Rachel's skin

WARNING: this is a long post

Since Rachel was 2 months old we've had problems with her skin , especially her face. A majority of the time we'd see this:

A round area on her cheek next to both ears that is red, dry, and often itchy. We tried a laundry list of things to remedy it:

Washing ALL our clothes in Dreft baby detergent

A humidifier in Rachel’s room

Using Cetaphil cleanser instead of soap

Applying many lotions, ointments, and creams (Baby Aquaphor, Cetaphil lotion, Eucerin calming cream, Vasoline, and Vanicream)

Excluding milk from my diet since I breastfeed.

Nothing resolved the issue. (The only thing that helped was a prescription corticosteroid cream, Elocon, which I did not want to use on her face daily).

Then her face flared up worse than we had ever seen it.

We had called her pediatrician the day earlier to see if we should see a dermatologist. The nurse called back the next day to say the doctor indeed wanted to refer her to a dermatologist, but it will take 7-10 days for the referral.

7-10 Days!!! For a referral to find out who we can to see!?!?

I didn’t like that answer.

The explanation: "Well, we need to check with your insurance and get it approved.”

7-10 days wasn’t going to cut it. I then called the office's referral center. I told them my daughter need to get a referral to see a dermatologist. They explained they are behind and it’ll take 7-10 business days before they get to her and will have a referral.

"Is there anything I can do to speed up the process???”

The lady told me to hold on a minute she looked up my insurance information. Thirty seconds later she said to call Dr. ____ to set up an appointment.
That was much better. Thirty seconds for a referral was a lot better than 7-10 days.
I called the dermatologist and they told me their next new patient opening was not until July.

JULY?!?! REALLY?!?
If we can't wait 7-10 days, how can we wait 3 months?

Then they told me to hold on a minute. I waited a minute and she said, "I can get you an appointment in 2 weeks." Well, 2 weeks is better than 3 months, so I set up the appointment.

I called my insurance (we’ve only had them since Jan). They said we don’t need referrals. We can see whoever whenever. But if we choose in network it is cheaper.

I decided to try and find an in network dermatologist that could see Rachel earlier. After a couple phone calls I found a dermatologist that could see her in 4 days. Four days is better than 2 weeks, so I took it.

Jeff and I did a brainstorming session. The best we’ve seen Rachel’s face in the past couple months was the last day of our trip in Utah. What was different there that helped her skin? Utah isn’t a moist, tropical rainforest. But we decided to invest in a whole house humidifier anyways to see if it would help. Then we contemplated the food/allergy option. I was doing my no milk trial prior to our trip to Utah. But once we were in Utah I had milk with my cereal, ice cream with my cake, cheese on my pizza, etc. After eating milk all week her face looked good. It definitely wasn’t the milk.

Jeff pulled out a container of peanuts to snack on while we brainstormed. Peanuts! That’s one of the top 8 food allergens. If milk proteins could be passed through breast milk and cause rash/eczema, could peanuts? I’ve read many websites about eczema over the past couple months. Most just refer to milk if an allergen is involved. Several point out that eczema is most likely not due to a food allergy and deter you from heading down that path. But I’m willing to try almost anything to help my sweet baby’s face. Since I knew we didn’t need a referral from our doctor I called an allergist and set up an appointment to see him.

So I went on a no nut trial…..so much easier than a no milk trial. I began it Friday. By the next Tuesday Rachel’s skin had improved drastically. Her skin was better than I’ve seen in months.

Tuesday was our much anticipated dermatologist appointment. At our appointment we explained this is the best we’ve seen her skin in months and showed him pictures of what her skin normally looks like and pictures of her flare ups. The doctor was not impressed. He said she just has chapped skin due to moisture and friction. She drools and slobbers and rubs it around her face, irritating her cheeks. Her face also rubs on people’s clothes and other surfaces. Nothing more than dry/chapped skin. He didn’t feel like it was an allergy, just chapped cheeks. We weren't that satisfied with our appointment. We wanted more answers.

The next day I took Rachel to the allergist. Although the dermatologist disagreed, I personally felt her eczema could still be an allergy. Rachel’s face still looked amazingly good.

I was much more satisfied with my appointment with the allergist. He listened, had a funny sense of humor, and was very caring. They did a skin prick test on Rachel's back. My little sweetheart didn't even cry! The nurses were surprised. The results????

Rachel's allergic to eggs!!!!

The doctor said to lay off the eggs and see if that helps. She had only a mild reaction to peanuts. The doctor classified the reaction as "clinically insignificant". The nurse explained that with the peanuts it can't really be determined if her body is sensitive to that food. Often you just have to do an oral challenge and see if she reacts to it. Since her skin had improved drastically when I cut peanuts/nuts out of my diet, I thought I better continue my no nut diet.

Since I cut eggs and peanuts out of my diet we have seen beautiful skin on Rachel's little face (the round, red patch next to her ears has faded).

Her skin hasn't been perfect, and she has had a couple small flareups and still battles with dry skin, but her skin is in a much healthier place since I cut eggs and peanuts from my diet. So far I've tried to add a little egg to my diet to see if she'll tolerate it. I had some yummy All American Fudge Cake from Costo, which has eggs in it. Unfortunately, she started to get a little rash on her cheeks near her ears. I guess not even a little egg will work. In a few weeks I think I'll eat a couple peanuts to see if she reacts and confirm my suspicion.

Prognosis: up to 80% of children will grow out of an egg allergy by the age of 5, so we are hopeful. As far as peanuts, since her reaction on the skin test was really mild, I'm hoping that won't be a lifelong allergy. Although most people don't grow out of a peanut allergy. I think it'll be awhile before we feed her any peanuts or eggs.