See, I give him cupcakes....

Isaiah and his itchy, bumpy self. This was taken in June when we were in Rhode Island. I discovered these cupcakes at my favorite of favorite places - Whole Foods, or as my sister-in-law calls it, Whole Paycheck. She ain't lying. For the last 2 weeks, we've had Isaiah on a very strict diet - in stick I mean, mostly hotdogs and soy milk, why? Well because those are about the only two things that are NOT processed in plants that also process nuts or diary. After over a month of agonizing visits to the fourth allergist we've determined Isaiah is allergic to dairy, eggs, nuts, which we knew. We did not know he was also allergic to mushrooms, mustard, pineapple (which is used to sweeten everything natural,) corn (which is used in everything also,) oats (something we used to rely on for a basic breakfast.) Oat flour is also in a lot of stuff including most lotions since it can be calming on everybody but Isaiah. He's also allergic to sweet potato, salmon, sunflower which is a natural oil that is in a lot of items you'd never expect, but in about every dry snack from animal cookies, to chips and oh, a few other things. There is a list on the refrigerator that lists everything Isaiah can eat and it fits on an index card. The list of the things he can't have is short and sweet and has the 10 or 12 items I mentioned above and a note that says, *DON'T FEED ISAIAH ANYTHING FROM OUTSIDE THIS HOUSE. When we go to Lego Land or Playgroup, I watch him like my life depends on it - even a bite of something seemingly innocent could throw this month's trial off. The goal of this month is food elimination - so we can figure out what else other than diary, eggs and nuts he should stay away from. But so far, as I suspected, his skin isn't any better. In fact the day he started his diet he contracted some viral rash that covered his body with hundreds of tiny itchy bumps. Nothing relieved the itching except a very strong steroid - which I held off giving him for a week until I just could take all the blood in his crib and on his clothes from his scratching. He's finally doing better and we are all relieved, I just wish he didn't have these allergies. It helps to remind myself that of all the difficult issues that children can have, this is one that I can handle. It's a pain in the butt and most people don't understand how serious I am until I explain - if he has peanuts he could be dead in 2 minutes - that sort of gets folks to pay attention. But this is the least of so many evils.