The Itchy Infant

In a few months Ryan will turn six. I look at his baby pictures (and the few minutes of video footage we actually had time to tape) and find it hard to remember him being that small. That is, until the other day when I was walking down the street. I saw a woman carrying a baby (about 9 months old) who had socks on his hands and incredibly rashy cheeks. The moment that I saw him I was overcome with sadness for this poor little boy and remembered how hard it was to have a baby with infantile eczema.

Ryan’s skin was sensitive from the time he was a few weeks old. It started out as a terrible case of cradle cap. Out of the blue, it seemed, he looked like he was wearing a scabby hat that eventually covered his eyebrows and started to travel down his cheeks. When we finally got that under control, it was as if the rash popped up in different places – his cheeks became inflamed and he started to get a red, patchy rash on his chest and in the creases of his elbows. This is when the itch started. Poor Ryan – it breaks my heart to think about how it must have felt for such a little baby (about 4 months old) to be so uncomfortable all of the time. He would grab at his cheeks or try to rub them on his sheets so that they became even more inflamed. We had to put socks on his hands so that his face wouldn’t be covered in scratches. The creases behind his knees must have been itchy as well because when he was awake (which sadly for us, was most of the time) he would constantly be rubbing his foot behind the opposite knee. He looked like a little cricket trying like crazy to make a sound, his legs going a mile a minute.

At bedtime the itchiness seemed even harder for him to handle. When his eczema was at its peak he would wake up every 45 minutes. Fortunately for Ryan, breastfeeding helped to settle him…unfortunately for me breastfeeding was the ONLY thing that worked. We went for weeks with Ryan constantly waking up though the night – I was insanely tired. I don’t remember much from that time except that I cried…a lot. We were trying everything we could to help clear up the eczema but nothing seemed to work for long. I felt completely helpless. I was so stressed that I lost 20 pounds…I looked fantastic, but wouldn’t encourage anyone to follow that no-sleep weight loss plan.

During the day it was much easier to distract Ryan from his constant scratching. His older sister, Rebecca, was a never-ending source of entertainment. She was three when Ryan was most affected by eczema. Even though she adored her brother, she would often ask me to put him down so that I could play with her. Many people know how hard it is to care for a toddler and an infant at the same time…try to imagine caring for a toddler and an infant who needs to be held all of the time.

How we managed through this time, I will never know. I guess it was just love for this guy, and that despite his itchiness he still had a special twinkle in his eyes and an infectious smile on his little rashy face.

Introducing Ryan.

Ryan is a loveable kid. When he walks onto the school ground he constantly has kids giving him hugs and high-fives. His kindergarten teacher commented that he has a hard time getting his work done because everyone wants to talk to him. Ryan is very small for his age, has a great laugh and has crazy cowlicks that make his hair stick up in three different places. I like to tell people that everyone has an internal rhythm – and Ryan’s is Mach 3. He talks fast, eats fast, and can’t walk – he only runs. He’s a head shorter than everyone on his soccer team, but he’s right in the middle of the pack and won’t back down from any opponent.

It’s hard to believe that when he was five months old, he was rashy from head-to-toe and had to wear socks on his hands constantly. You see, Ryan is an “allergic child”. He has severe food allergies to milk, soy, eggs, and peanuts. He also has asthma, and is a survivor of infantile eczema. I’d say that our whole family survived Ryan’s infantile eczema! Ryan lives with his dad - Jason, his mom - Laura (that’s me), and two sisters – Rebecca and Sarah.

It seems that more and more children are dealing with allergies now. Our nurse practitioner has 2 babies on her caseload right now with severe eczema, and Ryan’s allergist in Peterborough claims that every week he diagnoses a new peanut allergy. When Ryan was a baby I felt so isolated and wished I had someone to talk to that was dealing with the same struggles. So if you know someone with an allergic child, let them know about this blog! Have a seat and let me tell you all about living with Ryan…with allergies.