Owen was born via a VBAC in May 2010. He was a healthy baby but had rough patches of skin from birth. He always had a very red neck but I thought it was due to constantly being wet with drool. I nursed and formula fed for 6 months then just formula fed. We tried different skin creams but nothing really changed his skin. I was told over and over at his well checks that he probably had eczema and would just outgrow it. I could use hydrocortisone on areas that were red.
This picture is Owen at about 9 months. You can see the red splotches on his cheeks. I wish I had just left them alone. We noticed worse symptoms as we started introducing new foods and quit breastfeeding. By 10 months he was covered in a rash and we were not satisfied with just waiting until he outgrew this so we went to a functional medicine doctor. This was the first time that we really started to hear about food sensitivities and leaky gut. It was recommended that we cut out wheat and switch to goat’s milk. We were given probiotics to start to heal his gut flora and fish oils to help with his inflammation. The switch to goat milk from formula caused another rash from head to toe so we cut that and switched to coconut milk. These are pictures of his rash from the goat’s milk.
His skin improved slightly when we cut out dairy. At his 1 year appointment in May of 2011, it was recommended that we see an allergist and we were given a prescription to triamcinolone. He was tested for food allergies with a blood test and it was determined that he was allergic to dairy, nuts, corn, wheat, strawberries and kiwis. From 1-2 years old we tried to eliminate his offending foods and found that if he did eat something he would get itchy feet and fingers. We really had things to a manageable place by correcting his diet and using steroid creams. Right before Owen’s second birthday, in April of 2012, he developed a horrible rash all over his body right as the weather outside turned to spring. Our allergist recommend oral prednisone as she feared he would develop a staph infection from scratching his rash. At the time I was pregnant with our 3 baby and due the next week. We also have a son 2 years older than Owen . We went with our doctor’s suggestion and Owen took the prednisone. His skin has never looked better than the 2 weeks he was taking prednisone. Here are pictures of the day we went into the allergist and one from one week on oral steriods. His skin cleared immediately. 
That summer of 2012 he seemed to be allergic to everything outside, grass, molds, pollen, etc. He developed congestion, itchy eyes to add to his itchy skin. His eyes were always swollen and he just seemed so uncomfortable. We tried different antihistamines and initially had some success while taking Zyrtec. We were told to come back to the allergist in the fall after allergy season had ended to get tested for environment allergens. He of course tested positive to everything he was tested for, grasses, molds, pollens, dust mites and a whole new list of foods. We saw another allergist at this time as well to get a second opinion and they basically were at a point where they said there was nothing more they could do for us as he just seemed to young to start immunotherapy shots. The allergist prescribed Flonase and Singulair for congestion. I started to research immunotherapy and found that some people have had success with sublingual drops with severe allergies like he has. The closest and best allergist who offered this to us were located in LaCrosse, WI. His history will be continued in part 2.
Life's An Itch 