I’m happy to report that for the first time since Simone has been born, she does not have cold urticaria. What is cold urticaria?
Cold urticaria (ur-tih-KAR-e-uh) is an allergy to cold temperatures. With cold urticaria, exposure to cold temperatures causes redness, itching, swelling and hives on the skin that has been in contact with the cold. As much as possible, people with cold urticaria should avoid exposure to cold air and cold water. For example, swimming in cold water is the most common cause of a severe, whole-body reaction — leading to fainting, shock and even death.
Bath time has always been a love-hate relationship for Simmi. She would love to be in the bath when it was very warm, but as soon as her skin would start to get cold from being wet above the water line, she would break out in horrible hives, start getting very upset and eventually scream and want to get out of the tub. Washing her is tricky too, because she will scream through the whole event as though she is terrified and in extreme pain. She is in pain. The poor darling starts to break out and she goes into panic mode. My last bout with her in the tub was a fight with her actually clawing and ripping at me like a wet cat trying to escape from her watery doom. 
I gave her plenty of time this morning to warm up to the idea of taking a bath today. Actually I’ve been telling her over the last three days she will be getting a bath. She immediately starts to cry, then she screams in protest over and over…there’s just no reasoning with her. When I say protest, I mean real protesting like “no bath, no bath, no bath” with fists clinched and striking the air. She is a natural protester with sayings at her disposal at any given time! If she wants to watch TV but I’ve said no, she’ll protest “TEE-VEE! TEE-VEE! TEE-VEE!” Stomping and thrashing the air with her fists like she’s at a feminist rally. Anyway, today I gave her ample warning about the bath, and she cried at first, but then sat at the table and while painting I could see her facial expression go from being vexed to happy and then back to feeling vexed. Then she would ask me, “Mama take a bath? Poppy take a bath?” I replied that yes we all take baths and I need Simmi to get all clean. She thought about it some more, and I then added that I would let her blow bubbles in the tub. That closed the deal. She finished painting and off to the bathroom we went.
I put her in the tub and after 10 minutes I noticed she didn’t have any hives. After 20 minutes still no hives! Then the moment of truth arrived…washing her hair and body. I was dreading it almost as much as she usually does. I told her it was time to get washed, she protested loudly but then stood there and let me pour the water over her head. She stopped crying and didn’t make a noise. I washed her hair with shampoo and and rinsed it out, and still no crying. I washed her body, and I didn’t find any hives! 4 1/2 years of screaming in the tub from being in pain has come to an end- I hope. She also has had only one break out of eczema and we’re trying to figure out whether its the bananas or the dishes. If dishes aren’t washed properly, she can and will break out all over her body. The eczema disappeared very quickly which leads me to believe its the dishes. She’s eaten bananas today and had no reaction. We don’t need to use any kind of steroid creams to control her eczema because its simply gone. No rough patches of skin, no itching, and now finally at long last no cold urticaria. I usually take her out of the tub and wrap her up in a towel quickly to try and ease the pain for her, but this time while I was drying her off her room was very chilly and she had goosebumps all over but no hives. Amazing!
I still have her on GAPS but we are still at that 98% mark. I ordered a juicer this week so that I could begin to introduce her to fresh juices and so she can help make it. If she’s involved with juicing she may be more willing to drink it. When I’m confident that she will drink the juices we make, I’ll remove the rice milk from her diet.
Her speech continues to improve as well as her interactions with us. She can sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to about 75%, and she learned Its Raining Its Pouring and can sing that one to 75%. Her attention span is increasing and she can now attend for 5 minutes or more. Here is a video of her from January 6th. I took some video of her today, but I haven’t uploaded it yet.
Tags: cold urticaria, eczema, Food Allergies, GAPS diet
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