poor sweet mccoy...

last week, we encountered our first medical situation...while we are truly thankful that mccoy hasn't been sick at all since he was born, it's still hard on a mom and dad to see your sweet little one suffering no matter how large or small the problem...at mccoy's 18 month check up, he was good to go except for a small patch of eczema on the back of his knees...no big deal, the doc said, just use some eucerin cream on it, all children go through this...we were doing good then all of a sudden last week during the snow/sleet storm, his back and chest exploded with red blotchy patches...then it just started turning into one large red mass on the front and back...we couldn't make it in to the doctor due to weather, and i also assumed it was just severe eczema...so i read up on it and decided to just keep him extremely lubricated and when the weather was better, we would check it out...this past week, we finally made it in to the doctor's office...it is never a good thing when you take off your child's clothes and the nurse says, "ohhhh my!" i knew it was bad but now i thought it must really be bad...even the doctor had the same reaction...it turns out that it was eczema, but it was due to an allergic reaction...now the fun stuff, "to what?" we have switched his milk from whole milk to soy...stopped eating strawberries (which he would scratch his chest after eating them)...changed laundry detergent and rewashed all of his clothes and anything that would touch his skin...and in the process of getting our carpets cleaned.

mccoy is also taking a strong 3 day antibiotic, a steroid cream for any red spots and Zyrtec every day indefinitely...he has been such a trooper...within one day, the redness cleared up by about 50%...these pictures were taken the day after we started treatment, so they are not nearly as red as they had been! we are still not sure what he is allergic to, but in a month or so, hopefully, we can figure it out...but for now, it is amazing how much better he feels...he has been running around again and laughing and playing all of the time...

so thankful to have our little guy back!