Bumps, redness and itching - oh my!

Matthew has been dealing with some allergies lately: runny nose, itchy eyes, sneezing and coughing, but I have been letting it pass hoping it would go away after Spring.

Then we played with some friends all Saturday morning - outside, in the water, play, play, play! That night I didn't notice anything unusual as I bathed and dressed him for bed, but Sunday morning I woke to a BIG surprise. He was covered partially in little red bumps. It was mostly the back of his legs, a little on his arms and on his belly. I thought we just got hit with another eczema flare after months of thinking he was over it. So I put his steroid cream on him and made him wear pants to help with the scratching.

With talking with some other moms of kids with allergies and eczema and doing a little research of my own I felt really sure that we had an eczema flare due to the pollen/allergies outside.

I called Monday morning was was able to get him into the clinic early afternoon. I felt sure he needed to be on some type of allergy med - even though I had postponed it as long as I could.

So here they are - waiting on the Doc....being pacified with lollipops!!

The Doc was WONDERFUL! He listened to my concerns and I gave him a rundown of his symptoms, ect. But when he looked at him he didn't think it looked like true eczema, but more of a contact dermatitis caused by allergies. Great! He also said it was going to be a trial and error thing with treatment though b/c he is most likely allergic to tree pollen which is out now. He said summer is more of the grass pollen, fall is a different pollen, and winter is usually dust mites/dogs,/cats, etc. So Matthew is on Zyrtec once a day now. If in 2 weeks all symptoms are better, then continue through June. I can take him off if I want and see how he does....maybe he will just have springtime allergies. But if it turns out he is very allergic all year round we can keep him on the Zyrtec if need! Let's just hope he doesn't have an allergy to dogs! :( I guess a lot of kids don't even start to develop allergies until they are about 2 years old.

So here is the back of his little leg - taken this morning. Believe me it already looks better!

And while at the Doc I asked him if I could get some more eczema cream just in case and he said SURE! Pictured below is what he prescribed (in the jar). The little one is what we were given before. Wowza! I think we have enough eczema cream for all of Kansas!