Recently we signed up for a gym membership as it includes 2 hours of childcare. I brought my 8 month old on Monday who only stayed for 30 minutes as we are getting used to other people and new surroundings (I’m a sahm and we have the same routine with libraries/parks/etc). That day was the only day outside of routine and introduction to new people. The worker said she carried him for all 30min because he wouldn’t stop crying. I noticed upon dropping him off and picking him up she had a very strong smelling perfume or lotion that had transferred to my son. About 3 hours later he had a full blown allergic reaction (redness, hives all over his body and his right eye swelled shut thankfully it was managed with medication and no respiratory issues but still first allergic reaction ever which was scary). The only thing I can suspect was the cause from the perfume and when we went to the doctor they suspected it to.
We’ve been managing severe eczema since my son was weeks old but have been working with a pediatric dermatologist to manage it with prescriptions. Given children with eczema are prone to developing more allergies we have been exposing him as needed to different foods while managing his eczema (fragrance free, baths daily, using prescription, introducing high allergens and monitoring symptoms, etc).
I’m hesitant bringing him back to the gym/childcare bc unsure of the trigger and want to avoid anything that can lead to severe reaction before we can get in for allergy testing (weeks from now). Is it worth mentioning to the gym childcare management? Possible to even ask them to avoid strong perfumes? What would you do? More so afraid if I did say something would they retaliate?
TL/DR: 8 month old had allergic reaction, we suspect from the perfume the worker had at the gym. What would you do?