Liam had his follow-up allergist appointment this morning...
SHORT VERSION FOR THOSE OF YOU WITH LITTLE TIME TO READ...
Liam currently has no allergies whatsoever (to food, dust, etc.). However, the doctor has ordered that he follow a totally peanut-free and tree nut-free diet until age 3 (minimally) and age 4 (preferably) and then come back for further testing.
LONG VERSION FOR THOSE WHO WANT DETAILS...
Thousands of dollars later (although the insurance should only leave us a few hundred dollars to actually pay), the doctor has found no allergies. All of the RAST blood test samples came back negative (peanuts, dairy, soy, several tree nuts, dust, etc.) When he told me that this morning, I was absolutely in shock and more puzzled than ever as to why Liam was having so many strange reactions -- especially the one that he had while eating peanut butter in early October -- see the blog posting for the photo if you haven't seen it. The allergist was actually as perplexed as I was. So we decided that we should try scratch testing for all the tree nuts and peanuts. Liam did surprisingly well with the 11 scratch tests as he snuggled with me as they pricked his back and then he had to lay on me for 15 minutes so as to not disturb the pricked areas. Everything came back negative on the scratch skin tests as well.
However, when talking about the bright red raised spots in his diaper off and on for about a week in October (at which time Ray thought maybe he had an apple allergy and I couldn't pinpoint it to any particular food), the doctor said that sometimes a viral infection will manifest itself in hives and rashes instead of a cold/upper respiratory, etc. I had never really heard that before and so he seems to think that the viral infection reasoning is our best guess to all the reactions in October.
The allergist was very clear today that we have to keep all peanuts and tree nuts out of Liam's diet (just like Connell's) until at least age 3 and perhaps age 4. That should be easy given Connell's diet. The allergist said that if Liam has any chance of not developing the tree nut and peanut allergies, the only way is strict avoidance until that age. He still could develop them regardless, but it's within our power to try and avoid the allergy by avoidance. We are supposed to tell people that "at this time, Liam doesn't have any dianosed food allergies, but the doctor has ordered strict avoidance due to the fact that he is predisposed to developing an allergy to them at any time." I guess that will have to do for now -- perhaps before he starts SJN preschool in the fall of 2009 that we might want take him back in to be tested if they don't like the simple reasoning given above.
The positive of all of this is that he can have all the dairy he wants now and I can put milk back in his diet totally. I'm not so sure that he will drink it after not having it for more than a month, but it's worth a try. He will enjoy having his goldfish crackers and cheese and such.
The negative is that I never did find out what has caused his stuffy, runny nose for almost 17 months straight! At least it's not dust and so I don't have to clean the house! Ha, ha, ha!
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