The Runny Nose Kid

My 5-year-old son is the runny nose kid. He has had a runny nose since he was 2, pretty much all the time. At first I thought it was just a pre-school cold but it never went away. So I saw the pediatrician and she didn’t seem worried and did nothing. When it continued, I saw the allergist. I liked the allergist but she didn’t think it was an allergy. She did skin and blood tests and tested his immune system. It turned out that he had no allergies but sinus infections. She prescribed antibiotics and he was clear in 1 day. But then they kept coming back and we kept getting antibiotics. She thought the adenoids were enlarged but this is something he could “grow out of”. He hasn’t grown out of it and I think he has had too many antibiotics.

So we visited an ENT and his diagnosis is that his adenoids are too big but we should wait and see if he will grow into them. Sounded familiar. He also thought we don’t need antibiotics so much. He gave us this saline solution to wash up his nose every day. Now that is fun. I chase my 5 year old around the house and pin him down in order to squirt salt water up his nose. It worked for about a week and then the runny nose came back. So, I have another appointment at another ENT, this time pediatric (I didn’t know there were pediatric vs. regular ENTs!!!) This appointment isn’t until November (it almost Nov. now but I made the appointment about 6 weeks ago) but I am going to keep it because the last ENT was vague about next steps. He said to go back to the pediatrician who hasn’t been much help really. Then to top it off my son’s teacher mentioned she thinks his hearing is impacted.

In the meantime I went to a Naturopath. She is a Doctor of Naturopath who merges western medicine and eastern medicine. She spent 1-½ hours with us getting a history and examining him. She gave us homeopathic remedies to get rid of the colds and congestion. She also said we need to go dairy free, thinking he may be allergic to dairy products. I mentioned that he’d been tested at the allergist and she said it is allergic in a different sense. It is more like intolerant of milk. This is a huge issue because my son drinks about 4 cups of milk a day!! She plans to do some treatments where she works on the intolerance and eventually he will be able to have milk again. It is all a little strange and different and I am not sure about it. Am I being conned? Will it work? Will I be able to avoid surgery or am I just postponing the inevitable? I figure it is worth a try and maybe a combo of a diet change and homeopathic remedies will cause his infections to go away. I will submit the bills to the insurance but I have no idea what if any they will cover. (We have new insurance this week.)

But in the end, he may have surgery if that is what it takes to “cure” him. I am just a bit frustrated with all the different answers and the time it has taken to get nowhere. In the meantime, he still has a runny nose.