Henry Update

This boy looks just like my brothers when they were this age!
Poor allergy baby

Henry has been having a difficult time of it lately, with things getting much more serious this past weekend. Here is the scoop!

Henry has been diagnosed with a couple of skin conditions after going to many doctor appointments. I'm not sure of the actual medical terms right now and I don't want to get up to look for the pamphlets on them. One of the conditions is where his skin breaks out into little colorless bumps like sandpaper that dry up and flake off. They called this something like cradle cap all over his body.

He also has a severe case of infantile eczema where it looks like he is either scalded all over his body or has patches that look like ring worm that are red and puffy. He is honestly covered from scalp to ankles. Our dermatologist said that less than 10% of kids get these and they have a biological component with allergies, especially due to hay fever and asthma. Well Chris has hay fever and I have asthma, so Henry is one of the lucky less than 10%. All of this makes him very itchy and uncomfortable. After trying cetaphil for a week with no resolution, the dermatologist gave us some steroid cream which helps somewhat. He is also taking an antihistamine when the scratching gets so bad that he can't sleep. We go through a large tub of cetaphil every week.

I took him in for his 4 month shots on Monday and great news! He is finally registering on the weight chart! 16 weeks old and finally 12 pounds! We had to switch his formula a few times to a hypoallergenic one (to the tune of $26 for 16 oz) but he likes it and is now at the 3rd percentile for weight. Such a tiny bug. He looks like Dopey because he is balding and his head and ears are huge compared to his body. Doll boy. Our doc also put him on Singulaire for the rest of his allergies. This spring has wreaked havoc on his nose and eyes.

Then, on Friday while I was working our receptionist put a note under my door saying that I needed to call daycare. When I got to the phone my sister told me that Henry had been wheezing and that my mom had taken off his sleeper and his mittens (he has to wear them constantly for the skin stuff, otherwise he would scratch his face off) and when she removed them his hands and feet were purple. I told sis to call the ambulance. She said that he had improved enough since then that she felt she didn't need to call 911, but I needed to take him to the doctor right away.

I picked him up and took him to the e.r. They were wonderful and got him into a room and on oxygen right away. His oxygen was at 63% when we first got there, then went up to the 80s with the oxygen on him. They tested him for rsv which was negative. Then did a xray which showed bronchiole inflammation consistent with rsv. They did a couple more breathing treatments on him and sent us home with albuterol and epinephrine if it got bad again. I asked the discharge nurse if Henry did have rsv or not. She looked at his paperwork and said that they had diagnosed "bronchitis". Fine.

Well, at 1 a.m. I was awake and got out his discharge papers to file in his home file. When I read through it, the diagnosis they gave was "bronchiolitis rsv infection". What? confusing. I looked it up online and in my what to expect the first year book and thankfully he is no longer contagious so we could continue our weekend visits. And he probably got it from Ivy or Chris who were both sick with "colds" last week that were probably really rsv.

And through it all this little man smiles and laughs and coos. His prescriptions fill a gallon ziplock bag. chris and I have a 24 hour medicine schedule posted for him on the fridge. Kind of like this:

Warm washcloth and cetaphil every 1 - 2 hours.
Albuterol/Nebulizer every 2-4 hours
Saline drops and nasal aspirator every 2-4 hours
Singulaire nightly
Desonide cream 2 times daily
infant tylenol as needed for fever
hydroxyzine every 12 hours for itching

Let's just sum all this up as a busy weekend behind me and a busy week ahead of me. I just want to get this kid feeling better!