Saturday morning he woke up scratching the back of his neck and right above the back of his diaper.
By noon he was itching his stomach and chest.
Sunday began the upper chest, neck, and shoulders.
Last night he woke up itching uncontrollably - even on his scalp. I gave him some more Benedryl and laid down with him for over an hour. He twisted and turned and scratch and itched. I turned the light on a few times to check him out to make sure his whole body wasn't red. Finally I sat down with him on his bedroom floor cut his fingernails as short as I could, changed his diaper, lotioned him up, rocked him and put him back to bed. He woke earlier than usual at 6:30 am this morning.
Today he's added the upper arms to his itch fest.
I have been giving him Benedryl orally and via cream all weekend. It provided about two hours relief and then he would be miserable again. Oatmeal baths provided some relief as well. I've been trying to keep him in light, long pants and his shirt tucked in to keep his fingernails away from his skin.
I've racked my brain over what this could be... did I miss something in his food? Have I changed soaps or detergents? What about poison ivy or poison oak? Maybe it's a latex allergy... he was in a blow-up pool on Friday. Did something bite him?
We had a similar occurance last year. I remember it was the first really nice day of Spring. He was out in a Tshirt and his diaper. He itched all the next day, but that was it. He was out all day Friday in a Tshirt and diaper "helping" me plant our vegetable garden. Could pollen be doing this?
I finally got a chance to bring Witt to see his pediatrician today. After careful inspection, Dr. P said it is undoubtably eczema... and a bad case of one... especially for a two year old. He said it is most likely caused by something environmental. He also said that although these sort of things tend to get worse from year to year, it is unusual for it to escalate to this severity from one year to the next.
He prescriped an oral steroid for the next 6 days, a steriod cream for up to 2 weeks, and Zyrtec once a day for the rest of Spring (until around Memorial Day). He said it is very likely that come mid-August we will need to start the Zyrtec up again for the Fall. He also highly recommended a bath immediately after being outdoors. He said that even when I take him home from the appointment, I should bathe him.
I'm going to start change my shirt when I come inside as well. I don't want an indoor snuggle session to end up as an itch fest. I think I need to cut his hair now, too. I've been putting that off, 'cause he's so darn cute!
So what's an allergy post without some pictures?
Here is Witt in the bath after his appointment. The dark marks are scabs from scratching. The red is irritation from the itching. After some Benedryl and lotion, his skin does calm down some.
So now, I guess we have our second entrance into of the "Environmental Allergies Club". (Booger Boy being our first.)
I'm sure I'll make some new allergy friends, but please stop signing me up for these clubs. The "Severe Food Allergy Club" is plenty enough for my plate, thanks.
11 comments:
Oh no Becky! Poor little guy. I hope the treatment helps.
Poor baby.
My neighbor just figured out her daughter is allergic to sunscreen, and I just figured out that Helen is allergic to amoxicillin. Must be the season....
Awww...the little fellow looks absolutely miserable.
I'm praying that the reaction gets better soon--and adding him to my "healing from allergies" prayer list.
Oh, I feel so horrible for him! I had poison ivy on my face last week and was in misery. I cannot imagine being so young and it being so widespread and not having relief, all while not understanding what is going on. I'll keep your little one in my prayers!
praying.
God bless that poor baby AND poor mama who has been through SO MUCH lately!!
This is the time of year when I would normally be hanging clothes out on the lines to dry. But nope - not anymore. The pollen and dander floating around is too much for Bman.
I sure hope the meds clear his skin up soon. I feel so bad for you guys. It's so tough when they want to go out and play so bad, but there's so much in the air that triggers this stuff. Are you running a humidifier? That can sometimes alleviate some of the itching, especially at bedtime.
Will continue praying for you guys! Love you!
I am so sorry! Poor sweet baby! I saw your comment on local nourishment today and came by to tell you that my post today was on natural cures for eczema...http://vehementflame.blogspot.com/2009/04/nautural-cures-eczema.html... come read if intrested.
I hope he gets better!
Becky, I am so sorry. A few months ago the same thing happened to my son. He was just playing one day and poof, he got hives. He then got them every morning for one month. Our son has a milk allergy so I was trying to figure out if it was a new food allergy or not but I did not think so as the hives would happen in the morning as he woke up. I nearly drove myself crazy trying to figure it out. at first i thought it was cleaning products as it often coincided with the morning bathroom visit. or was it the carpet spot remover i had been using... It all culminated with his lips swelling after eating breakfast one morning and i had to use the dreaded epipen for the first time. his allergist put him on steroids and hydroxizine as bendadryl was not controlling the hives. the hives would get so big like the size of my hand. about two days of the hydroxizine it cleared up. I finally took matters into my own hands and asked my pediatrician if he would order me a rast test and he let me just go the list and check whatever I wanted. I for sure checked the things that he had for breakfast the morning of the lip-swelling to rule out those foods as allergens as we did not know if the lip swelling was a separate incident from the daily hives. Well, we got back from the results that he is allergic to bananas and avocados. He did indeed have a banana for breakfast that morning.. so we attribute that to the lip swelling but we will probably never figure out the daily hives. I did switch him to a seventh generation laundry soap that is frag free and extremely gentle. And i went to all natural cleaning products... mostly just vinegar.
Both avocado and banana are considered latex fruits so it means that our son is at high risk for a latex allergy. He has been using a latex pacifier and we immediately we took that away. Perhaps that sensitized him to become allergic to bananas. He is 3.5 and has never had the least bit of problem with bananas up to this point.
Anyway, I don't have any answers for you.. just commiserating as I know how frustrating it is to not know how to protect your child.
My son was on the hydroxizine for a month and then was weaned off of it. No hives since. Thank you, thank you God. I slept with him for a month as I was terrified that his throat would swell up while he was sleeping.
Poor thing! We struggle with dairy and soy allergies with our lil guy. It's a tricky business.
:)
I found an article today on bleach baths for kids with eczema. I thought of this post when I read it. Haley's eczema is currently unbearable for her. She has scabs all over from scratching so bad. I don't know if the bleach baths will work or not, but I'm going to start trying them out tonight!!
Here's the link http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20090427/hl_hsn/dilutedbleachbathseasekidseczema
poor baby. i hope he is all better. i'm catching up on your blog tonight. our 10 year anniversary is next month too. we just get one night away. so jealous about your WEEK vacation. LUCKY! ;) enjoy it! and graham turns 2 in july. where DID our babies go? we have so much in common.
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