When bubble was about 3 months old he got cradle cap on his cradle cap which soon traversed his face, turned his cheeks blotchy and caused a great deal of discomfort. I approached the Maternal Health Nurse who insisted it was heat rash. Heat rash that worsened well into the cooler months of 2004.
Things seemed a little better on our 3 month visit to the U.K and the rash appeared to improve. When we returned Mat went back to work and I was eating a snack of peanut butter on celery. After licking off the peanut butter I gave bubs one of the celery sticks to chew on to soothe his erupting teeth. His eyes became watery and itchy and he got a marked rash on his face. I was quite concerned and visited the doctor for a referral to an allergy specialist. The doctor insisted I was being too hasty and that he would 'grow out of it'. Two weeks later I was back at the docs because he had developed a wheeze. The doc prescribed Ventolin.
.
Instead we took him to the Homeopath which completely removed the wheeze, it also (as the Homeopath wanted) pushed the problem back onto the surface of the skin.
Hello bright red blotches.
The boy's 2nd Birthday.
A week after their second birthday I made a chicken and sweetcorn soup with egg in it which Bubble promptly vomited up. At this point we were pretty convinced that he had allergies to peanut and egg but the doctor still claimed he would grow out of it and that waiting lists at the R.C.H were a year long so why bother.
6 months later at my 30th birthday party Bubble's lips blew up like Mick Jagger's after eating a biscuit and we made the quick-dash to the R.C.H. We had to sit around for 4 hours while the nurses observed him. I was not leaving that emergency dept without a referral letter which I was
eventually given by (very maturely) refusing to leave.
2 months later we were able to see the allergist for a skin-prick test. Bubble had histamine responses to egg, nuts, soy, grasses, dust mites, green peas and sesame. We also noticed, by keeping a diary food intolerance to some additives, sulphur, tomato and yeast.
We became accustomed to carrying the Epi-pen with us when we went out and learned how to navigate menus and food-labelling of our groceries safely. The upside was that we started cooking nearly all of our meals from scratch.
We still wonder WTF? if Bubble breaks out in hives or itches or can't sleep because we do our damned best to eliminate any suspect foods. It's tricky.
My advice for any mums out there is to trust your instincts. If it looks like shit and smells like shit, It's shit. Don't let anyone tell you it's chocolate mousse. Who cares if people think you're paranoid or OTT. You know your baby better than anyone.
The crappy part for Bubs is that the earlier a child is tested for allergies, the better the chances of growing out of them. The key is avoiding foods that trigger a response to allow the immune system to get stronger. The more a child is exposed to an allergen, the more the immune system is weakened and the more likely it is that they will become sensitive to other allergens as well.
