Skin Problems

Anna looks so much like Caleb's baby pictures. That is a little scary for me, since Caleb is our allergy child, and I wonder what genes go with the "physical appearance" ones! I mentioned a few weeks ago that Anna had really broken out on her face. The zits have pretty much gone away, but her facial skin is still really . . . rough, I guess you'd say. Definitely not smooth. Sometimes really red and splotchy (like after she's pitched a little fit), sometimes a normal color, but always just sort of rough. And kind of dry/scaly too, especially on her forehead and between her eyes. It's not really flaky, but it's sort of scaly-feeling. Weird. I'm not sure that I would call it eczema yet, but I am basically treating it as such. I've started putting a lot of Aquaphor on it, and I think that is helping a little bit. I am also cutting down drastically (meaning almost none) on my dairy intake. Her head has some flaky patches, but I am just not washing her hair very often, and it's not too bad.

When I took Caleb to his 2 month well-baby appointment, I had just started noticing flakyiness on his head, which I assumed was cradle cap. I mentioned it to the doctor, and she agreed, telling me to scrub the patches with a soft toothbrush before washing. I did this faithfully, but the patches just seemed to get bigger. Soon the patches were taking over his head, and his poor head was really crusty. I washed his hair more often, since it looked so terrible, but by the end of the day, it was all crusty again. When I took him in for his 4 month appointment, that doctor took one look at him and referred us over to Dermatology. The derm. doctor said that Caleb had the worst infected case of eczema he had ever seen on a baby, and he put him right on antibiotics. It took 2 courses for his head to clear up. Poor guy. I felt so terrible, but who knew?! I immediately went home and did research on eczema, and I discovered the link between it and food allergies. That explained some things. A few weeks prior, Caleb chewed on a fork of mine after I ate some walnut coffee cake, and he broke out all over the side of his face and around his mouth. When my Aunt Claire came out to visit, she kissed him after eating cereal, and he got little hives where her mouth touched him. Fortunately I had never given him any regular formula and very little solid foods. When we saw the dermatologist again, he pooh-poohed all my research, but I was able to get a consult for the allergy doctor anyways. They did a skin test, and he tested positive for wheat, milk, peanuts, eggs, and tree nuts--everything except soy in the test. Since I was nursing, I immediately cut those things out of my diet too (well, actually first I went home and called Amy crying, LOL). Caleb's skin is really good now, except for a patch on his ankle and his weird toenail problem, but it took over a year before it all really cleared up. His food allergies have lessened too, and he's much less sensitive to milk now (but he's really sensitive when his environmental allergies are stirred up).

When I look back at Caleb's baby pictures, at around 5-6 months, his face really changes. His eyes get really red and puffy, and his face just doesn't look right. This continues until around his first birthday. It is so obvious to me now, looking back! Hopefully I will be more aware with Anna, since I feel like we're basically on our own here, as far as medical care. I can't even get a consult for Caleb to see the allergist, even though it's been 2 years since he's seen one, and I would like to know if we are still doing the right things. I'm sure it would be very difficult to get one for Anna, if I should ever feel like she needed to see someone. I will probably start putting the evening primrose oil and flaxseed oil on her tummy, like I did for Caleb. That really seemed to help his skin problems, although it sure stained his pajamas! I guess she would definitely be wearing those boy clothes then--I'm not ruining brand new girl clothes!