Thursday, February 14, 2008

I don't think I ever posted about this originally, but a month or so ago (well actually before Christmas) Luke started getting hives and breaking out. The only thing that appeared to be different was that he had started eating wheat, so 4 weeks ago we went to see the doctor and they suspected a food allergy or possibly celiacs disease. 2 weeks ago we had blood tests done (for the 5 major allergens) and we went back this week for a follow up.

Yesterday I took Luke back to the doctor...they had called earlier this week to say that test results are "inconclusive". So just to prove the point, we fed him wheat yesterday morning before the appointment and he broke out (it was just so so when we were at the office, now he is BRIGHT RED all over his face again!)...Even with the mild reaction he was exhibititing in her office (2 hrs after eating), she agrees that there is definitely something going on so she said NO WHEAT until he is 15 months and then we will challenge him again (also no milk since Em was allergic to that) and if he reacts then she will diagnose him with celiacs (apparently of the 9% of kids get that get inconclusive results, 76% end up having celiacs or some such nonsense)...so we have 5 more months of no gluten! She said the great thing is that since kids bodies change so much before 2 years old, it may just be a phase and that by 15 months he won't react any......

Oh and little man has an ear infection (RAGING was the word she used) so he is on antibiotics...she said they only prescribe antibiotics to babies under a year for ear infections, they don't use them in our practice for older kids. She even told me we could wait it out, but since he hasn't been sleeping well at all, I opted to give them a try.

Great news is that he gained a whole pound since our first visit last month, so he is growing great. She said that that is one of the things that makes her still think it could be celiacs, that he actually gained weight QUICKLY for the first time since birth when I took him off of the wheat. Apparently he was at 90% at birth for weight, 75% at his 2 week check up and slipped off the chart completely at 4 months and is now just below 10%. We go back in 4 weeks for an ear recheck.

Because of his skin reaction, she has diagnosed him with excema, not sure what that means long term, just that his skin reacts to other things that are going on with him I guess.

1 comment:

Heather said...

We took our son off gluten a couple of months ago with wonderful results. Good luck!