I haven't posted in ages. It is one of the many things that have been buzzing around in the back of my brain as I have been dealing with other things. And when I say other things I mostly mean starting solids with the little man. Or perhaps I should say attempting to start solids.
To make a long story short, we started at around 5 1/2 months with rice cereal, and began adding other foods as suggested by our pediatrician. The little guy began to have some issues. He became incredibly fussy, irritable, squirmy, and vocal. I thought it was because he was teething, or because we were in the middle of packing for a move, or perhaps a combination of the two.
Then came the spitting. At first it wasn't a big deal. It was a little more than I was used to seeing from him, but it didn't raise any red flags until the night he woke up screaming in his crib and then repeatedly projectile vomited after I picked him up. He continued to heave for over half an hour - expelling everything - right down to the bile. We assumed he had some kind of a stomach bug. Believing him to be sick, I went back to exclusive breastfeeding until after our move was complete. He seemed to have kicked the bug after 24 hours.
Then, a week or so later, several hours after the first solid food he ingested in our new apartment, the projectile vomiting returned, only this time it was worse. He heaved and heaved until he turned limp and lethargic, and then collapsed on my shoulder, absolutely exhausted, and slept for 5 hours straight (this being odd since I am extremely lucky if he sleeps for three hours at a time on a good night). All of the extra nerve endings I somehow spontaneously sprouted after becoming his mother were telling me that something was wrong.
Next, we all caught colds. Not wanting to try to start solids - again - while we were all feeling poorly, and wanting to give him the extra immunity from breastmilk, I held off. We went to his 6 month appointment during this time and everything seemed to be fine. A week and a half later we were all well again and I once more gave him a few bites of rice cereal. Several hours later, the vomit-heave-collapse scenario repeated itself.
I talked to one of the nurses at the pediatrician's office
"No one is allergic to rice," she told me. "It can't be the rice cereal." After repeatedly trying to convince me that a) he had a stomach bug and b) as a new mom I probably didn't know the difference between spitup and vomit, she told me to try an orange and a green vegetable over the next week.
With great trepidation I broke out the carrots. Day one went fine, day two he started fussing, squirming, and spitting. I called back, and the nurse set me up with an appointment to meet with the doctor. I dispensed with the green vegetable.
Per the doctor's instructions, we retried the carrots, with the same result. This time I videotaped his reaction for her later review. That was less than fun, as was the resultant laundry.
While it was not as bad as the reaction he exhibited after eating the rice cereal, it was nevertheless a pronounced reaction. The doctor sent us for an upper GI scan at the hospital, which was normal, and then referred us to a pediatric allergist, who told us flat out at the first visit that she was stumped.
On the allergists advice, we have tried apples, squash, and today - oats. I have prepared them all myself to make sure that there are no stabilizers, coloring agents, oils or other mystery ingredients that could interfere with our trial.
The apples were a wonderful addition to his only other "safe" food, pears, and I am thankful to have found them. The squash is a wild card that we will cautiously revisit before I can be sure. The oats yielded the worst reaction yet. I gave him half a teaspoon (half a teaspoon!) this morning and the projectile vomit showed up two hours later, shooting out two feet in front of him, soaking through three blankets, a quilt, all of his clothing, and all of mine. As I sat there holding my poor little man, limp and glassy-eyed, heaving and sodden, I couldn't help but feel slightly hysterical on the inside.
None of the doctors seem to know what is going on with him. I can only guess at what is going on, and my attempt to talk to the allergist about what I thought might be an option was rejected without much consideration.
And the worst of the worst - the bottom line - with no rhyme or reason to these food reactions, our only option is to continue doing these food trials by fire. Test it out, wait and see, hope the poor boy doesn't have to suffer through another bad reaction. Hope that we don't end up in the hospital for dehydration or shock. Hope that he will recover from the reaction in hours, not days.
I am exhausted. I am not going to say anything else about that because I will probably cry, and that is just not going to help anything much.
Now, after all of that whining, here are 5 things I can be thankful for in spite of this problem (see mom, I remember your trick).
5. Little man is an absolute chunk and thriving on my milk, so I don't have to be worried about him failing to thrive just now (though any delusions of weaning him by the year mark have flown out the window).
4. I am a smart cookie. If the doctors don't know what is going on, I can give it my best shot. I have started to read medical journals about similar reactions. I may not be a medical professional, but I am my son's best advocate right now and I need to make sure that I am doing what I can to educate myself for him before this situation becomes more serious.
3. I have been sustained by a higher power through weeks of him waking every hour or two at night, no naps during the day, days of fussing and screaming, of vomiting and explosive diapers...I have functioned on less sleep than I have ever thought humanly possible...and I feel ok. My mind is clear even when my body is about to collapse. I even drive without worry. I know that God is giving me the capacity to do what I need to do to take care of my family.
2. I have a wonderful, amazing, kind, caring, trusting, sympathetic husband. He also happens to be a phenomenal father and the best support I could ever ask for.
1. I am able to be at home with my son during this time. I can't even express what a blessing this has been.
