| I would like to share a story with you....
I have a child of severe (food) allergies and i also brought her to IMI. My experience is not good as the doctor didn't identify the foods that we know she is allegic to. We are "smart" and only told him a subset of foods we already know she is allergic to, although she is also allergic to heaps of other foods with egg at top of the list (instant flareup at mere touch of eggs). Sure enough, he declared my daughter was only allergic to the foods we told him abt but didn't pick up on eggs, milk and wheat!!! Even then we were willing to try his treatment (sooo desperate we were), he was vague what and long plan treatment would be except to say it would take 6 mths to 1 year, with many flare-ups in between. I figure with this length of time, my daughter would be 1 yr old, the age where her Australian Paed. Allergist said eczema typically becomes better on their own without any intervention! In fact, an experienced mum with eczema kids told me to wait it out until my daughter is 1 year old before actively controlling it with medication or alternative medicine. and the magic mark is apparenrly 3.5 years old, when children outgrow many of their allergies to dairy and eggs...
I understand you mummies are heartbroken to see your kids suffer. If you know me from past threads, you would know I went through the same. I cried rivers and mountains when my daughter has a bad flare-up that requires going into emergency, and every night I would help her scratched her neck and nape as she wouldn't be able to sleep without this soothing scratching. I totally empathise and have a phobia of it happening all over again with no 2 (I am delaying having a second baby as I am so scared). But you know what, my daughter is 18 months now and the moment she turns one, and I am not kidding, her eczema showed marked improvement, and as at past month, we have stopped putting steriod of her. Thinking back, I know I have been overly concerned, and I have turned to steriod all too quickly. We have also broken the bank seeking treatments from chinese doctors, western doctors, homeopathy, but come to realise there is really no cure to eczema (sorry mummies there really isn;t a miracle cure) except having a good management regime of moisturising and soothing the skin, and more importantly, determining what causes your kid's flareups, and in my daughter's case, it is to do with food.
good luck to you all.  |