Ok, this update is long, long overdue, so here it goes:

Mine and my husband’s allergy tests came back.  I was sensitive to gluten and my husband was borderline on the gluten.  I was on the high side of normal on dairy and my husband was completely fine with dairy. 

So, I’ve stopped gluten.  I’ve stopped oats.  I’ve stopped chocolate.  I’m limiting my dairy intake. 

We’ve begun going to a chiropractor.  He said Ellie was “crooked” or whatever terminology they use.  So, last week she began getting adjusted.  She started sleeping through the night again.  We had five nights of sleep!!! 

The chiro is also doing acupuncture treatments on her.  Maybe those are helping too. 

We saw a new pediatrician on Thursday.  He was a little better than our current pediatrician as far as being patient, listening to my concerns, and spending time talking with us.  He told me most of the same things—dryer sheets, detergents, Vaseline, oils, lotions, creams, no soap, limited baths………..

His new suggestions were:  using Elidel (which really isn’t supposed to be for kids under 2.  I’ve also read some scary stuff about Elidel so I’m just not sure yet.) using bleach baths (putting her in a tub with even a little bit of bleach just makes me nervous, gonna have to research that one) giving her children’s Claritin to help the itch (going to think about that one.  Benadryl makes Ellie really, really awake so that is NOT an option)

But he ordered an allergy test on her!  Finally!  I don’t care if it shows nothing.  I just wanted someone to try it.  I felt like all the other doctors were laughing off my concerns about a food allergy.  It may not be the answer but at least we can rule some things out.  I would love to eat normal foods again!

 Friday we went to our hospital for the lab work.  After a ridiculous wait, ridiculous miscommunication, and just ridiculous people in general.  We got the labs done.  We may have to go back and repeat them because they can only take a certain amount of blood from such a small baby and it may not have been enough to run the complete test.  We’ll hopefully get our results sometime this week and know if we need to go back.  I hope not!  They had to draw blood from a vein and it was not a fun experience. 

Then over the weekend, Ellie flared up, didn’t sleep, and fussed for about 5 hours on Sunday.  It was the longest weekend!  It didn’t even feel like a weekend. 

Sunday night Ellie decided to sleep a little longer and Monday night she slept through the night again.  She’s looked slightly better on Monday and now she looks pretty red and scaly again today. 

This week we have an appointment with an ENT who specializes in allergies.  Maybe he’ll have some other suggestions. 

I feel like we’ve just gone around and around and around and not made any progress. 

So lotions and creams and oils don’t seem to make a difference.  So not using soap, or dryer sheets, and changing detergents didn’t help.  So the pediatricians haven’t offered much helpful advice.  So the chiropractic care and acupuncture might not be helping.  So changing my diet doesn’t seem to make much of an impact. 

What is going on? 

The only answer may be “she’ll grow out of it.”  FINE!!!  But what do we do in the meantime???  Someone answer me that!