.  It got all bubbly and then covered in scabs.  Poor guy was pretty miserable.

We have to get his eczema to calm down before we can have him allergy tested because the eczema is a sign that he has lots of IGE (allergy related) antibodies in his system.  Too many IGE antibodies can lead to false positives on an allergy test.  This means he's on more new medications and getting lotioned up a bajillion times a day.  Hopefully with intense treatment of the eczema we can be able to test in a few weeks.

We want him to look like this.



Not this.




4 comments:

  1. Please, please, please share your regimen with me! Lyla's eczema is horrible right now...she is cracked and bleeding in several spots. Our ped has her on an antibacterial ointment and skin cream but nothing seems to be working. Breaks my heart to see her hurting.

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    1. Oh no! I'm so sorry to hear that. From the research I've done and what our allergist has told us, the thing with eczema is that you can keep treating it, but unless you figure out what's triggering it, you are fighting a losing battle. For Abraham, it's food triggers, but it could also be environmental. He gets a dose of zyrtec every morning to help lessen his allergic response. That and keeping him off the triggering foods help a ton. For ointment, I use a mixture of shea butter, coconut oil, and jojoba oil. His skin sucks it in. It also helps to do daily baths without any soap or anything. Just 10 minutes in warm water. Then as soon as you pull them out, pat dry and put on a really thick layer of oil based lotion to help seal in the moisture. I feel your pain. Seeing your baby hurting is the worst!

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    2. Thanks Elizabeth...we don't do dairy but I think I'm going to pull her off the almond milk and see what that might do. I feel like our ped is pretty clueless at this point and I am so ready to see my little girl's skin healed up for good! I'm going to give your "recipe" a try and hope it helps with the itching/burning. What are some of Abraham's food triggers? Environmental? I'm wondering if I should change our laundry soap, bath soap, etc...

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    3. Abraham's food triggers (that we know of now, there may be more...) are dairy, almonds, soy, and strawberries. Environmental could be soaps, detergents, pollen, certain fabrics, etc. You should be using all dye free, scent free products as those things can irritate the skin. We use Tide free and gentle for laundry and castille soap for skin. Here's the link for the recipe on how to make the skin cream. http://blog.kicksprout.com/green/amazing-homemade-eczema-body-butter

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