Food or environmental allergy????

[blumom2boyz]

My soon to be 5 year old son has recently developed allergies. A little bit of a background. When he was 4 months old, he got a small patch of eczema on his face that persisted for several months and then resolved on its own (and he hasn't had any more since). Coincidentaly, or not, that was the same time we started solids (i was young and didn't know better). Anyway, this past summer he started having the purple eyes which I now know are allergy shiners. I just always thought he was tired. He got a rash on his face which he would scratch at until he made little scabs. The pediatrician didn't know what was going on so we took him to the dermatologist. He gave us a steroid cream to put on his face and some sample Clarinex, saying it was probably allergy related, but wasn't completely sure what it was. My son also has periods of sneeze attacks and stuffy/runny nose, but not consistantly. Well, this has been going on for about 6 months and I really don't want to have to put this steroid cream on his face all the time. If I don't use it, the "itchies" come back and then so do the scabs. So I thought this was probably an environmental allergy, but then I was reading other posts and they said it could be food as well??? I am so confused. Do I need to take him to an allergist? What would you do?

[elmh23]

I'd take him to an allergist and have him tested for enviormental allergies aswell as food allergies. Good luck!

[Pauli]

I second seeing an allergist.
The other thing you can do is try removing stuff from his diet and see it that helps.
Dairy is the most common food culprit but it takes up to three weeks to get out of your system, however, I would think you see some improvement faster. I think other allergens clear your system faster.
You might keep a food log of what he eats and see if you can see any pattern of when it's worse or better (or is it always the same). I guess I'm saying that what I would do is mess around with his diet and see if you can figure out anything that way. It really helps with allergy testing if you have some "suspects".
Good luck!