Henry's Allergies

For the most part we have adjusted to the new normal of Henry's food allergies.  We have established foods that he can eat and keep gluten-free snacks, gluten-free cereal, gluten-free waffles, vegan butter substitute, soybutter, and almond milk on hand.  I have changed the recipes that I cook so that they are allergy free and have sought out new recipes to try with foods that he can eat.  Maybe once a week the rest of us will have something he cannot and he will have leftovers from another meal, but for the most part, we all eat allergy free at meals.

It is frustrating that with everything we are doing, Henry is still having skin issues and occasional reactions.  Every night we do a "soak and seal" where he sits in the tub soaking up moisture into his skin for at least 10 minutes, then we seal in the moisture by slathering him with vaseline.  I also reapply vaseline every morning.  Even though he hates taking medicine, I pin him down and give him claritin every morning to help with itching to prevent more skin rashes.  We wash his clothes and sheets and towels in unscented detergent and vinegar (for fabric softener).  We are now washing all of our laundry this way because his doctor thought his skin might be getting irritated from our clothing if he rubs against it.

Last night he woke up screaming at 11pm.  He does sometimes and we try to let him cry himself back to sleep to not create a night time habit of waking.  He did not, so I went in and gave him some water but he seemed extra irritated, so I wrestled him while I gave him some benadryl to counter the effects of the allergic reaction he appeared to be having.  He has so far (thank the Lord) only had skin rashes and possibly stomach upset (I am not really sure what is causing his irritability since he can't tell me) as the symptoms of his reactions.  I do not want him to advance to the anaphylactic stage of a reaction which impedes breathing and is life threatening.  However it still breaks my heart to hear and watch him cry because I have failed to prevent his reaction.  I have given him something that he cannot have and he is suffering.  I got up with him 3 times and rocked and sang to him and tried to put him back down, but he would cry again within 10 minutes.  Finally, since my presence was the only thing preventing him from screaming, I sat up with him until 2:20am last night until he was ok to go to sleep.

I am so thankful that there are many foods he can have and I am totally fine with making these sacrifices for him, I love this boy and will do anything that he needs to be healthy.  I just get so frustrated when he has a reaction and I have no idea what caused it.  This also means that it may happen again, because something I am giving him to eat or something he is coming into contact with is causing his distress.  And I don't know what we are missing.