4 Month Appointment (And more about the rash)

So James (the hubby) and I took LJ (little James, hehe) to the pediatrician's today for his 4 month check-up!

James is growing and healthy! He now weighs 14 lbs 9 ozs (45%) and is 27 inches long (97%)!

He got his combo shot vaccine today (Diptheria, Pertussis, Tetanus, Hib, Polio) which we had skipped from his 2 month appointment. This time, I breastfed him WHILE she gave him the shot--that worked out well, he only popped off to let out one little shriek and then he was back to nursing, though somewhat upset, obviously.

The doctor said we can start giving him food if we want to but that we could also wait. I told him we'd probably wait until 6 months before we start really letting him try anything.

About the rash--THANK YOU everyone for all your concerns, questions, suggestions, etc!

To give you an update, the rash is almost completely gone now! I think I have everything that he is allergic to figured out finally! And just when I was ready to throw in the towel . . .

This is what I've been avoiding: Wheat, barley, rye, corn, soy, peanuts, almonds, cashews, pistachios, tomatoes, chocolate, citrus . . .

Some of those things (barley, rye, citrus, especially) I'm actually not sure if he is allergic or not. If the rash continues to heal/improve and is therefore pretty much gone by Monday, I will start re-introducing foods then, starting first with the ones that we are least suspicious of.

To answer some of the questions:

YES it is definitely food allergies. I have seen myself that it breaks out after certain meals heavy in allergic foods, and has been improving steadily over the last month that I've been on a restricted diet. The only reason it has taken me this long to figure it out is because certain allergic ingredients have been "hiding" in foods I eat all the time--like corn in EVERYTHING, soy oil in everything (especially the hummus I was eating all the time), etc.

NO it is not an allergy to laundry soap because it is ONLY on his forehead which is in contact with less laundry than any other part of his body. He did react to Dreft soap and the rash at that time was around his neck and chest--which makes sense. We switched to All Free and Clear and have had no more issues.

NO it is not an allergy to lotion. We use no lotion on him except in the last couple days we started using Aveeno and he hasn't had a reaction to that--if anything, it's helping. Normally we put coconut or olive oil on him and on the rash. It does not appear t be a reaction to those things either since, again, we use it all over him and only his forehead breaks out.

NO it is not an allergy to soap. We bathe him infrequently--maybe twice a week, and 75% of the time use no soap on him at all. When we do, we use Dr. Bronner's and an all-natural baby shampoo.

YES we talked to the doctor today and he said the Aveeno lotion would be good for it. I have heard several rec's for Aquaphor so as long as it doesn't contain soy or corn or other allergic ingredients I will probably pick some up. He also said that it definitely looked better, so that the elimination diet seemed to be working.

YES we have tried cortisone and it didn't really help the rash (which is common for a food allergy rash, that cortisone wouldn't help very much). I'm not sure if it would help the itching, but luckily the worst of that seems to be over. I did ask James (the hubby) about cortisone and he wasn't a very big fan, so we'll probably skip it for now.

YES he is basically too young for an allergist or formal allergy tests.

However, about two weeks ago we did start treating his allergies with AAT (Advanced Allergy Therapeutics). It is (sort of) a slow process though because you can only treat one thing at each visit, and first they treat general things like histamines (to prevent over-reaction), and digestive enzymes (for general gut health), etc.

AAT sort of deserves it's own post though.

But we definitely have some tools up our sleeves to deal with this and I am FINALLY seeing a really good result from the elimination diet. So as frustrated and ready to lose it as I was yesterday, today is a new day and it really pays to see my dieting effort pay off!

I actually think part of why he was itching SO badly yesterday (or the day before) was because it was really starting to heal deeply. So as aggravating as it was, it was actually a good sign!

So that was our appointment and more about our rash woes/SUCCESSES, hehe.