A first-time mother’s real-life lessons
A couple of months after our son was born we knew that something was not quite right. (Even as first time parents we could tell) He would have coughing bouts so bad they would cause him to throw-up (not just little, dribble spit-up, we are talking projectile vomiting, ugh). As the months went by the symptoms got worst: - Continual runny nose
- Frequent ear infections
- Red puffy eyes
- Frequent bouts of pneumonia
- Worst bouts of the coughing leading to throwing up
I talked to our pediatrician about the possibility of our son having allergies because I have really bad allergies. He told us that it was not possible for a child so young to have allergies.
Finally, after 10 months of dealing with sickness after sickness and seeing how miserable our son was (not to mention how miserable we were) we insisted that our pediatrician send us to a specialist. He begrudgingly did; implying that we were just overreacting first time parents.
It was the best thing that we could have done!
The Pulmonary Pediatric Specialist walked through the door, took one look at my son, and said, “That is an asthma/allergy face.” 
Sure enough, after a string of tests (including a full allergy test on our son’s small 10 mon old back) we discovered he indeed had asthma and allergies. In fact, his allergy test showed that he was off the board allergic to dust-mites.
In addition to the medicine regime that he was put on (inhaler twice a day, nasal spray twice a day, half a Singular pill at night) the specialist gave us a list of simple things we could do to control dust-mites in our home:
- Replace the curtains with blinds
- Remove stuffed animals from the bedroom (we actually had to remove them from our home because my son's allergy was so bad)
- Use allergen bed and pillow covers
- Replace the carpeting with wood flooring (my husband installed Pergo flooring himself but bamboo flooring would probably have been better)
- Wash his bedding in hot water and dry on high
- Make his bed; including covering up his pillow.
- We even bought a HEPA Filter vacuum cleaner.
Within days it was like having a whole new child and a whole new life!
The coughing bouts went away; his eyes slowly started to look like a normal child’s eyes, no more continual runny nose, no more ear infections, and no more bouts of pneumonia. It was simply amazing.
For the past 7 years we have had to deal with nothing more then typical cold sicknesses. I cannot tell you what a difference that one trip to the specialist made in our life. (Our pediatrician did apologize to us but it was too little too late. I am just glad that we were insistent!)
Fortunately our son has since outgrown the asthma and the only medicine that he is still on is Singular. But we still follow all the rules for ridding his bedroom of dust mites. As a matter of fact all the pillows and beds in our house have the dust-mite covers on them and all our bedroom floors are wood.
When my daughter was born we took the precautionary approach; no stuffed animals, allergen bedding and pillow coverings, blinds, wood floor. (We also added an air purifier and plants to her room.)
They may sound like little things but they have helped our daily lives immensely!
When Lena is not writing as a Healthy Living Diva, you can find her blogging about juggling work, kids, and life at OverCoffee.
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