Living With Allergies – Our Journey to the Diagnosis

When Liam was just a couple of months old, we knew something was wrong. It didn’t seem life-threatening, but it was stressful and sad that our baby had to go through the vomiting, breakouts, and upset tummy every single day. At first we never even considered that we might be dealing with allergies.

His pediatrician was no help at all. She kept brushing off our concerns by saying things like, “Oh it’s JUST eczema” or “His digestive system isn’t completely developed yet, just sit him up after feedings”. So… we continued trying to control his eczema (which itched so bad it would make him bleed) and kept sitting him up after feedings while he puked up EVERYTHING that he just ate.

I was in tears most days. My son, my BABY, had scabs and sores on his face around his mouth from scratching at the eczema on his face so much. I felt like I couldn’t even take him in public without people judging me as a mother. That’s selfish, I know. But if you could have seen some of the looks I’d get after people saw his face. It was terrible. I did everything his pediatrician recommended to keep it under control and when those methods didn’t work, I went to the internet for tips. Those didn’t work, either.

Would Formula Help?

Continuing my internet search, I was trying to figure out what was causing all of these problems. When I typed in the symptoms, I kept getting results that said Liam had allergies. I was breastfeeding and began thinking something in my milk was causing the reactions, but I couldn’t pinpoint exactly what the trigger was. We decided to put Liam on formula and stop giving breast milk altogether.

The formula didn’t help, either, though. So then I had the added guilt of no longer breastfeeding added to all my other mom-guilts.

6 Months

When the vomiting wouldn’t stop even after he was 6 months old (that is the magic age his pediatrician kept telling us), I couldn’t take it anymore. We switched pediatricians. The new pediatrician gave us some new ideas to try but, since he didn’t know much about Liam’s history except what we told him, he would have to monitor it before he could determine what the underlying cause was. Fair enough.

We started trying the new ideas for controlling everything and then just a couple weeks after switching to the new pediatrician, we felt like we were getting some answers. We actually saw a nutritionist at our local WIC office and she suggested that Liam may have a dairy allergy. All of his issues were signs of allergies and, more specifically, a dairy allergy or sensitivity. She wanted us to try changing his formula to one without dairy.

I immediately called his pediatrician who said that it was a great thing to try and that it was going to be his next suggestion anyway. We started the new formula that same day.

Liam stopped vomiting as often, and he did get some relief from his eczema. The problems never fully went away, though, but we were thankful for even a little relief.

Fast forward to April when Liam was 14 months old.

I made scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast and Liam was loving it. He had been eating eggs regularly for about two months and loved them. Well, as he was eating his scrambled eggs, I noticed he was itching around his mouth. We still struggled with eczema around his mouth so I immediately started stressing and saying, “stop itching buddy, you’re going to make yourself bleed”. I moved his hands away from his mouth a couple of times and then started cleaning up the kitchen. I looked over at Liam and his entire face was covered in hives. COVERED.

I grabbed the eggs from in front of him, picked him up, and started washing his hands and face. As soon as that was done, I called his pediatrician’s office and they said to give Benedryl and watchfor signs of an anaphylactic reaction. I was TERRIFIED. Nothing like this had ever happened before, and I had NO IDEA that he may be allergic to eggs.

With all of my research on allergies, eggs had never even seemed like a problem.

I wouldn’t let him sleep in his crib that day because I wanted to keep an eye on him nonstop. The next day we took him to the doctor and were told to try the “baked egg” challenge. This is where you feed the child something that has egg baked in it. So cake, brownies, something like that. We did, and he reacted again. The doctor said to stop eggs immediately and completely and referred us to an allergist.

The Diagnosis

We met with the allergist and Liam was tested for the big 6 allergies. Peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, shellfish, dairy, gluten. He only reacted to eggs during the test, and it was determined that he had a SEVERE EGG ALLERGY. We would need to carry an epi-pen at all times, as the allergist thought the allergy might become even worse.

The Struggle

Do you have any idea how hard it is to keep your child away from eggs? He eats anything and everything, so if someone leaves a snack cake around, Liam will eat it. He doesn’t understand allergies, so he doesn’t know any better. If he sees ranch on someone’s plate and he can reach it, guess who is eating the ranch? It is SO HARD. There are even some brands of granola bars that have eggs in them! Pesto? Nope. Donut Sundays were canceled in our house, and my older toddlers learned to ask, “does it have egg?” whenever someone tried to give Liam a snack. My big kids learned to read an ingredient label, and we all learned to not feed Liam anything that doesn’t have a label.

When we go to restaurants we have to ask the server to put in an allergy alert and make sure his food is cooked separately. We have to wipe down high chairs and tables with disinfectant cleaner, even if they already appear clean. Sylas (he’s 4 Y/O) always says to our servers when we order Liam’s food “Make sure it doesn’t have egg, please. He’s allergic”. And even when he says this when I am ordering a hotdog for Liam, or a plate of fruit, I don’t correct him and tell him that it’s not necessary to ask, because you never know when it WILL be necessary for this additional reminder.

Re-creating our favorite recipes to be egg-free has been tricky, as well. Fried chicken? We have to dredge it in buttermilk now. Fettucini Alfredo? That’s just a nope because I don’t like the cauliflower version. Chicken fried rice? We haven’t had it since we found out about the allergy.

The Scare

It is terrifying that my son may mistakenly be exposed to something that can cause him to stop breathing. With allergies, our lives instantly became a little more meticulous and careful. Our awareness of ingredients and “safe foods” became an obsession.

Liam still wants to eat eggs. If he sees someone eating one he’ll yell “want egg!” over and over again until the egg is out of his sight. He hasn’t yet learned what it could do to him. He just knows that he isn’t getting what someone else is having. I’m afraid to leave him with a babysitter due to this. I also have to ask, “Do you know how to administer an epi-pen?” to every single person I leave him with. And then I’m still not comfortable.

This is what life with an allergy kid looks like. It is scary, and please don’t mind when I am overly obsessive about anything my child touches. Don’t take offense if you see me wiping down chairs and tables are your house. I just never know when that surface had been touched by something with egg.

Need Some Tips for Cooking with Allergies?

If you are familiar with food allergies, you understand what we are going through. I am going to start posting allergy-friendly versions of favorite foods, so keep an eye out for that!

Do you know an allergy kid or does your child have allergies? Is there a recipe you would like that is allergy-friendly? Let me know in the comments!