Eczema and allergies | Lolo’s allergy drop journey

Lolo’s allergy journey started when she was about 3 months old. She had terrible eczema. She woke up about 8-10 times per night. She had scratches all over her face — rashes on her head, face, chest, arms, legs, and torso. We had tried ALL of the eczema lotions and potions and no perfumes and no chemicals…you name it, we tried it. She was on and off oral steroids and on topical steroid creams to keep the flare-ups at bay.

At her 6 month appointment, her nurse practitioner suggested a blood test to look for food allergies. I was stunned. I am an RN and I was NOT expecting that. Nobody in our family has allergies — cousins, grandparents — nobody. The results came back and it was true, Lolo had peanut and almond allergy. I immediately cut out all nuts from my diet (I was nursing Lolo). But there was little to no improvement in her skin. I was exhausted.

As a mother, it was SO hard to see our first born suffering in her own skin. I remember crying at night — pleading with God to help me find an answer for our beautiful baby. I poured over blogs, allergy research articles, talked with fellow mothers who had eczema/allergy babies.

When she was just over a year old, I stumbled over the needle in the hay stack that I was desperate for. She was also sensitive to the latex food group (specifically bananas). Her skin immediately improved, but her eczema never really disappeared. We were still using topical steroids more than we wanted to. Lolo was also having more and more trouble with severe yeast infections causing contact dermatitis on her inner thighs which was very painful for her. So we were adding more oral and topical medications to treat those infections.

Lolo (5) gets dressed up since it’s an exciting day to see how she is doing with her allergies.

When Lolo was about 2 years old, we decided to go to our local osteopath doctor and ‘alternative’ clinic and I walked away overwhelmed with a sugar, gluten, dairy, egg (and of course nut) free diet. We had also started going to our local allergist who was doing periodic skin tests. That year we heard about Allergy Associates of La Crosse. It was worth a shot. We wanted to decrease all the medications, stop chasing symptoms and start getting real answers.

At our first appointment, Dr. Mary Morris said Lolo’s allergies were actually worsening and she was also developing new allergies. Statistically, Lolo would likely develop asthma in the future. She had a systemic yeast infection, causing her chronic infections. Dr. Mary also told us that a peanut allergy is the hardest allergy to outgrow. With sublingual immunotherapy, we could, potentially reverse this course. It wasn’t a hard decision for my husband and I to make. We were willing to take a chance in the hopes that we could dramatically improve Lolo’s quality of life for the long term.

Just before Lolo’s 3rd birthday, we started allergy drops. She is about to turn 6 this fall (2017) and enter Kindergarten!!! We send her with no hesitations of an allergic reaction. She is currently on the highest concentrated dose of her food allergy drops. If her blood work continues to trend as it has, we eagerly anticipate having her food allergy oral challenge test on her next visit! We hope in another year or so that her environmental allergies (dust mites, mold, ragweed, grass) will also be complete. Additionally, the yeast infections that had become far too common, have virtually disappeared (this is also being treated through her drops).

We would recommend Allergy Associates and Dr. Mary in a heartbeat. We are thrilled with the results over the last 3 years! We look forward to celebrating in the near future — an allergy free child! A true miracle.

Our deepest gratitude to Dr. Mary and the staff,

Eric, Christie, and Lolo