We have issues.

Poor Grey...once again.  We have two kids that are polar opposites in lots of things.  One big difference between the two of them is their skin.  Anna has beautiful skin.  It's got a milky-ness with just a touch of olive tone.  She doesn't burn too easily, but still can.  She has her dad's skin.  To bad she may be an oil factory when she hits puberty.  Grey, on the other hand, has someone else's skin.  I suppose it comes from my side of the family, as does that strawberry blonde hair.  He has very bad eczema.  Bad.

You can probably count on one hand the number of times I've called our pediatrician for illnesses in the entire lives of both kids.  Granted our amazing Dr. Liz (a fab pediatrician herself and a college of my pediatrician) has come to the rescue for minor things.  I called our pedi about this a couple of days ago.  He called in a perscription.  I called back and said, "nope, we're coming in for this."  I knew there was not much we could do for it other than give him some meds and hope the episode passes soon, but I just wanted him to see it for himself.  We went in and he confirmed that it was a pretty bad case and gave him some stronger, and hopefully more effective meds.  Grey gets an oral steriod, a daily dose of Allegra, and a twice a day treatment of a "high powered" ointment on his many areas.  I can almost predict his episodes...he runs on a two week rotation.  Just when I think it's almost gone, it flares up again.  He frantically starts to scratch and rub.  For this particular episode, he had bloody open sores on almost every part of his body; the back of his neck, inside of his elbows, wrists, belly, back of his knees, tops of his feet, and his face was beginning to break out.  Bad.  I took these shots so that I could give the doc something just in case we didn't get in until after the episode passed.  The areas actually look pretty good because he in the bath most of the green-ish yellow crust and ooze and blood have been washed off.  

Another issue: allergies.  I asked about allergy testing and the doc said that it really isn't necessary.  He may grow out of many of the allergies by the time he's about 3 and it would be useless torture for him.  I just wanted to know to be able to avoid things that could trigger discomfort.  I can see why it would not to helpful though.  Grey is allergic to dogs.  We've been to a couple of houses where dogs have lived and this is the result (his red eyes).  Thankfully, this is the only result so far.  The doc was very encouraging and always makes me feel like I'm doing as much as I can to help, whatever the circumstance.  But he said that the eczema could last a while, but maybe only a couple of years.  We'll keep our fingers crossed and try to keep him as comfortable as possible.  I'm thankful that this is the only issue he has since it could be SO much worse.