What Once Was a Mystery.......

Carson has had tummy troubles for the majority of his 20 months of life. Looking back it started when we put him on formula. His bottles were always hit or miss. And sometimes they Hit us. All over our clothes if you know what I mean. A happy spitter we called him. Never seemed to bother him. When we graduated to cows milk at one year it got even more disgusting. We decided cow's milk just wasn't for him and switched him to juice. Solids were also hit or miss. Sometimes he would be fine and then at other times...not so fine. And even though our frustration grew I know it could not compare to what he felt. A sweet solid boy with the appetite of someone twice his size relegated to rice cereal because that's all that was "safe" for him. So being slow to catch on I realized something was a foot here. Mentioning it to his pediatrician she immediately diagnosed, "Reflux" matter of factedly and sent us on our way with an acid reducer. In my heart of hearts I knew that couldn't be it but trusting medical expertise over my own I reluctantly said ok and gave my baby the acid reducer. Some improvement resulted for a short time and then it was back to the same old problems. When I took him for his 18 month well check and was informed that his weight hadn't budged over his 21 pound mark 6 months ago I knew it was time to investigate. One thing was holding us back. Our crappy insurance. It was bad. In Carson's situation we were pretty much paying out of pocket for everything. It stunk! I went ahead and requested an upper GI to make sure there was nothing complicated going on and that test came back normal. When I would tell people about Carson's problems they would immediately suspect a wheat or gluten allergy. But judging from the amount of waffles this boy was eating (another safe food) I highly doubted it. It turns out my doubt was only half right. But it did get me thinking about more in the realm of food allergies. In July when our insurance went from crappy to not so crappy I decided it was time to find out what this was. I got a referral to a pediatric gastroenterologist. The doc was a nice enough guy. He wanted to do two things, test his blood for allergies and then do an endoscopy (basically put a little camera down his throat under general anethesia). He suspected Carson had a condition that causes a swollen esophagus from allergic reactions to foods thereby making the food harder to pass through. The endoscopy sounded a little drastic to us and when the insurance lady called me up quoting a $7300 price tag I knew it was too drastic. I called the doc to see if we could just see what his blood test showed and then go from there. He agreed. Last friday his blood results came back and it turns out our little boy is allergic to the following: Soy, peanut, cow's milk, and eggs. On a scale of 1 to 5 he is at a 3 for eggs, a 2 for peanut and cow's milk and a 1 for soy. So all those waffles he has been eating? yeah, not a good thing at all. His food allergy isn't what I thought. I think food allergy and I think immediate, stopped breathing, Epipen! His is more of a gradual build up and when his little tummy can't take it anymore he flairs up. But I have seen an immediate reaction. Both times that I have fixed him french toast he has started hitting his ears and cried uncontrollably and not that I think about it he was a little short of breath. Duh! I dipped the bread DIRECTLY into eggs! So as we go about systematically eliminating these foods from his diets I am learning a whole new world. Milk is in a lot of stuff and a lot of labels will look good until you get to the end and it says, "Manufactured in a plant with peanuts. " that's a no go! And cheese quesadillas are out unless I can find a suitable milk free, soy free cheese substitute which I am sure will taste wonderful! I am switching him to cereal and oatmeal for breakfast because I tried to make him egg free waffles last night and they were not fit to eat. Thankfully his new fave chicken nuggets are A-ok and any fruits are a good thing so I am finding it is easier than most food allergies. All of this aside I am so relieved to finally MAYBE be on the road to helping Carson to feel better. There are not a whole lot of things more frustrating than trying to figure out why your baby is sick. They can't tell you and that is the challenge. I am just hoping and praying that his little tummy will finally be at rest with these changes we will make. For now it's a waiting game.