Our Food Allergy Saga

When my youngest son was born, he was perfect. Not only that, but he slept well and ate well! It was a dream...for the first two weeks...but then, something happened. He stopped sleeping well. He spent many late nights crying and we could never find the right thing to help him. When I spoke to the pediatrician, I was told that it was totally normal, and since my first was so easy, I believed them. I passed over my instincts and let it go. But after months of not sleeping and worrying over his runny nose and horrible eczema breakouts, I finally pushed our pediatrician to help. You see, my little guy had had a close to anaphylactic reaction to yogurt. It was scary but our doctor told us to just not give him milk or milk products. Since I was breastfeeding him and he hadn't had many of the classic symptoms and was gaining weight like a champ, she assumed it was a sensitivity and that I would need to minimize, not eliminate dairy from my diet. WRONG!! I pushed and may be sounded like a crazed mother but I got the appointment with the specialist!


This appointment was one of the worst things I've had to go through with my children. I really didn't think much would happen. I was wrong. The little guy was given a skin prick test for a large number of allergens. He popped on milk, eggs, peanuts, dog, apples, chicken, beef, and fish. His reaction to milk was quick and pretty scary and that was just with a small amount on his skin. We went for a RAST blood test of all of the above plus dust. For the next two weeks, I avoided eating all of the above foods, as I was still breastfeeding him. It was INCREDIBLY difficult. Bit by bit, with two different allergy medications and the avoidance, my little guys' eczema cleared, the runny nose dissipated, and he was sleeping better.

When we returned to the allergist, it was clear that my guy was doing my much better and the results were better than expected. His blood showed that he was a level VI on peanuts, a level V on milk, eggs, and dog. Thankfully everything else was negative. We've been doing our best to keep him away from his kryptonite. It's hard...not easy. We all worry about our children, but for me, knowing my son's weaknesses is just a constant worry. If I had just known from early on, I could have saved him so much discomfort. I even worry that because I nursed him for 10 months, that he'll never outgrow the allergy to milk. Yeah, it's all about the mommy guilt. To Be Continued....