Summer 2010: Eli is an outdoor boy finally!

Eli has always loved to be outdoors since he was days old. If he was crying and we couldn't seem to calm him down all we had to do was step out onto the porch and he immediately stopped crying and began looking around (he looked like a little bobble head doll). We knew then he would have a love for the outdoors like his daddy does, but little did we know that his love of the outdoors would not be a possibility due to the tough road ahead with his allergies and asthma.

Eli would watch his brother and sisters and other neighborhood children play outside but would have to watch from inside the house through the window. We would occassionally venture outdoors and do the preverbial outdoor activities, but even then he was unable to run or play like the other kids. "No running, no sitting or laying on the grass, no digging or picking flowers for Mommy"...those were just a few of the things he had to be told repeatedly "No no, Eli that will make you sick" or "Eli, we can't stay out long".

We came in after a limited exposure of 15-20 minutes to the outdoors and started our "detoxifying" routine and preventative measures. Most of the time we had to have a breathing treatment before we could do anything else. Then he got to "swim" in the bath tub to get all possible allergens off of him.
He put on clean clothes and then we headed to the medicine cabinet to counter act all the allergens he had been exposed to. I should have bought stock in benadryl and the other five pharmaceutical companies our monthly budget supported!

We did this the first FOUR seasons of Eli's life and he has now arrived at the fifth Spring and Summer season. We have already enjoyed more outdoor experiences with Eli in this past month than we did in his first four seasons COMBINED!
He has not only went outside almost every day the weather has allowed he has enjoyed playing outside for HOURS. No more 15-20minutes here and there and then the consequences of his outdoor exposure. He is riding his bike, playing on the swings, digging in the sandbox, playing T-ball and just being a normal near four year old with all of his little buddies in the neighborhood.

Does Eli have allergy flare-ups and issues still? Sure.
But what he doesn't have is the constant restrictions of how long he can play or what he can do. He doesn't have to be limited to playing on the concrete and can go outside even if the neighbors have just mowed the grass. The after effects of his 20 minute ultra-limited playtime before resulted in a day or two of recovery due to asthma and eczema flare-ups.
We still take precautions but those are far outweighed by what we DON'T have to do. We can focus on fun and just being a kid....that my friends is priceless!!!