Who's Allergic to Air?

I've mentioned before our family's struggles with allergies.

I've always been super itchy.

I've always had horrible, dry, cracked skin.

I had such bad, chronic eczema, I didn't wear shorts. Ever. Like, ever. 

People had questions and kids can be mean.

Imagine going through adolescents with the shittiest looking skin ever? Arms and legs? My mom always said "be grateful it's not your face" - which, ok. Sure. I can cover my arms and legs.

My mom also told me that it'd get better with age. She was right.

For two reasons.
1. I care way less now and could give a fuck what people think
2. It actually did get better. A little. 

The thing is, I wasn't actually tested for allergies until I became an adult. You see, I was the "healthy" child. My sister was much sicker, so she got most of that type of attention. My allergies were nothing compared to her conditions.

And the only reason I got tested was because Mila had a full body rash at 8 weeks old and I was breastfeeding.

Turned out she has allergies and her allergens were being passed through my breastmilk.

Mila is allergic to milk, eggs and nuts. They are pretty common allergies (part of the top 8 major allergens).

I was then tested and am allergic to way more: eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, sesame, wheat, buckwheat, soy, corn, pistachio, hazelnut, and a host of others that weren't as high. Combine these food allergies with my environmental and you've got one hell of a doozy. My environmental allergies include: dust, mites, trees, grass, pollen, so...basically everything outside.

Yeah.

It's fun.

So, when I got pregnant with Ava and knew I was going to nurse her, I stopped milk, eggs, nuts when she was born. We thought we were in the clear until 9 weeks when she broke out in a full body rash. And she was projectile vomiting.

She was eventually tested at 4 months old and she's allergic to milk, eggs, nuts, garlic and sunflower. In addition to having GERD

And the most fucked-up kicker?

Ava's also allergic to - get this - cold air.  

You read that right.

AVA IS ALLERGIC TO COLD AIR.

It's call "Cold Urticaria"

It happened 2 years ago and it took over the course of a couple of weeks to really figure it out.

Ava would get one little, tiny hive - just randomly someplace on her body. Arm or leg. I figured the dog may have licked her. Ok. Whatever.

Kept happening, really randomly.

Then, it clicked.

On Christmas Day.

We took the kids out to play on a gorgeous, sunny, winter day.

Ava's entire face broke out in a giant hive.

Her hands had hives on them.

Her ankles had hives on them.

Any exposed skin would get hives.

I called my friend who happens to work for our allergist (hello! it was Christmas Day!) and she texted him (thank goodness for knowing people) and that's what we were told it was and got an appointment for later in the week.

Allergies affect every single part of our lives.

I read every label.

I bring all our food places.

I have to be "that mom" whenever we're in public.

My kids do not eat out unless they are with a parent.

My kids eat at the "allergy table" at school.

We've worked around it and it's almost second nature to us now.

And we have a lot of Benadryl in our house.