Allergy Update

Patrick had his first appointment with an allergist yesterday. The Dr. was surprised that he already had such an extensive history with allergies, both environmental and food, at such a young age. He said that typically little kids with allergies only have a few things they are allergic to, not a whole list like Patrick does. He agreed with our pediatrician that we should start him on a systemic antihistamine allergy medication to help control his outdoor/environmental allergies. He also agreed with taking him off of the steroid asthma medication that he was on. We're all hoping that being on the allergy med will prevent the reactions to allergens that cause the asthma to flare up. So far, his lungs sound good after being off the asthma meds for a week. Praise God!

For his food allergies, the Dr. also agreed with the pediatrician that we needed to eliminate all of his known food allergens, establish a baseline of feeling good (probably 3-4 weeks), then reintroduce one food at a time to see what his reactions are. If the reactions are tolerable, then we can move on and reintroduce something else. But, if his reaction to a specific food is not something he (or we) can live with, then we have to keep avoiding that food. He suggested starting by adding wheat since it is so hard to avoid (Did you know licorice is made with wheat?!), then milk, egg, soy, etc. He said we should not even bother trying to challenge the foods that we know he has repeatedly reacted to in the past (tomatoes, pineapple, oats. etc.) and just challenge the ones we've never seen a specific reaction to.

I'm still working on getting creative with foods. Corn tortillas, beans and chicken are going to get old rather quickly, I think.