FPIES stands for Food Protein Induced Enterocolitis Syndrome and our youngest son has it. This blog follows his story on this journey: our challenges, our triumphs, our adaptations as we navigate through this new world created by FPIES.
Mothers Intuition
Have you ever had an instinct? An instinct that begins as a gnawing...Then grows into a raging burn; a burning instinct that something is wrong...
Your baby continues to get sick from the very foods he is supposed to thrive on. I did. I am a mom of a little boy just diagnosed with FPIES.
And that burning feeling now? Extinguished. My instincts? Stronger than ever. Guiding me, with my faith, as we navigate through the murky waters of our new world created by something called FPIES.
"Faith is not about everything turning out OK; Faith is about being OK no matter how things turn out."
Saturday, December 3, 2011
How is Zucchini going?
So, the first day we gave him a tiny slice of steamed zucchini; he had some symptoms that afternoon that were notable but nothing to write home about, but note and move through....so the next day I got him to take a tsp of boiled, pureed zucchini (that I pureed with some of the water I boiled it in- was that bad?) - he let me feed him a teaspoon and then would not take anymore. At the 4hr.mark, he had this terrible-terrible and classic-for-him irrational tantrum...the kind where you can't let them out of your sight because they may do something to hurt themselves because they are being so irrational (but he wouldn't let me hold him)- so he is having this tantrum in the bathroom (of the hospital) and he is drooling excessively (doesn't normally do that when he cries and he is 29mo.old so drooling isn't an everyday occurrence around here).....another FPIES mom helped clear this up in that it is uncontrolled reflux, which makes a lot of sense. He isn't necessarily crying as much as he is screaming- no tears, just screaming...then he starts to choke (not on his saliva, almost as if he is throwing up in his mouth and swallowing it down- you know when you recognize that sound)...it goes on for at least 30min. The plan is to take labs if he is symptomatic- so I ask (ok beg for these labs) and they are taken and found to be "off". He finally calms down and then is ok for most of the day- until he has some cookies later and then about 5hrs. after that, he has another one of these "mini" tantrums- this time he has clear mottling and his feet are purple when being held (again, classic for him when he was an infant and symptomatic). But then, he recoups from that and is fine again, he sleeps ok that night. Then we did baked zucchini the next day-Friday (so boiled and pureed and then baked into his muffin/cookies) and he doesn’t' have any symptoms to write home about. We got him home yesterday and he had his cookies again at dinner, and 3hrs. later had a poop soup diaper; but no other symptoms- sleeping good, eating ok, has a red rashy spot on his right cheek, behavior is ok,.... The plan is to continue the food trial for a full week- now at home, getting labs as needed. Until poop soup diaper, I was feeling confident that we were going to be able to work with just baked zucchini into his diet....and not even 'test' the boiled zucchini again (why make him miserable?) but now I worry that all we're doing is drawing it out and going to end up making him sicker in the long run vs. just knowing.
He's been, the past 2 weeks (since probiotic/sorry board game ingestions/symptoms) a little on the slower side for dirty diapers, only going every other day, and it being more play-dough so now to have soup...it's confusing... The labs that were off were his blood sugar and bicarb- he fit the criteria for acidosis (which he has had before with reactions); and his neutrophils (white blood cells) took a huge dive (very classic for Sam following a reaction, and why he always gets a cold after- (he's susceptible because his WBC's are down), and his hemoglobin dropped a full point (and didn't recover)- again classic patterns we’ve (I’ve learned) for Sam. I'm nervous but we need to know.....it seems to me that his body is having these dips of problems so if we helped his body (by baking it)- he could tolerate it? But....this could be his body adjusting or it could be building to a reaction....I'm trapped because we are supposed to call it a pass or fail after 7days but if he doesn't get enough of a serving- it's going to be hard to call it, but if we do too much- and his body is just adjusting we risk pushing his limits versus teaching his body to tolerate the food (which obviously is the goal).
My theory is: what we are seeing now (and the labs that correspond with his symptoms), but then we see him re-coop. I am curious if this is his body training for oral tolerance or if it is his body teaching to react? So, do we push it so we know and not continue to make him more chronically ill; or do we take it slower so we continue to teach his body oral tolerance?
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