Our 2 year old son has at times since he was 3 weeks old been 90% covered in eczema. Most people we talked to wanted to just write it off as "infantile eczema he would grow out of" despite the bleeding and oozing. Eczema is a horrible thing for a child to deal with although there are far worse things.

Growing out of it was not an option for me so I made sure that I got my son in to see an allergist. He was very concern and ordered many blood tests to be sure there wasn't something horrible going on with his immune system, thankfully there wasn't. Our son had elevated IgE levels but otherwise everything else seemed normal.

Unfortunately we would have to wait until he was 9 months old to have him skin tested for allergies, but at least we had a doctor that listened to us. Our son tested positive for egg, wheat, dairy, nuts, and dogs. Oh no our lovable pooch! (I had a feeling it was the dog) ALWAYS listen to your inner voice no matter what.

As soon as we heard the results we found a loving home for our dog, my older children were so ok with this, they only cared about there brother. Within days of the dog being gone 90% of the eczema was gone. We did however have to remove the carpeting.

As far as the food allergies go here is where the real struggle is. The reason I am online today is to look for more answers as we can not figure out these recent severe outbreak. It is a constant battle and just when you think you have it figured out something else comes up. We thought we knew it all after the skin tests but unfortunately he wasn't tested for corn.

It probably took a couple more months but because I always listen to my inner voice I was able to figure out that the corn was the newest culprit. Then another outbreak and another inner voice said, "I bet dextrose is corn sugar.” Maybe some people already know that but we didn't, so he consumed large amounts of french fries made with dextrose! Why can't they just make convenient food without all the crap?

Well today my inner voice has me believing that olive oil is causing this outbreak (God I hope not.) So i am searching for answers. What I am thinking now is that because he has a tree nut allergy and olives grow in trees maybe there is some correlation. He also seemed to be allergic to our Christmas tree!

Food allergies are a constant battle but we should all remember to listen to ourselves, keep searching for answers and have a good doctor that listens and takes action.