Allergy Update

Summer's head is still doing so much better since we removed dairy from her diet completely.  I decided to change our allergist appointment to the other doctor in the practice.  He was recommended quite highly from some members of my multiples club.  We saw him last month and he was quite impressed with her progress and that I stuck with my gut and cut out the dairy when the prescription shampoo didn't work. He agreed to allergy test her so we did on Wednesday while I was out of work recovering from my surgery.  He tested her for several other common allergens while we were going through the test.  She had to be off of her Zyrtec for 5 days prior, so her nose was deliciously goopy by the day of her test!
It turns out that she did not react to the milk or anything else that they tested except for a dog... which we DON'T have.  This of course does not disprove that she has a milk allergy.  Our course of action now is to start reintroducing milk products and seeing if the reaction recurs.  We are starting to allow foods that have milk ingredients cooked into them (ex: waffles, crackers, baked goods).  She is a bit confused by this right now, but the first thing she requested when I told her she could have things with some milk in them, (but still no actual milk or cheese) was chocolate!  That's my girl!
More updates to come I'm sure

As a side note, I must tell you what happened while we waited for an hour in the waiting room to be seen.  There was a small play room in the waiting room and Summer had I sat inside because she could not be away from me.  She gets very shy in crowded places.  She was nicely playing by herself with a set of nesting boxes.  Stacking a tower as she figured out the proper size order.  A girl that I would estimate to be 1-2 years older than Summer came right in and grabbed the boxes out of Summer's hand in an effort to "play" with her I guess. Summer attempted to continue playing with her, but the girl continued to be rough and Summer came back to sit by me.  The little girl undeterred, came and attempted to pull Summer by the arm back to the nesting blocks. Summer was not very happy about this, but remained calm.  I nicely let the little girl know that it isn't nice to be pulling Summer and that she didn't want to play.  And then finally her mother wondered in from the rest room.  I did feel bad for the mother as she was expected and seemed to have quite the cold, but not sure that excuses the behavior or that you left your child alone and did not take her to the rest room with you.  However, I admit that I'm kind of of freak about this and would never had left them unattended in the waiting room. 
Anyway to the point of this story.... if you've followed the Summer saga at all you will not the lack of reaction here.  For whatever reason, she did not lose her temper and did not bite, scratch or pull this girl's hair! I was so proud of her that I could barely contain myself.  I made sure to let her know and later that night made a huge deal to tell Daddy in front of her so that he could also show her how proud he was. 

A life without... DAIRY???

Summer has had cradle cap basically her whole life.  I really never thought much of it when she was a baby, because it just seemed like one of those things you go through with babies.  And let's face it... there were two of those sweet little babies, not just one.  We were dealing with making 16 bottles a day, changing 20 or more diapers a day, a little cradle cap wasn't going to get us down.  It took my baby girl quite some time to get big girl hair.  When it was still short and baby fine I was able to use baby oil to help the cradle cap, but it never entirely went away.  As she's gotten older, it has gotten completely out of control.  She has also suffered from chronic sinusitis and ear infections, resulting in surgery to insert tubes in her ears and to remove her adenoids.  The ear infections stopped, but the sinus infections did not.  Another strange happening in her life, sporadic exorcist style vomits.  I had asked the doctor several times about this, but because it was one time here and one time there... they thought nothing of it.
Last year, everyone that I came into contact with  told me that she was constantly sick because they has just begun daycare and that this winter would be much better.  Well September hit and guess what she was sick again and the antibiotics weren't taking away the disgusting ooze streaming constantly from her nose. In November we entered the world of allergies and asthma and began to get answers to the problems that were plaguing both Summer and Cole since they were babies.  Summer was diagnosed with allergies and Cole with allergies and asthma.  I was hoping that we would learn what their specific allergies were, but our allergist explained to me that at their age there are many false negatives and he preferred not to put them through the testing so young. One day I was reading an article in my Parents magazine about dealing with and understanding food allergies.  The article spoke to me when it said that a lot of food allergies are initially dismissed by parents and doctors as common ailments and one of the examples was CRADLE CAP!  Well for anyone who knows my obsession with google... I went GOOGLE CRAZY.  Trying to find any information that I could to connect Summer's symptoms with a food allergy.  The most common one that kept reappearing in my research was DAIRY. 
At our next allergist appointment after discussing how much better the kids were now doing with our daily medication cycle, I raised my concern about a possible allergy to dairy for Summer.  The doctor examined her scalp and said oh that's just cradle cap... and I imploded. I tried to rebuttal with the fact that I had tried every suggestion for cradle cap and had not been able to make any sort of headway, but it was no use.  He continued with his stance that even if there was an outside chance that she did have a food allergy that she was too young to be subjected to allergy tested.  He wrote her a prescription for a stronger shampoo and said that should do the trick and sent us on our merry way. 
A good friend encouraged me to just stop the milk anyway, but I decided that I would try the shampoo for 1 month.  Plus it was almost Christmas and the thought of attempting to go through the holiday festivities reading every label and telling a 3 year old that she couldn't eat her favorite things (having no idea how she'd react to this) made me cringe. 
Guess what? The shampoo didn't work!!!!!!!
On January 23rd, Summer went dairy free.  I had a talk with her that she wasn't going to be able to eat anything with milk, butter or cheese in it.  I wasn't quite sure if she got it until the next morning I heard her screaming at Jim as he was making her eggs for breakfast as he attempted to let me sleep in.  "But. Mommy. Said. I. Can't. Have. BUTTER!!!!!" she bellowed!  Um... yup... I'd say she got it.  I told myself we'd do this hardcore for 2 weeks to see if there was an improvement.  Nothing with even the hint of milk in it if possible. 
And Guess what???? It's WORKING!!!!!
After just one week on her new diet there was a dramatic improvement with her scalp.  Now after 3 weeks, she told me that it doesn't itch anymore!!!! (I almost cried like a baby when she said that to me).  It is still taking time to heal completely and scrub all of those stubborn flakes off of there, but I can't even tell you how much better it is getting every day.  I've start pulling back on her oral and nasal allergy medications as well, but not sure if she can handle giving those up yet completely.  We are almost due for a recheck with the allergist in a few weeks.  After taking to another mother who takes her kids to the same practice, I have rescheduled my appointment with the other doctor.  I've been told his philosophies are different, so we will give him a try. 
I'm now giving this my all to find Summer alternative foods to enjoy.  I've had some great finds from another mom that does dairy free.  Even a shredded "cheese" to make pizza and mac n' cheese with.  While it is challenging to find things that don't have any milk... I am so proud of my little girl.  She doesn't cry or get upset if I tell  her she can't have something that she wants.  She knows that she can't have anything with milk and if I tell her something contains it, she doesn't want to eat it anymore.