It happened. The egg allergy phantom that's been hovering over Megan and breathing down the back of my neck for the past two years has finally materialized. Megan's low IgG sensitivity to egg has turned into a Class 1 IgE allergy. I didn't think that could happen, but it did. And why not? Everything else seems to sneak up behind us and yell "Gotcha!" these days.
So a class 1 allergy might not sound like a big deal. But Megan's milk allergy was a Class 2 and that managed to roil her insides pretty good, so I guess a Class 1 can do some damage too. This time it's not her insides that are damaged (to my knowledge). Instead, this egg thing is giving her eczema that is not responding to treatment. When I took her to the allergist last month her poor hands were red, raw, cracked, and almost to the point of bleeding.
So I told the allergist that Hydrolatum was no longer working - I used to be able to slap it on Megan's hands and they'd heal nicely. And then he proceeded to school me on proper eczema treatment. I had no idea! So I'm sharing it in case there are others like me who are clueless about eczema too. I had thought that water was dehydrating and bad for eczema, so I kept Megan's hands nice and dry. But that was the wrong thing to do - her hands are already dehydrated and thirsty and need the water to hydrate. It's the evaporation of the water that's not good. Hydrolatum by itself won't do much, as it's supposed to seal in moisture. If there's no moisture, there's no point of using Hydrolatum. He told me how to use a wet-wrap on her hands - take a cloth, wet it, wring it out so it's damp, then wrap the affected area and leave it on for a couple of hours. Then slather on some Hydrolatum and put a cotton covering over it. In Megan's case, we use cotton socks which she calls her Kitten Mittens. She likes them, so thankfully this is not a terrible inconvenience.
Over the past two weeks while I was waiting for the results of the blood tests, Megan's eczema was responding nicely to the wet wrap treatment and her hands started to look better. And then I gave the girls hard boiled eggs over the weekend (they love them). And then Megan's eczema flared up again. Today the allergist told me it's okay to bake with eggs, but don't give Megan eggs to eat. But you know what? I'm just going to nix the eggs for a couple of months so the eczema can clear completely (and the allergist does think the eczema is related to the egg consumption). When her hands are clear, I'll start baking with eggs again to see what happens. But I've already told Megan "no more hard boiled eggs for you"! She's fine with that. What a sport.
So now I'm off to visit Gluten Free Goddess - goddess of practically all things allergen-free. She has an egg-free bread recipe that looks great, so I'm planning on giving it a try tomorrow. Wish me luck - egg-free baking is not exactly my cup of tea. But I'd rather bake egg-free for Megan than see her beautiful 4 year old hands chewed up and bleeding with eczema!
So a class 1 allergy might not sound like a big deal. But Megan's milk allergy was a Class 2 and that managed to roil her insides pretty good, so I guess a Class 1 can do some damage too. This time it's not her insides that are damaged (to my knowledge). Instead, this egg thing is giving her eczema that is not responding to treatment. When I took her to the allergist last month her poor hands were red, raw, cracked, and almost to the point of bleeding.
So I told the allergist that Hydrolatum was no longer working - I used to be able to slap it on Megan's hands and they'd heal nicely. And then he proceeded to school me on proper eczema treatment. I had no idea! So I'm sharing it in case there are others like me who are clueless about eczema too. I had thought that water was dehydrating and bad for eczema, so I kept Megan's hands nice and dry. But that was the wrong thing to do - her hands are already dehydrated and thirsty and need the water to hydrate. It's the evaporation of the water that's not good. Hydrolatum by itself won't do much, as it's supposed to seal in moisture. If there's no moisture, there's no point of using Hydrolatum. He told me how to use a wet-wrap on her hands - take a cloth, wet it, wring it out so it's damp, then wrap the affected area and leave it on for a couple of hours. Then slather on some Hydrolatum and put a cotton covering over it. In Megan's case, we use cotton socks which she calls her Kitten Mittens. She likes them, so thankfully this is not a terrible inconvenience.
Over the past two weeks while I was waiting for the results of the blood tests, Megan's eczema was responding nicely to the wet wrap treatment and her hands started to look better. And then I gave the girls hard boiled eggs over the weekend (they love them). And then Megan's eczema flared up again. Today the allergist told me it's okay to bake with eggs, but don't give Megan eggs to eat. But you know what? I'm just going to nix the eggs for a couple of months so the eczema can clear completely (and the allergist does think the eczema is related to the egg consumption). When her hands are clear, I'll start baking with eggs again to see what happens. But I've already told Megan "no more hard boiled eggs for you"! She's fine with that. What a sport.
So now I'm off to visit Gluten Free Goddess - goddess of practically all things allergen-free. She has an egg-free bread recipe that looks great, so I'm planning on giving it a try tomorrow. Wish me luck - egg-free baking is not exactly my cup of tea. But I'd rather bake egg-free for Megan than see her beautiful 4 year old hands chewed up and bleeding with eczema!
10 comments:
Ugh! I feel your pain, girl! Praying for you! --J
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Hi Erin, my best friend's 6 year old son gets eczema on his hands too.
At first they discovered it too was from eggs, peanut butter, chocolate.
They have recently discovered that any form of sugar also gives the poor guy a huge breakout on his hands. Luckily, he does not really like sweets. He is also off of all dairy products.
The vegan bread recipe from the Gluten Free Goddess is lovely - good luck with it, Ina
My son too has an egg allergy so I have had to learn tricks to revamping recipes. My favorite egg substitute is 1 package of Knox gelatin added to 1 cup boiling water. 3 Tbls of this mixture is equal to one egg. I use this in meatloaf, muffins, breads and pies and it does great. Good luck w/learning to NOT use eggs, it's not so bad most of the time.
Heather - thanks for that gelatin substitute trick, I have not tried that one yet!
Hope the little starts to feel better quick (I never thought I would be grateful my allergies usually just churn my insides until I saw my poor little nephew's cracked and bloody hands and feet!) with you nixing the eggs. It can be a pain at first - but in the end it just becomes an easy habit. Honest.
One thing - just in case? (Good chance you know this, but since I didn't and ended up with a panicking nurse because of it...) the egg allergy can cause some issues for immunizations. I can't get the flu shot, along with it making travel outta the country a pain with some of THOSE shots. No one told me, so the first I knew of it was when the cheerful nurse had already jabbed my arm and asked "Of course, you aren't allergic to eggs, right?"
15 minutes with a needle hanging out of my arm while the nice lady in scrubs had a mini-nervous breakdown when I answered in the affirmative. Dealt with in the end, but not something I want a little kid to ever have to deal with. (Heck... I was 26 and I was hard pressed not to get excited!)
Hi Jenna, thanks for the immunization reminder! I had forgotten about that. Megan won't mind not getting shots, that's for sure. The blood draw was bad enough.
Sarah has recently developed some eczema on her face. I thought it was dairy related but removing dairy hasn't caused it to go away. It still flares up. I hate that it's on her face - it looks so awful. I would hate that it's anywhere though.
I think I'm going to give the pediatrician a call and ask for a referral to an allergist.
As for the total egg removal -if there is anyone up for the job- it's you!!
Thanks, Goodfountain! Tell the truth, I have not started yet...gotta do it soon. I hope you find out the cause of Sarah's eczema soon!
Hey Erin, sorry to hear about the egg allergy but you have loads of great gluten-free recipes so I know you can handle the egg-free. I just made Karina's dark chocolate chunk cookies and oh. my. goodness. SO good.
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