Need serious help with DS's allergies...dust, mold, etc

[True Blue]

DS got really sick last summer, and we finally had him tested and turned out he was very allergic to dust mites and mold mostly. We took all the precautions in the house (dust mite covers, air purifier, etc) and got him off meds. Yay!! Now we live in VA, and he is sooo sick. We put wood floors in his room, and the whole downstairs. Even with Zyrtec, he is stuffy, coughing, scratching his throat, not sleeping...awful. I don't know what my next step is. I need some help.

[kjbrown92]

You might want to bring him back to the allergist, in your new area. There may be other allergens that they didn't test for in FL that are prevalent in VA. Have you had him tested for food allergies (or intolerances) to see if that is filling his "allergy bucket"? My DS had bad ragweed allergies for instance, but once I got him off his food intolerance triggers, he barely had any symptoms during ragweed season.

[True Blue]

They tested for several things, IgE I think, and only sesame came up, very weakly. I think our new Dr here can do ALCAT and such. I dread doing all this again, and I'm so sad, we had him doing SO WELL!!! Poor kid is a mess.

[mamefati28]

Trueblue....Dustmite allergy is exhausting!
DS is on zyrtec as well and is still stuffy and has chronic mucus in his throat. He is also seeming to get sick like every 2 weeks ! He even had to do oral steroids this last time, it was horrible. His seems to be leading to asthma.
Docs have prescribed him singulair, I have not given it to him as it has aspartame and this has been our first experience (since june) with meds. I have no idea what to do.
How old is your DS? When did he start having issues?
That is awesome you had him med free!
Admittedly, this situation is stressing me out enormously. Would love to keep communicating with other moms having to deal with it as well.

[LauraLoo]

You might want to ask the dr. about nose sprays -- Nasonex/Flonase or something that gets right on the mucous membranes.

The other thing that you can do is to try some natural anti-inflamatories such as Vitamin C, quercetin, nettles. We had great luck with a Vitamin C & quercetin combo. You can do this with the Rx meds to give him extra help with the immune system. Does he take any probiotics? Again, anything to boost the immune system.

Just had to ask -- are you keeping his bedroom dust-free - minimal knick knacks, no stuffed animals and washing his bedding in hot water weekly? Do you make sure he has baths at night to get all the "stuff" off of him before he sleeps? When you put in the wood floors, did it make a huge dusty mess? Your ds could still be reacting to that. Have you had the AC/heating vents cleaned?

[True Blue]

Our house is brand new, we ripped out the new carpets but that was over a month ago now. We did it immediately for him. He has an Austin Air purifier in his room, and another large one on the second floor as well. Good a/c filters. Wash all bedding (he has bunk bed, so both get washed) on sanitize cycle and/or with allergen detergent weekly. No stuffed animals, his room has very little in it. Wash curtains regularly. We got a new leather couch before we moved to help. Actually made all these changes in FL which is when we got him med-free and symptom-free. What gets me is that even if I keep his door closed all day with his purifier running, he is still stuffy all night, sneezing, waking, etc. I used a mite killer on the other carpeting upstairs, thinking that could be the culprit. All I got out of that was ME having an allergic reaction and hives for 3 days while DH finished cleaning the carpets and then the vacuum and everything else the stuff touched for me lol. No decrease in symptoms for DS.

We started the neti pot last night, DS said it helped a little. He showers every night before bed to rinse allergens off. I will have to try the other supplements. He used to eat a lot of yogurt but not so much anymore. He eats so much fruit, I can't imagine supplementing Vit C.

I made an appt with our family Dr, he will go in tomorrow. He is holistic so hopefully will have more good ideas!!

M was just over 7 when this all began, though he has had eczema since he was a baby. The dust mites do seem to play a part in his eczema. I worry about asthma too as he had pneumonia as a toddler and was hospitalized in January with bronchiolitis.

[emilysmama]

Duct cleaning? Our house was brand new, too, in fact it was newly constructed just for our allergies, but we were still suffering. But I noticed that everytime the fan from the AC/heat kicked on, dd had a coughing fit. So we spent $400 to clean the air ducts, in spite of my allergist's insistence that it would be no more effective than sticking a shop vac into the registers. But he was wrong. Well, the ducts themselves were clean, and at first the duct cleaner thought we were crazy to hire the. but the part of the furnace (after the filter but before the ducts) were full of saw dust from the construction). Also the return part of our duct system was dirty. Once that was cleaned out, everything was great!

[kjbrown92]

eczema can be from environmental allergies, food allergies or intolerances. If he still had the eczema with the other symptoms abated, it's possible that he has food intolerances that weren't caught on the IgE food allergy panel.

