How to identify an allergy?

This is going to be a quick post. I keep thinking of things I want to post about ... my husband, Valentine's day, other thoughts I have about things...however, the most pressing issue right now is Jasper's allergies. He seems to be allergic to something. He is generally a very happy, very good baby. However, we are continuing to have issues.

First, he was on normal formula. His skin was dry and itchy all over his head, scaley in most places. He started vomiting and had awful watery mucous diarrhea. So it was time to change his formula - the best guess being that he had a milk protein allergy.

Next, we tried soy formula. Immediately, he stopped spitting up and his diaper changed. Nearly two weeks after the switch, things cleared up immensely with his skin and he wasn't itchy. Then about two weeks later, he was vomiting up his bottles and once again had watery mucous diarrhea. So he seemed to develop a soy protein allergy.

Now he is on Nutramigen. It is a hypoallergenic formula that provides proteins in a hydrolyzed form. The day after changing his formula, his head looked better. Although, I would not say that it has continued. His diapers changed immediately also, and he has stopped vomitting and spitting up. His diapers are still really, really loose. We started this 9 days ago.

Here is the deal, he is still scratching his head like a crazy fool. Although not having "fits" about it all the time, usually only when he is sleepy or asleep. He will scream at night about it, and still pretty much be asleep. We have to swaddle him tightly, and then he gets mad about that.

Ok, so two days ago he woke up screaming around 5am and I could not get him to stop. We walked, and rocked, etc. No good. Finally, I took him with me to go buy a paper and that helped. When we got home, I turned on the lights and sat him down to play. And found a rash all over his head. (See photo below-click on the photo to make it larger). I took photos, thank goodness, because by the time Thomas woke up it was gone. A few hours later, he had a rash all over his head once again. Both times I think it was between 2-3 hours after his botttle. However, it did not happen the rest of the day.


Any input?



And here is an extra picture of my two boys sleeping!