A reader asked,
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My wife, 7 month old son, and I moved into a rent house in October of 2007. By January, my son had developed congestion that just would not go away. In early February, my son had a febrile seizure and kept the congestion throughout the month. We saw multiple doctors and specialists, but none could seem to pinpoint a diagnosis.
Finally, my wife took our son to Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, Texas. Our previous Pediatrician diagnosed my son with Pneumonia. After a 10 day supply of Suprax, is congestion showed no signs of altering. My son also had extreme diahrrea, and terrible diaper rash for which we took him to yet another doctor, and he diagnosed it as a fungus.
He perscribed a steriod/fungal fighting cream. That following day, we went out of town and the cream seemed to work tremendously and his diahrrea stopped. When we came back to the house, his symptoms re-occured. I decided to do a home mold test in his room, and the results were positive.
I immediately checked my family into a hotel and my son seemed to get better after a couple of days. A certified inspector came out and took an air sample from outside, the living room, and my son’s room. The results showed an elevated mold condition in my son’s room (200 outside, and 880 in room) for Penicillium and Aspergillus.
An allergist told me that it’s probably not allergies since he is only 1 year old and his immune system isn’t stablized enough yet to even have allergies. Can these symptoms be tied to the elevated mold problem?
Answer :
Without actually being there, from what you’re described, your son’s situation definitely seems to be a result of mold exposure – ESPECIALLY if he gets better in a different environment.
My advice would be to move your son as soon as you possibly can. In many situations it may be best to talk to your landlord and try to fix the problem by removing the mold and preventing further growth. However, because your son is so young and is experience pretty severe symptoms, it would be in his and your best interest to get out of that building – now.
You have the evidence by having such a high mold count in his room, and he is symptomatic – mold definitely looks like it’s the culprit.
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1 comment
I have just found your website and wondered if you could give me some advice I moved into a bungalow and after a few months discovered that blck mould was growing under the bed the clothes that were in the drawers of the bed were wet through and black & smelled awful and also the carpet was black. The mould did not come up the walls and we had to take all our new carpets up and throw thwm away. It is a council rental and they dug up all around the outside and painted the floor with something We had to move our bed into the lounge and we lived like this for 18 mths until The landlord got the specialists in I asked the specialist what he would do & he said he would move and that the property should be demolished He went out to his car and came back dressed from head to toe in white clothing with a mask and gloves and told us to destroy all our things. I have since been diagnosed with Bronchiectasis and am now on oxygen at night. The council moved us out after the inspectors report but would not let us read the report They paid for everything that had to be replaced including washer/drier new carpets new kitchen They got decorators in and even moved our plants out of our garden They also paid all removal fees. Do you think I should sue them?
Regards
Val