Rashy McRashalot [Kid health stuff]

[marydell]

Charlie's skin has finally decided it can tolerate a couple of creams that actually help his eczema, so at the moment he is only sort of rashy, sort of itchy, and sort of dry, and is napping with a blanket holding his arm down instead of in the baby straightjacket (um, kidopottamus swaddle sack thingy) we normally have to put him in to keep him from scratching his face. 

The problem is that he has eczema, which is a dry itchy rash, on his face, ears, arms, legs, and neck, and he also gets an unspecified rash all over his torso and scalp in response to 1. food  2. skin creams 3. laundry detergent 4. dark colored clothing.

Yeah. It's been a tough few months, trying to map this problem out and figure out his triggers.  On the skin side of the equation, here's what's working for us today:

 - Eucerin cream on his face and eyelids
 - Boudreax Butt Paste for his "diaper area" - the only part of him never to have had a rash - and also the backs of his knees
 - Boudreaux Baby Butt Smooth ointment for his torso, arms, legs, and head (not near his mouth or eyes)
 - Filippo Berio Extra Virgin Olive Oil for his bath.  Exederm excema wash once in a while but the olive oil is better.
- White or light-blue-patterned 100% cotton clothes from Hanna Andersen, washed at least 3x before wearing
- Light-colored 100% cotton pajamas clothes from Gymboree, washed 1x before wearing
- 100% cotton sheets with colored designs on white background, or light colors, washed several times
- Seventh Generation dye & fragrance-free diapers
- Seventh Generation baby free laundry detergent

We're also using Seventh-gen dye-free dish soap and dishwasher deterg now, and we got a Serta "organic cotton" mattress and changing table pad.  Organic cotton in quotes because they can't make the whole mattress out of that or it'd be a fire trap.  But they are pthalate free and some other good things.  Also they have cute sheep on them, which has to be worth the $250 the two of them cost together, right? (It is ridiculously cute; they have two of their counting-sheep under a tree in a repeating traditional toile pattern. But that's not the only reason I bought it...)

There's also a food allergy thing going on, and an athsma thing.  We've had allergy tests of various types, but in an 8-month-old baby those things aren't particularly accurate, and false negatives are common.

Next week we are going back to our schmancy pediatric-allergist-who-is-also-a-pulmonologist and also going to a shmancy pediatric dermatologist up at U of Chicago. 

Meanwhile, he can tolerate his rice-enhanced-milk-based formula, but can't tolerate most of the hypoallergenic formulas for milk allergy.  He can eat the rice cereal with the added probiotic woozits and fish oils but can't eat the rice cereal that's just rice and 2 vitamins.  He can eat sweet potatoes, but has had little dots pop up on his tummy and back or some other negative reaction to applesauce (organic, preservative-and-vitamin free), Gerber pears, peaches, prunes, bananas, peas, beans, and maybe carrots.  Also to earth's best brand,   Gerber puts ascorbic acid in all their fruits; Earth's Best puts in veggies too.  Vitamins, BAD. Well, not really, but most of them are derived from corn, and he definitely gets a bad rash from eating corn.  Also the scratch test showed he's allergic to wheat and eggs (which he's never had), which means that oatmeal is verboten for now.

Our pediatrician thought he might be allergic to latex because he had a skin reaction when we nebulized him (giving athsma meds in a mist, with a little rubber mask to direct the mist to his nose & mouth).  And part of the rash followed the line of the mask.   Latex is a lifelong allergy, unlike a lot of food allergies, and it really sucks.  After a few weeks of avoiding natural rubber and other latex-y  natural substances (avacado, banana, other stuff can cross-react with latex allergy) I looked up the mask's manufacturer and got the product sheet, and it's latex-free.  So he probably reacted to the drug, or the saline the drug is in, or whatever chemicals the mask has in it.

I suspect there's one large underlying allergy that's driving all of this.  Since he's gradually improved over the past week, I also suspect that the underlying allergy is to cat dander. We started keeping the cat out of his room a couple of months ago, but since he tested negative for cat allergy we didn't go beyond talking about relocating the cat to my brother's home. But now that the cat has passed on, we are gradually seeing signs that cat allergy has been at least contributing to the situation. 

Comments

[gailmom.livejournal.com]

*hugs* I had to deal with food sensitivities in my kids, and that was bad enough. My sympathy to you all. *hugs again*

[readinggeek451]

My sympathies to Charlie. And to his parents.

[kate_nepveu]

*vows to never ever complain about SteelyKid's digestion again*

*will certainly not keep that vow, but wow*

But the sheep are very cute.

Thanks for the information. SteelyKid's skin is doing much better now that I've stopped overheating her and her diet has been more-or-less sorted, but I will definitely keep this in mind if we have recurrences.

[marydell.livejournal.com]

Well, on the flip side he's generally a champion sleeper, and he stays in a good mood almost all of the time, so he's not a difficult baby in toto.

[kate_nepveu]

Amazing how lucky we are, isn't it? I'd certainly not be in a good mood if I were Rashy McRashalot like he is.

And envy on the sleeping. Though she's doing better with that, too.

[lydy.livejournal.com]

What a load! I had food allergies as a kid, as well as dust allergies and cat allergies. We had to get rid of all 10 cats. (Two of them had just had litters. So there were 7 kittens.) It's exhausting trying to track everything down and find alternatives. Good luck. Sounds like you're making some progress.

[etumukutenyak.livejournal.com]

Allergies do tend to add up, so eliminating some sources will help the overall level of reaction. It's a summation of effects, which leads to crossing a threshold and violins*! you have a rash (or migraine, or other allergy-mediated reaction of your preference). For example, I am allergic to MSG, but I can occasionally ingest it without an immediate migraine, if I don't have any other triggers like pollen, potatoes, and the dose is small enough to be sub-threshold by itself.

Eczema in babies is notorious for disappearing as the baby gets older. All the work you've clearly put in to identifying his triggers may have to be redone -- or not, if his immune system decides to let it all go.

*Or violas, or basses, whichever you prefer, in lieu of proper French spelling.

[haddayr.livejournal.com]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

I REALLY hope the poor thing grows out of this.

Have you tried medical-grade lanolin for his eczema? They sell it at Target as "lansinoh" in the breastfeeding section. Because it's natural and medical-grade, I'm thinking he might not react?

Poor baby!

[marydell.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'll look for that - for myself if it doesn't work for him! Unfortunately "natural" is often bad for allergies, but he seems to be tolerating lanolin lately.

He is feeling better today, though, finally, which I'll post about tonight with a pic (assuming he comes home from daycare in about the same shape as when he went).