I was thinking it could be pets from a previous owner, but if it was new construction, that rules that out. That's why I thought maybe there's something new in the environment there that he's sensitive to. Some mold or something that wasn't in FL that they wouldn't have tested him for. Of course you're already doing things to mediate that too. Ugh. What a pain for you.

[True Blue]

Yeah, I'm thinking there is something new here too. Or, that his allergies have intensified even more. Which would suck.

I will have DH do some duct sleuthing. I know the downstairs intake looks fine, and the upstairs one goes right up and I didn't see anything there. Will check the a/c unit, it's in the attic so hard to get to!

HIs eczema seemed to be gone before. It showed up very little, and each time I assumed it was from dust exposure since it cleared up so well overall. Also, when we moved in, our stuff had been in storage a couple months and the kids made forts in them and such...and OMG he broke out worse than I have ever seen and in places he'd never had it before! So in the very least dust plays a big role in the eczema. I'm pretty sure our Dr tomorrow will recommend some other kind of testing for food intolerance, he mentioned it at his checkup but I said it really seemed to be the dust. Now I'm not so sure!

[emilysmama]

What really helped us was when the duct cleaner guy opened up the furnace unit, even though he said that technically the furnace people should be the ones to do it. There was a ton of dust there. I think that the builder did not take precautions to seal from the construction dust. No wonder our expensive in-furnace air cleaner didn't help at all, because the dust in the furnace was downstream of the filter.

For a long time, I was puzzled. I couldn't understand why there was no improvement when we moved from a 40 year old apartment to a brand new house that we build specifically for our allergies. Once the furnace was cleaned out, I understood. The dust came from the construction process itself.

[mama1803]

I second the recommendation for vitamin C and quercetin. Both have helped our environmental allergies tremendously.

We use amla for daily vitamin c supplementation and sodium ascorbate when ill.

Allergies are often the result of sluggish methylation--methylation is the process by which histamine (among other chemicals, metals, hormones, etc.) is broken down and marked for elimination from the body. People with histadelia have too much histamine, which can lead to a slew of problems, not just allergies. Here is a little info--

http://www.drkaslow.com/html/histadelia.html

[mama1803]

I recommend this book for those dealing with allergies--

http://www.amazon.com/Healing-New-Ch.../dp/0345494504

Dr. Bock does a fabulous job of explaining how allergies are rooted in inflammation and how various nutrients (or lack thereof) can affect the body.

[mamefati28]

mama1803-
Any guidance for dosing guidelines for the quercetin? I have a DS who will be 4 on Friday and almost 35lbs. thanks!

[True Blue]

Thanks. Our Dr recommended an allergy supplement with quercitin, 3-4g vit C, borage oil/gla's and Omega's, no citrus, no dairy, no wheat. We'll see how it goes....

[mamefati28]

Trueblue....did your Doc recc. one supplement or just to supplement with each of these?
TIA

[True Blue]

We're taking AllerTane (by Jarrow, he had this in his office), Jarrow Borage Oil supplement (for eczema, and another he happened to have there), and pure crystals of Vit C from Trader Joe's that can be mixed into any drink. We have some Omega's from Nordic Naturals, they make quality stuff. We are avoiding dairy to help with mucous, citrus for his skin, and wheat can affect either I think. We'll see how it goes! I need to go to the store tomorrow and find him some more 'treats' or things I can bake so he isn't left out. He's a snacker, I'm going to need crackers and pretzels and such, kwim?

[mama1803]

Have you considered the funky drywall from China as being a possbile cause of your ds' health problem? Va was one of a handful of states found to have imported large amounts of Chinese drywall that were found to be making people sick. I know you said your home was new construction, but do you know exactly when your house was built? Do you have any way of contacting the builder to find out the source of your drywall?

We moved to Va almost 3 years ago and, at the time, the newspapers were full of stories about people living in houses that had this defective drywall from China and all the health problems they were having--sinus infections, asthma, breathing problems, headaches, coughing, sneezing, congestion--basically things that could also be symptoms of allergies. I remember reading about one family in particular that had to abandon their house because of the debilitating illnesses they were experiencing and they were in the process of suing their builder to force them to replace the drywall.



http://www.vdh.state.va.us/epidemiol...AQ%20final.pdf

http://www.certified-chinese-drywall...e-drywall.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Jl-C5-OQ5M

[True Blue]

We stood on the empty lot in March, so I highly doubt it is the drywall, but thanks!! We also specifically asked if it was Chinese drywall.

I also wanted to add that the pills I mentioned above are quite LARGE but DS is an adept pill taker. They wouldn't be for most young kids.