Rolling Down a Hill

Jasper went to Luke's birthday party at Springwoods Park and had a blast playing on the playground equipment. When he had exhausted that, he started running around. To keep him from running out into the parking lot, I suggested he roll down this small hill. I thought it was the perfect size for a 2-year-old to learn how to roll down a hill. It didn't take him long to get the hang of it and love it. It's similar to spinning around and getting dizzy, which he also loves to do!

Apparently this is a bigger issue if you are allergic to grass. Ugh.

Approximately an hour or less after this fun, Jasper's eyelids were puffy and pink. I was shocked. We've had the boy tested for "Central Texas allergens," and he came back just moderately allergic to hickory/pecan. There was nothing in the test results to alert us to grass. I'm assuming grass was also tested. Why wouldn't it be? Regardless, I was not expecting it to be a problem, and to be honest I'm just guessing that grass was the allergen trigger. I don't really know. Of course, my confidence in this allergy test is all thrown into suspicion by the following comment from the pediatric dermatologist, "Don't believe the tests. Believe your eyes." great!!!!!

Anywho, this little roll down the hill triggered Jasper's eczema and caused a major flare-up. His arm and leg creases were soon on fire, and in two days his face was scaly and rosy. His whole body itched, including his scalp. He was so obviously in discomfort it was hard to watch and hard to help him not itch. We just had hydocortisone increased strength ointment to put on along with lotion. If there was a lapse in the antihistamine he was taking, he would awake from a dead sleep and cry because he itched. Poor thing! And then (murphy's law) when we finally saw the dermatologist, almost all of his symptoms had abated. Since the first flare-up, there have been two more. One started just after our visit to the dermatologist and the other started yesterday.

Eczema cannot be eliminated; it can only be managed. We're still working on figuring out how to properly manage it for him. He's gotten really good at giving us time to get him "lotioned-up." I'd love it if he did not need to be on an antihistamine long-term, but we'll see. I've been a little lax about it lately, and I wonder if that has prompted this recent flare-up. We'll see.