Ever since I stopped breastfeeding Zach (at 6 months old) he has had some serious eczema. The worst was on his face when he was a baby. He was on a milk based formula and after switching to a soy formula he was better. Not great, but better. He stayed on that until he was one and we tried whole milk with him. He threw up right away. The nurse told me to introduce it slower. So, every week we would increase the whole milk by 1oz. It took a whole month to get him completely on whole milk. His eczema continued until he was 2 and than just disappeared. Every once in a while it would come back but that was mostly with the change in seasons. It began to really come back about February and by April it was the worst I have ever seen it. He was so uncomfortable and always itching. I felt like a bad mom because I couldn't help him.
When Zach was about 2 he had a few episodes of having a hard time breathing. The first time he was put on a liquid medicine to help, but when it happened again a few weeks later they put him on a nebulizer. The past few years he has only needed his neb a few times during the winter. This last year he has needed his neb more than all the other times put together. He would do this gasping thing and scare the crap out of me!!
Lucas has also had some eczema issues, but not as bad as Zach. Luke gets it mostly on his back with a few patches on his stomach. Luke's comes and goes. I was told by our dr. to make sure and only give him a bath 1 or 2 times a week, which is what I have been doing. Well, that is what I did when he was an infant. Now that he is crawling around he gets a bath every other day. Zach too!!
So, I have been thinking there is something just not right with Zach mostly. I am not talking developmentally or anything, but physically. He has bags under his eyes like he hasn't been getting enough sleep though I know he has. His eczema has gotten so much worse and for a while now he has had dry skin all around his eyes and down his nose. Just doesn't seem normal. In my gut I felt like something just wasn't right.
During the week I watch a little girl (Chloe). I had brought all of this up to her mom one day. She said it sounded just like what she had been dealing with a few years ago. Her symptoms had been worse though. I asked what she had done about it. She told me that she tried to get allergy testing done with no end insight. The doctors kept telling her there was nothing wrong with her and to just deal with the symptoms. Kinda what Zach's doctor has been saying this whole time. In not so many words. Chloe's mom said she had actually been to a chiropractor who had helped her figure out she was sensitive to gluten and some other things too. She explained this test (nutrition response test) that her chiropractor did on her and I was so sceptical. It sounded ridiculous! BUT, at this point I was becoming desperate to figure out what was going on with Zach. I had looked into allergy testing which would cost around one thousand dollars just for the first visit. Our insurance company said we would have to pay our co-pay and all the lab work. Well, I am pretty sure that would be almost the entire visit. We just couldn't afford that. I thought maybe getting looked at by a chiropractor was our next best option. I looked into it and found out a nutrition response test would run about $40. That we could afford.
So, I took the boys to a chiropractor in Edina. I was a little nervous at first and even thought about cancelling the appointment. A friend of mine had warned me to be careful and that she had done some research and found out that sometime these things can be spiritual and not in a good way. I promised myself that if things felt wierd in anyway that I would leave. I didn't want to put my own religious beliefs aside just to have the boys tested. If it came down to it I would just let things be and hope it worked out on it's own.
The day for the test came. I brought the boys into the chiropractor and we sat in the back room while wating. Zach and Luke played on the floor with toys while the chiropractor and I talked about the boys and what has been going on the past few years mostly with Zach. She tested Luke first. He sat on my lap while the dr. put viales of different things (gluten, dairy, kiwi, potato etc) on his forehead. While doing that she was also putting constant downward pressure on my arm. There were a few times she would push down on my arm and I didn't have the strength to keep my arm raised. I tried and tried to keep my arm up and I just couldn't. The rest of the time I was able to keep it at shoulder height with no problems. Luke tested sensitive to broccoli and gluten. Zach tested sensitive to gluten and dairy.
Now I knew what the problem was, but what do I do now??
No comments:
Post a Comment