My youngest had some allergy testing done recently on her back as you can see in the picture. She cried when they put the panels on her back, but otherwise remained her regular cheery self! She is really such a champ with all the doctors she sees, and generally charms the socks off the nurses with her conversation, big eyes and smiles.
Anyway, it turns out she is allergic to many things - more than what is normal for other 2 year olds. So much so that the doctor was blown away and he is an allergy/asthma doc who specializes in 2 year olds. She's allergic to many trees, grasses, molds, cats (not dogs!), and dust mites & their poop. Thankfully foods don't seem to be on the list. So, one of the things he recommended for her was allergy shots, which is a long term (3-5 year) commitment, but should hopefully help to dissipate them over time.
We weren't really sure about doing them since it is such a big commitment and initially it means going once or twice a week for quite a while and eventually tapers down to once a month. Normally they like to wait until kids are around 5 to do this, but because she has been so sick the doc thinks it's a good idea. In the past year she has been hospitalized once, been taken to the ER at least 3 times, had countless regular doctor visits, been on antibiotics numerous times and been on oral steroids around 6 times (which are damaging to internal organs if taken too much, and 6 times is too much). So, the goal here is to minimize all of that and prevent any bad asthma attacks, which are probably at least partially related to the allergies.
Additionally, we are going to get rid of the carpeting upstairs (major breeding ground for dust mites), stop using fans, wash ALL her bedding and stuffed animals more often, and we have a hepa filter in her room. Hopefully all this will help because having a baby who can't breathe just plain sucks. She also takes a steroid through a nebulizer twice a day as a preventative measure which is much safer than the liquid medicine since it just goes directly to the lungs rather than throughout the whole body.
I also had a skin test done, and turns out I'm allergic to a bunch of trees, grasses, molds, cats AND dogs! I knew I was allergic to cats, but dogs?? Really?? I've never had a problem and I had a dog growing up. Oh well. Anyway, since I'm allergic to one thing or another that peaks year round (and we live in Houston which is a hot, humid breeding ground for everything), they recommended shots for me as well.
While I'm not (nor have I ever been) nearly as bad as my youngest, I will probably do it as well and then we can do it together. I think I need to have my other daughter tested (because I think she's got some allergies as well) so that we can all happily go get shots together for the next five years. Doesn't that sound fun? I guess if it ends all the nights filled with coughing, breathing treatments, inhalers, doctor visits and everything else it's worth it. I guess we'll see.
My conclusion from all of this is allergies and asthma suck. Just plain suck. And, tha
Anyway, it turns out she is allergic to many things - more than what is normal for other 2 year olds. So much so that the doctor was blown away and he is an allergy/asthma doc who specializes in 2 year olds. She's allergic to many trees, grasses, molds, cats (not dogs!), and dust mites & their poop. Thankfully foods don't seem to be on the list. So, one of the things he recommended for her was allergy shots, which is a long term (3-5 year) commitment, but should hopefully help to dissipate them over time.
We weren't really sure about doing them since it is such a big commitment and initially it means going once or twice a week for quite a while and eventually tapers down to once a month. Normally they like to wait until kids are around 5 to do this, but because she has been so sick the doc thinks it's a good idea. In the past year she has been hospitalized once, been taken to the ER at least 3 times, had countless regular doctor visits, been on antibiotics numerous times and been on oral steroids around 6 times (which are damaging to internal organs if taken too much, and 6 times is too much). So, the goal here is to minimize all of that and prevent any bad asthma attacks, which are probably at least partially related to the allergies.
Additionally, we are going to get rid of the carpeting upstairs (major breeding ground for dust mites), stop using fans, wash ALL her bedding and stuffed animals more often, and we have a hepa filter in her room. Hopefully all this will help because having a baby who can't breathe just plain sucks. She also takes a steroid through a nebulizer twice a day as a preventative measure which is much safer than the liquid medicine since it just goes directly to the lungs rather than throughout the whole body.
I also had a skin test done, and turns out I'm allergic to a bunch of trees, grasses, molds, cats AND dogs! I knew I was allergic to cats, but dogs?? Really?? I've never had a problem and I had a dog growing up. Oh well. Anyway, since I'm allergic to one thing or another that peaks year round (and we live in Houston which is a hot, humid breeding ground for everything), they recommended shots for me as well.
While I'm not (nor have I ever been) nearly as bad as my youngest, I will probably do it as well and then we can do it together. I think I need to have my other daughter tested (because I think she's got some allergies as well) so that we can all happily go get shots together for the next five years. Doesn't that sound fun? I guess if it ends all the nights filled with coughing, breathing treatments, inhalers, doctor visits and everything else it's worth it. I guess we'll see.
My conclusion from all of this is allergies and asthma suck. Just plain suck. And, tha
RSS Feed
