Bug's Food Allergy Outlook=Positive

This week we went to see Dr. Wood at Hopkins. He is Bug's food allergist and he is awesome. We have done a good job avoiding all of the foods that Bug is allergic to and hopefully one day it'll pay off. We had the blood work done for this appointment in December and saw the results a a week after the blood was drawn. We looked at them and compared them to last year and thought they looked good. But, we didn't want to get our hopes up because we're not doctors.

When we got to Hopkins, we were first seen by the doctor who is on fellowship with Dr. Wood. She was really nice and asked us enough questions that we didn't forget to ask or bring up anything. She was pleased that Bug's eczema is under control and she made us feel good that we knew what we were talking about since we did a bit of our own research to figure out some of Bug's fruit allergies.

So anyway, after she met with us, she went to speak with Dr. Wood so the two of them could come up with a plan. That's what we like so much about going to Hopkins, is that we leave with a plan and we're not at all directing his care like with our local allergist.

So Dr. Wood came in and was very pleased to see that Bug's numbers went in the right direction. Watching the numbers from the RAST results between ages 1 and 3 can tell you a lot about whether or not the food allergies are going to be getting better or worse. Bug's egg number dropped an entire class, his milk dropped 1 point, peanut went down a bit and so did some of the other ones. The ones that went up were typically less than a point. When we first met with Dr. Wood last year he told us that we could expect either huge increase at age 2 or for some to decline, that it's sort of a benchmark year to tell what direction the allergies are going. This is based on a lot of research and statistics, and though I'm not usually a huge fan of statistics, if this is our best hope, then we're all for it.

Dr. Wood was visibly happy when he was speaking with us and let us know that it is likely that Bug will outgrow ALL of his food allergies by Kindergarten! Amazing news!

We had let the fellowship doctor know about Bug's terrible eating habits and Dr. Wood explained that they will most likely remain terrible and to continue with the soy supplement and feed him any fattening food he likes, like bacon and sausage, daily even. He was actually surprised to hear that Bug is off the bottle. He explained that food allergy kids can be terrible eaters and that sometimes they even fear eating.

If Bug's numbers stay down next year, he said we can fully expect to test out peanut. Scary right!

Until next year, we are allowed to have coconut again; Dr. Wood doesn't expect any reaction at all. And we're allowed to try out banana. I'm to bake it first, in a banana bread or cookie, and then if he does ok, give it to Bug in small pieces increasing over time. It would be great to get banana back as it is one of Roo's favorite foods and we know he misses having them in the house.

And finally, Bug had a little growth spurt and is still short but got taller and remaining steady on his 10th percentile height curve and went up a bit from his 10th percentile weight curve to 25th! Now he's the size of an average 1.5 year old, lol!

All, in all, it was a great day and worth the drive to and from Hopkins. We'll be back there in November to see his 3 year old numbers!