Poor Audrey....

For those of you who haven't heard already, Audrey has developed another allergy. I have determined that her skin must be as delicate as her tender little heart. Last Saturday I spent the day at home preparing for our wards Great to be eight program and taking care of some of the things on my "to do" list. One of those to do items was laundry, which is a never ending process. I had just bought a new bottle of laundry detergent the day before because I knew I was low on detergent and wouldn't have enough to do all the laundry. Anyway, I bought the same brand I have always bought, but this had Downy fabric softener in the detergent as well. Apparently Audrey is allergic. Saturday night we put her in a clean pair of pajamas which had been washed with the detergent and she woke up Sunday morning looking like a leopard. She had hives all over. They were all the way up and down her arms, legs, stomachm back, everywhere!!! Since I knew she was allergic to mosquitoes, at first I thought maybe it was an insect bite and she was allergic to whatever it was had bitten her. So we gave her benadryl and the hives went away completely within about an hour. But there was no bite visible. Then later she broke out again when we put pajamas on her again, this time almost instantly. (The dress she had worn to church was not washed in the new detergent.)

Wednesday night we were having dinner and Audrey said "Mommy, I'm itchy." So I looked and sure enough, more hives. So I gave her the benadryl and about 30 seconds later she said "Mommy, they are still there." It was pretty cute. I can see how benadryl can work wonders, but let's face it, it is not magic.

Now that we know she has this allergy, I have bought a baby detergent for delicate skin to wash her clothes in. The hives are not near as bad, but she still continues to get them. The nurse at the pediatricians office said that even after switching detergents the hives could continue for 4-6 weeks. This morning when she woke up again, she had hives on her face, legs, and arms. Poor thing.... hopefully these hives don't stay for the full 4-6 weeks.