Dietitians

I believe I've said this before....but it always warrents repeating! Thank goodness for the Dietitian's in Sam's care!!! It was an RD who helped us get to the diagnosis, and today big thanks to our RD at CHOP and our inpatient hospital RD at Mayo.

We struggled finding a baseline for Little Man, we visited with our Allergist at CHOP who suggested his intolerances could suggest a corn intolerance and trace corn proteins in the Neocate formula could be preventing the inflammatory process in his body from calming down enough to find him a baseline to build from. We trialed corn and sure enough, after just 1tsp, failed it, we pushed it another 1/2tsp to be absolutly sure what we were seeing was a true FPIES response and we got our answer. The true beast of this syndrome is that you have to feed the child the food that he could react so violently to to know if he is intolerant or not....it is a terrible thing to watch, I can only imagine what a terrible thing to experience. Little man let us know what a terrible thing by restricting his intakes of the formula, to less than half his needs for over a week...he got so weak, so fragile. We then started him on Hemp milk, putting it half/half in his Neocate bottles and he began to rapidly improve. We started to move further away from Neocate and it's trace corn proteins to more and more hemp milk - he was doing beautifully. We were planning on building up the hemp milk to equal the nutrition in his forumla; while we moved away from the Neocate- adding the nutrients we felt he needed in addition to the Neocate, starting with the starch. The addition of the starch coincided with the first blood in stools we have seen in 13mo. We stopped starch and gave his body a 3day rest, and then restarted; only to have everything come sweeping back- with full force of the worst watery explosive stools I have ever seen! This drained little man so much, so we tried other starches- with no better effects. Now little man isn't trusting his milk again and limits his Hemp milk to less than 1/2 of what he has been taking- going down to the same mere 400 calories he did with the Neocate after corn fail, only with the hemp milk (that is low on carbohydrate) - not getting adequate calories meant he wouldn't get enough glucose for his body to feed his brain....which is the state he entered in to on the weekend before his hospitalization. We knew he was sick, we just didn't know how to get the right help for him. We also knew we had an appt with his pediatrician right away that Monday morning; and knew she could help.

That was one week ago. Where did the week go. I find myself wondering if the doctors here knew about FPIES and what they were really seeing in Little Man upon admission was not malnutrition but failure to thrive from the foods we give him.....would we be ahead of where we are at today?

The focus is on his nutrition. A growing baby needs nutrition first and foremost for brain growth. Little Man's body knew this, and knew what to do to give it to him....burn his own stores to make glucose for his brain- it is a state called acidosis. Little man's body was starting to go into acidosis because his stores were so low....from being so sick since corn fail; and not from a diet of hemp milk.

Which brings us to today, where everyone can hopefully start to catch up. Dr.P at CHOP has given us some great advice...."the parents know the child". If the parents are worried about the child, then there is something to be worried about...."listen to the parents". Dr.P has been calling us daily to check in because we are worried about our little man, so he knows to be worried too.

Today brings us new doctors, new perspective, new approach....the Mayo way- a team of doctors to look at things from every angle; not only to give best care but to make sure nothing is being missed or overlooked.

Our good news today? Our dietitian from CHOP was able to give our dietitian here the resources to show that Hemp milk is a nutritious milk alternative (not to be confused with a formula alternative); but a good base on which to build a good diet for an FPIES child with intolerances to dairy, soy, rice, and corn. Confirmation that I was in fact not malnourishing my child, his FPIES was.....