Judah's Allergies & Tears in Foods for Living

We've been trying to get the bottom of Judah's skin issues for a long while now.  We've seen his pediatrician, a dermatologist, and an allergist several times over the last year JUST to talk about Judah's skin (that's a lot of $30 co-pays).  We've always been told he has baby eczema and that it will pass.  When he was a very little baby, that answer was fine for me because he would go through ebbs and flows with it; sometimes his skin would be totally clear and then he'd have a flair up for a couple of weeks. The winters were worse because it was drier out and in the summer, his skin was usually completely clear.  But for the last year, he's had bad skin the entire time, no ebb and flow. So I started to get more frustrated and asking questions.  He got his allergies tested a year ago, I probably told you, and they tested for all the regular most common allergies and he came back totally clear, but his skin still wasn't.  So after several appointments, lots of ointments and treatments later, the dermatologist agreed that we should get his allergies tested again.  

So a couple of weeks ago we did and LOTS of things came back positive.  He had some blood work done to check the food allergies because they said there are lots of false positives with those.  We finally got the blood results back Friday and all the food came back positive.  Judah is allergic to chicken, eggs, beef, soy, wheat, rice, almonds, cashews, coconut, peas, and carrots.  Yep. All legit.  So welcome to the new Hundt family: pig eating, turkey eating, wheat free, soy free, rice free, etc.  Thank GOD he's not allergic to cow's milk.  If you look back up at that list, any alternative milk product like soy milk or almond milk would be off limits too.  We definitely dogged a bullet there at least. 

I went to Foods for Living in EL Sunday and walked around that store clueless trying to find things I could buy for Judah.  Do you know how RARE it is to have something be wheat free AND rice free?!  All that gluten free crap is made with rice - rice flour, rice syrup, etc.  I literally bought ANYTHING that was free of all the stuff I needed - whew.  That was rough.  I tried not to cry in front of strangers at the store, but continuing to pick things up and then having to keep putting them down was quite discouraging.  My eyes welled up several times thinking of all Judah's favorite foods (pancakes, sweets, cereal) and how different things were going to be for a bit while we sorted this out. 

A few of my finds - Kid's gotta have some snacks! 

Getting any news that means life will be a bit tricky for your child is really difficult.  Your heart really does hurt.  I am so thankful for his resiliency, grit, and toughness - his life has not been without a few struggles and he continues to push through with a positive attitude, hard work, and improvement. He also has his completely supportive twin brother, Nolan by his side.  Nolan's compassion through this process has been a Godsend; he will even ask for us to put Judah's ointments on him too in solidarity.  I pray that support never wavers for either one of them as they grow.  

Anyway, we are cutting all these foods and then slowly introducing them back in one by one to see what his reactions actually are.  Hopefully most of them are minimal so that if he has a piece of cake every now and then, for example, it will be okay.  Keep your fingers crossed!

Tonight, we are trying corn and quinoa pasta!  Onward!