Allergies

Our youngest son, Zechariah, has had a rash covering up to 90% (and no less than 50%) of his body for his entire life.  We have suspected allergies for some time now.  So, we changed laundry detergents.  We experimented with several different soaps and shampoos.  We eliminated various foods from my diet every week.  We have done all of this for about five months now but not finding answers.

Finally, our doctor agreed to having an allergy test done.  Finally we got answers.  Finally we had some idea of what was causing the rash and what to do.  Zech has food allergies to dairy, wheat, eggs, and peanuts.  That is an extensive list.  So, we have had to drastically change what we have to eat.  It has been difficult to create meals that everyone will enjoy but think about it.  What exactly does one eat for breakfast with this list of avoidances?  We have already had to make special recipes for Elizabeth due to the fact that she is also lactose intolerant like her daddy.  (Does anyone else see the irony in the fact that the dairy farmers have the allergy issues with milk?)

Zech also has one more allergy.  Dog dander.  Great!  We have a dog.  We have an inside dog.  We had an inside dog up until about a week ago.  So we removed the dog from the house.  We had the carpets, rugs and furniture professionally cleaned.  We have done everything we know to possibly do to get rid of the dander.  I think it has worked.  The rash has seemed to clear up some.  It is definitely better than it has ever been.  I am so thankful we had the test ran because Miriam (the dog) is one of the last elements we would have removed from the environment.  Who knows how long it would have taken to get that far down the list.  Maybe a couple of years or so.

Well, that leads me to yesterday.  You see, yesterday, we went to an allergist.  He looked over the test results and concluded that Zech is indeed allergic to those five things.  So why exactly did we drive all the way there to see him?  Well, surely he has some advice on how to deal with these allergies.  His professional advice...drum roll please...we should try to avoid eating the foods that he is allergic to and remove the dog from the house.  No kidding.  That was his advice.  Seems like common sense to me but hey, I'm no doctor. 

I am not sure what I was expecting him to say or do.  Maybe I was hoping for some magical "Star Trek" wand that you just wave over the patient and he is fixed.  But I guess our modern technology isn't there yet.  I was just hoping that we wouldn't be back to square one with experimenting with his diet to see what is exactly causing the rash.  But I guess, if food experimentation and avoidance worked for Adam and Eve then I guess it is good enough for me.