Alright, finally here I am. First I'll say that when I was pregnant with my daughter, who is going to be 3 in two months, I received The Babywhisperer books. I loved them and Googled more information on it and I found this site. My daughter was really easy with feedings and sleeping, so when I was pregnant with my son I figured he'd be the same way.
The day I came home from the hospital with him I had to put him on formula, I always have a hard time breast feeding, did the same with my daughter. For the first couple of months my son always seemed congested really bad. Runny nose, stuffy nose, sneezing ALL the time. I saw the GP and he said it's nothing. I don't quite remember when it started, but either when he was 3 or 4 months he started getting eczema which turned into dry, flaky, scaly skin on his cheeks, arms, hands, legs, and feet. Never any on his torso. The eczema was hard, like he had alligator skin. I called it the "suit of armour". His cheeks became worse and would ooze and become weepy. He also had terrible cradle cap. All this was very itchy for him and would scratch his face and head so bad he would bleed. It became bad enough that we had to sew the arms of all his sleepers down to his side so he wouldn't rub his face raw.
When I saw my GP again about the constant congestion and eczema she barely looked at him, didn't even touch him, and said, "Oh it's just dry skin, it's winter, just use lots of moisturizer." Fine, so I tried all that, nothing worked, it just got worse.
And this time I had done some research a few weeks before about eczema. Somewhere it said it could be a reaction to dairy. Somewhere I read that sometimes Nestle Goodstart works because the proteins are broken down more. I tried him on it slowly, after 3 days his eczema was starting to get a bit better, and so was his cradle cap. BUT he was so CRANKY and FUSSY. He was gassy and his tummy rumbled like crazy. He had bad diarrhea on it as well. I couldn't stand to put him through this, so after 3 days I put him back on his old formula and the eczema came back. I found the allergy section of this board and was reading a lot about MSPI, so I got some info.
My son was now 6 months old, time to start solids right? I tried rice, but he hated the taste. After one bite he refused to open his mouth. So I thought I'd try oatmeal. My son took right to it, loved it, probably had about 1 TBSP worth. 2 hours later he was vomiting like crazy, pale as snow, cold and clammy, lethargic, and then terrible diarrhea. 1 week later I thought I'd try a different cereal, here comes the barley... same reaction. So I had another reason to see the doctor. I made an appt.
The doctor finally agreed that he had eczema and prescribed a steroid cream, but insisted that it wasn't formula related, that it was to do with winter, but she said to try the steroid cream for 2 weeks, and if nothing changes she'll refer me to a ped. In regards to his reaction to oats and barley she said, "He'll grow out of it, try again in a few weeks." I was tired of all this and switched doctors. That took about 2 months.
I had an appt for my new doc in 2 weeks, but then I had accidentally fed my son some jarred breakfast food that had oatbran in it. He hated it and only took 1/4 of tsp. Didn't matter, 2 hours later he was vomiting and all those other symptoms. I called the doc that day and I got in to see him. By the time I saw him my son was much better, but before I said anything about his eczema he said, "Wow, I think it's a reaction to the formula." I wanted to literally hug and kiss him. I was so happy a doc saw that something wasn't right. He got me in to see a ped right away.
The ped was a letdown. He said the same as my previous doc. That his eczema and congestion were not related to the formula, that it was winter, to use lots of lotion, and by summer it will go away. He said that because my son's eczema wasn't severe it wasn't an issue. I said, "It's not severe right now because I've been using the steroid cream daily which diminishes his eczema by about 85%". HE said, "I'm not ignoring the issue, I just don't think it's the formula." Then he proceeded to tell me he just has a sensitive tummy, in regards to the oats and barley, and to try him again on it in a few months. Whatever, I was so mad.
I went back to my new GP, and told him the situation. He didn't believe him, but he himself knew nothing about any of this. He suggested goats milk. I did and there was no change. I found on the boards here about Rice milk. Thought I'd give it a shot, he was about 10 months now. Within 3 days his eczema on his face was GONE. He actually had baby skin. Took about 3 more weeks and the eczema completely disappeared, and so did his congestion. I saw my doc. He was really impressed and when asked where I thought of this I told him about this site. He was happy and referred me to a Pediatric Dietitian at the hospital. When I saw her she knew of my Ped, she said, "Yeah, he doesn't believe in Intolerances." Like seriously, no wonder he was the way he was.
She prescribed Alimentum, but his eczema came back on that. So she prescribed Neocate, and he does awesome on that. She also got me referred to the IWK Children's Hospital to see the head of the Allergy department. We just went 3 weeks ago. Found out he's also allergic to eggs and has an epi-pen for that. He is also diagnosed with FPIES for his reactions to oats and barley, it's like an allergy basically. They think he'll outgrow all of this. He had the skin prick test, and we are still waiting for the results of the blood work.
I'm so thankful for these boards, it helped me to figure out what was possibly wrong with my son and gave me options when I felt like no doctor was listening to me. And FINALLY they are listening to me. Took a year, but finally we got answers. My instincts were right all along, I fought to be heard, did tons of research, and finally got where I wanted to get MONTHS ago. I'm glad all that is over. And I'm extremely happy to have my happy son. Who knew he was such a happy baby, he was always cranky, fussy, tired, and in such discomfort. I'm glad he doesn't have to suffer anymore.