Itchy no more

I feel like I can say it now. Alex is eczema free.

I can't believe it.

If you weren't around Alex as a baby, you don't know how significant this is.  The poor kid was COVERED in eczema. From the age of three months until, well, September of last year, he had constant skin problems.  It could be anywhere from a patch on his hand to a full body breakout.  He seemed to always have these horrible patches of red, itchy, oozing, skin that would get infected constantly.  He never had that sweet soft baby skin other babies have.  Well, he had it, in between the swollen patches of itchy weeping skin I guess.  We've tried every topical cream from the over the counter 1% hydrocortizone to Elidel to steroid creams to oral steroids.  He's had to be on many different antibiotics because of all the skin infections.  We've gone through HUNDREDS of bottles of hypoallergenic lotions and make sure to wash his clothes and bedsheets in hypoallergenic detergents.

The pediatrician's office even nicknamed him "sandpaper boy". Yeah, nice.

And now, it's over. Just like that.

I don't know if it's just the more humid climate or the softer water or cleaner air or what, but whatever it is, Oregon has cleared up my boy's skin and now, well, now he's just a normal kid.  He's not frantically scratching his skin off and I'm not constantly applying bandaids and antibacterial ointments to the open sores and I only apply skin lotion after his bath if I remember to do it.  He hasn't been on an antibiotic since we've moved and I've actually thrown out the tube of Elidel (risk of skin cancer with prolonged use).

On one hand, I'm just thrilled. On the other hand I'm frustrated that all we had to do to give our baby a better quality of life was move to Oregon! This whole time, we SHOULD have been in Oregon!  I wouldn't have the worry of him having an immunity to antibiotics, or risk of lymphoma from Elidel or shrunken balls from the steroids (his balls are fine. I hope!), had we just moved to Oregon 4 years ago.

Oh well, we're here now.