Evan's eczema: An update

The past two weeks have been intense trying to heal Evan's eczema and get to the root of the problem.  After a visit to the dermatologist two weeks ago and a $55 prescription oil later (yes, I'm still bitter about that), things are improving.

We had a follow-up appointment at the dermatologist a week ago today and were told that our game plan is to simply make him comfortable.  That the prescriptions he would need to clear it up completely are too aggressive for his age since the steroids in them could stunt his growth.  I like this game plan.  I'm not about to lather him up with things that could make things even worse in the long run.

Since I wasn't getting much of an explanation for why things had gotten so bad with his skin, I was referred to an allergist.  This Monday I burned through a sick day to take Evan to a highly recommended allergist and was told that we would be there for two hours and to expect blood work and a scratch test to be done.  We were in and out in 45 minutes.  No joke.

She agreed that he has a milk protein intolerance.  She reminded me that this MPI does not mean he has a true allergy to milk.  She asked a million questions about our family health history and details on our environmental situation, like was our basement finished.  She decided to perform a scratch test for dogs (thanks, Bailey!) and milk.  Five painfully uncomfortable minutes later he showed negative for both.  Thank God.  Can you imagine that situation if he showed positive for dogs?

Her conclusion is that he is more than likely inheriting eczema from me (although, mine is not like his at all).  I can try to put him on a soy formula to see how he does.  Now here comes the crazy part.  She told me to bathe him for 45 minutes until his skin is like a prune (complete opposite from the dermatologist's advice of 5 minutes or less), put a medicated cream on (different prescription), then....put on WET pajamas followed by warm, dry pajamas so that it locks in the moisture.  Ummm...no thank you.  It's December.  The dry pajamas wouldn't stay dry when they're on top of something wet.  Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out...

All in all, I'm glad we went to rule out a lot of things I had been worried about.  But, to be honest, now I feel conflicted about whether to take the dermatologist's skin care advice or the allergist's.  And, quite frankly, I feel like the day off of work could have been avoided since it ended up taking 45 minutes.

Long story short, we stuck with the fancy DermaSmoothe oil prescription route since it's cleared a lot of the areas up and we'll try the soy formula after his next well-visit appointment in two weeks.  Never a dull moment here.

Waste of a day off or not, I enjoyed my extra time with Evan on Monday.  We went Christmas shopping, made crockpot mac and cheese, made my smoked sausages for my Work Potluck Luncheon, and had lots of snuggles.