Allergies

Day two in Rexburg found Patrick's face turning red and breaking out in hives. It's happened only twice before and I couldn't for the life of me make a connection. Nothing eaten was out of the ordinary on either occasion. We were in the dead of a Provo winter for one and the end of a St. George summer on the other. What in the world could both have in common???? Now adding fall in Rexburg really threw me. We gave him Benedryl and hoped it wouldn't happen again.

Another two days brought the hives back. He was itching at his watery eyes. He tried to play as he normally would, but I could tell he was very distracted. That night a possibility finally hit me; Could he be allergic to dogs? My mom has four toy poodles:

And my dad has a golden retriever:
What seemed odd to me was that if he really WAS allergic to the dogs, why wasn't he constantly in a state of hives? Especially when the contact is pretty constant?
We decided to get him tested and found that he is indeed allergic - but only to their dander. My dad suggested that short of getting rid of the dogs (which was not an option, nor would I ever expect my parents to go through such a large sacrifice for us simply because we wanted to move in with them) the best thing to do was simply bathe the dogs frequently and thoroughly. That way their skin stays conditioned enough that it won't create the dandruff that Patrick is allergic to. We bathed the dogs that night. Patrick's only had one small breakout since and it's been a week. I can only hope that the extended exposure will not intensify his allergy for the time that we're here. But it solidifies my past growing wonderings of if I ever even wanted to own a dog. I know now that I never will at least until the kids are all grown and pretty much out of the house. On top of that, my experiences with the FOUR dogs that my mom has (sure they're little, but there are four) teaches me that I could never own more than one anyway. :)