Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Lucca's Story


If you are a parent of a baby who’s suffering from eczema, please read our story!

In July of 2008, my beautiful son was born. We named him Lucca after a town in Italy.
When he was born, he was a healthy and happy baby. Little did I know that he would have months and months of sleepless nights ahead and suffer from the dreadful skin condition: eczema.

Looking at old pictures of Lucca, my heart is filled with sadness and melancholy. That is why I decided to create this blog in the hope that it might help other parents out there who are looking for answers.

As of yet, there is no cure for eczema but there are things you can do alleviate the triggers.

When my son was about 3 months old, I started seeing little patches of rashes on his cheeks and on the inside of this elbow and ankles. As the months progressed, it got increasingly worse. The eczema on his face got so bad that it looked as red as a ripe tomato and the skin on his cheeks were extremely dry and caked with layers of little bumps that oozed liquid. Very quickly, it spread to the rest of his body. Eczema was a constant thing but on occasion, he would also break out in hives from head to toe within a matter of seconds. By 7 months, his whole body was covered in red patches. Undoubtedly, this caused him great discomfort. He was very limited in the clothes he could wear (only lose and cotton), he was also kept indoors most of the time with the air conditioning blasting to keep him from overheating.

There were many nights where Lucca was unable to sleep because he was itching and uncomfortable. He would just lay there scratching and whimpering. And I would hold him in my arms and cry silently because there was nothing else I could do to ease my baby’s suffering. I was brokenhearted and sad beyond words.

When we went to see his pediatrician, she said that it was a simple case of eczema and it was common for babies to have it.
She told me to put Aquaphor on his skin day and night and that he would outgrow it by the age of 4-5. She also prescribed cortisone creams and oral antihistamines (Hydroxyzine). Well, I was so desperate for my baby to have relief, I treated him with the cortisone which helped him a little and gave him the antihistamine which relieved the itching, but made him groggy and irritable.
On the nights when he had severe flare ups, I would give him Hydroxyzine to help him sleep. Though the Hydroxyzine helped him sleep, it made him whimper and cry in his sleep and also made him groggy the whole day after.

I was dissatisfied with this treatment because he was still getting flare ups everyday. I could not for the life of me figure out why he was still getting flare ups on a daily basis. I did everything the doctors told me to do including: washing his clothes in mild fragrance free laundry detergent, having a humidifier in the house, vacuuming every single day, and of course, putting on TONS of heavy moisturizers (literally 12 times a day and about 3 times during the course of the night). We also tried every single cream on the market. I mean EVERY SINGLE CREAM. Nothing helped and I was in complete despair.

We even tried seeing a Chinese herbalist who put both Lucca and I on herbs that smelled like dirt and tasted even worse. Lucca had to take the herbs, diluted with water 3 times a day. The herbs were so bitter I wondered how he could drink it, but he drank it and it helped. The herbs certainly helped with the itching, but again, the flare ups were still constant. Due to the fact that I was still nursing, I was told by the Chinese doctor to avoid eating heating foods such as beef, ginger, and any kind of spices. For that reason, I ate steamed chicken with vegetables and tofu for what seemed an eternity.

Every night after Lucca went to bed, I would immediately jump on the computer and do research on eczema. I might possibly have read every article or blog there was on eczema. I joined the support groups and got even more depressed by hearing other parents with stories similar to mine.

Finally, I stumbled upon a blog written by a mom who said that her son’s eczema was caused by a food allergy. The light bulb went off inside my head when I read that blog because that is what I had suspected with Lucca.
Though when I asked the doctors if it was a possibility that he might be reacting to a food allergy, both the doctors firmly said “no”. The Chinese doctor delicately implied that it was all my fault because I was eating too many heating foods and the Western doctor said his eczema was due to external factors (animal dander, dust mites, dry skin, changes in temperature, etc.)

Nevertheless, I had to know. We had done everything that the books and doctors suggested doing and getting a blood test to determine if food allergies might be the cause was the only avenue we hadn’t taken.

When we finally got the referral for an allergist from our pediatrician, I was elated. We went in and got the blood test called RAST (radioallergosorbent). RAST measures the levels of allergy antibody, IgE, produced when your blood is mixed with a series of allergens in a laboratory. If you are allergic to a substance, the IgE levels may increase in the blood sample.

Two weeks later the results came in and Lucca tested positive for wheat, eggs and dairy allergy. The allergist told me to immediately cut wheat, eggs and dairy out of Lucca’s diet and my diet as well as I was still breastfeeding. He also gave us information on which foods he could eat to substitute for wheat, eggs and dairy. The results made so much sense to me because I was eating wheat, eggs and dairy everyday!

I must say that it was quite upsetting at first because I thought to myself, “okay…no more wheat, dairy or eggs. Now what the heck are we going to eat?”. I even went through a bout of depression thinking that Lucca will not have a normal childhood due to his food allergies. On the contrary, I couldn’t have been more wrong!

Again, I combed the internet for answers. There are tons of books/cookbooks out there on food allergies.

These three are my favorite:

1. The Parent’s Guide to Food Allergies – Marianne S. Barber
2. The Whole Foods Allergy Cookbook – Cybele Pascal
3. Sophie-Safe Cooking – Emily Hendrix

It’s been about 2 1/2 months now and I am thrilled to say that Lucca is 99% better. He does not have any more flare ups, and if he does it is so mild that I barely even notice it. His skin completely cleared up from within and luckily, he has no scars. I only wish that I had known a lot sooner!

Lucca will be 1 in just a few days. We are going to have a big party for him and I am so happy to know that he can wear short sleeves and shorts and his skin will be clear and he’ll look perfect in every single picture. I am ecstatic that my little baby can finally be a “normal” baby.

I hope that our story will be of some help to you!