Dairy allergy, be gone!

This week we received some incredibly wonderful news.  My sweet darling little boy is no longer allergic to dairy!!  YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!  I am so happy for William and all that this means for him.  He is only two and a half years old, but his food choices are still very limited for a tyke his age.  Unfortunately we still have to deal with an egg and peanut allergy, but for now I am not going to dwell on those.  I am going to thank the good Lord for helping William to get rid of one of the crosses his little body has had to bear and be happy for it!

William has had allergies and issues with his skin since he was a little baby, about three months old.  We were not sure about the allergies, but he was diagnosed with eczema at this age and it was a nasty time for him.  His poor skin would bleed, it was just too fragile.  His face would crack from the scratching and he suffered so.  I kept his nails cut to the quick and covered them whenever possible, but as anyone with a child knows, they do not like their hands covered.  They want to stick them in their mouth!!  We went to numerous doctors and specialists, but for the most part we were told he would “probably” outgrow the eczema and we had to wait it out.  The only relief was cream with cortezone in it and this contributed to a thinning of his skin.  This just caused the cracking to worsen 🙁  But my little guy was a trouper.  He never complained much about the pain he was surely in.  He let us cut his nails and use copious amounts of thick cream to soothe him.  We bathed him, but not several times a day as some suggested.  One doctor would say bath him three or four times a day and the next would say once a day.  Still others would say to bath him a couple of times per week.  I found that poor William became very itchy in bath water, with or without the special oil we were prescribed. So we did what we thought was best for him.

It was at eight months of age that we discovered that yes, William did have an allergy.  I took him to get the H1N1 flu shot in the fall of 2009 and shortly after he broke out in hives, all over his little body.  The silly doctor told us it was not hives, but I insisted we have him checked.  It was all over the news that if you had an egg allergy you should avoid the flu shot.  It took forever to get him tested due to the incompetency of our pediatrician, but finally we had a diagnoses.  William was allergic to eggs, dairy and nuts.  I had to stop breastfeeding my baby and switch to soy.  It was a tough time for a little while, trying to determine what he could eat, but we made it to the other side.  I had a harder time coming to grips with the reality that I probably “gave” this problem to my William.  No one in our family has food allergies, but I have several drug allergies.  The doctor’s agree that these have manifested themselves in William as food allergies and my breastfeeding didn’t help 🙁

William has been a good sport and we have had wonderful support from our family and daycare provider.  My husband and I learned very quickly the value of  reading a label and doing some research a head of time.  We actually found better alternatives to many of the foods we eat and give our daughter so there were several good things to come from all of this.  Emily, my precious eight year old, has been fantastic!  She is very aware of what her brother can and can not eat.  She is great at keeping things away from him and not “rubbing it in” when she has something forbidden to William, like ice cream.  As a matter of fact Emily has learned to enjoy some of the alternatives William can have, like sherbet or sorbet.  Better for everyone all around, accept maybe our wallets 🙂 No one can deny that the cost of  special foods can be a bit prohibitive.  We are fortunate to be in a position to buy what we need, but it is shocking what the price difference can be.  It makes me wonder how others get by.  It was recently brought to my attention that the Canadian government will allow those with a wheat allergy to claim the cost difference to purchase gluten free food items on your income tax.  While that is fantastic news for those with Celiac disease, it is unfortunate that this benefit is not available to sufferers of other food allergies.  I realize that gluten is in a lot more things, but dairy and egg are not easy ones to find alternatives for.  Thankfully we can not knock one of those off of our list!

It may sound silly, but there are a few things I can not wait for William to try.  I want to see him enjoy a piece of cheese, marble, which is my favorite.  I wonder what he will think of the texture and flavour.  So far his experience with cheese has been this vegan sliced stuff that is not very appetizing 🙁  I also want to see him eat Kraft dinner for the first time.  Everyone loves macaroni and cheese, but KD is the best there is!! Yogurt is another must try.  William has had soy yogurt and he will eat a bit of it, but those sweet and favorable yogurts made just for his age are so tasty and good for his development.   They are on my list! Of course there is plain old milk.  He had it during the “challenge” test and he never seemed to notice the difference between it and soy.  I hope that is a good sign.  I know his daddy can’t wait to share a glass of cold chocolate milk with his boy.  It is a family staple for my husband’s side 🙂

So I will end this with a great big thank you to the Lord, for helping my son walk through to the other side of this allergy.  If nothing else changes I will be forever grateful that William has one less burden on his little shoulders.

FT&PD

Suz