Allergy Alert

Where to start????

 

We have had a crazy fortnight with the children. We took Toto to the doctor to find out where to begin looking at intolerances and allergies, and were referred to the same specialist Cupcake has been seeing at the Specialist Centre in St Heliars Bay.

 

Pretty straightforward, right? Ring the specialists, make an appointment, wait for the appointment, attend the appointment and get some answers. Right?

 

A few days later, Plunket visits to look at Toto and asks what weight Tinkerbell currently is. The children all started to plateau in their growth at approximately 9 months so we look at her old growth charts to get a view on what to expect for him. Hang on a second, you said she was 11.4kg?? But last time we weighed her 5 months ago she was 11.9kg. Oh dear....

 

Another doctors appointment made (happening tomorrow).

 

To make a long story short, we visited the specialist for Toto and certainly got some answers.

 

Toto

 

 

Toto is officially intolerant to oatmeal. Because his reactions are delayed and a skin prick test came back completely negative, the specialist does not think there will be allergies. He has a 7% chance of having the same allergies as Cupcake. So the way that we will go forward is to give him a piece of bread (causes eczema around Toto's mouth within the hour) every day. Hopefully that will help him become more tolerant of wheat/gluten. We are to avoid oats and start introducing him to egg, peanut butter and other high allergen food ASAP as per latest research findings.

 

 

Tinkerbell

 

 

Upon being asked whether Tinkerbell had shown any allergies, we mentioned the really horrible nappies she has experienced since having a 6 week bout of runny tummy when she was 15 months old. And the important fact that she also experiences this after consuming even small amounts of milk. The specialist confirmed that this could be her body having a learned lactose intolerance from that bout of sickness. But. Big but. I hate big buts. A lot of her symptoms are also signs of celiacs disease so we are to ask to have her skin prick tested, RAST tested, and also screened for celiacs. In the meantime? Take her off milk immediately. See if that helps. And get to the doctor.

 

 

Cupcake

 

 

So how is Cupcake going? I asked if I could please have the email of the immunologist who we saw at Starship Hospital. Why, can I help you, she asked? So I explained the long doses of antibiotics we've had her on and the struggle to keep her staph infections at bay. Apparently it shouldn't be returning so quickly. Really?? So we need to get her nose swabbed to figure out if THAT is what is causing the infection to continue. Certainly the easiest outcome.

 

 

Wow. A lot of things to get through in my busy little mind!

 

Can you see why things have been so quiet lately!!

 

Look out, dear readers, as I've got a lot to catch you up on what we've been doing!!