Or at least that is what I hoped some setback/symptoms were
from. The other day, I picked up his brother from an after school class
and he was jingling a whistle in his pocket. Little man, of course heard
it and asked for it. I had woken him up from his nap to go pick the kids
up from the bus and from the after school class so he was being a little edgy.
We succeeded in convincing him it was simply a bell, and let him play
with it. He doesn't know it's a whistle (I keep any toys that would be
'mouthed" out of our house because the cross contamination risk of one boy
who had just eaten something that little man is allergic to is too high with a
2yr.old that doesn't understand why his brothers get to play with the toy and
he doesn't). So, he's happy thinking it's a bell.
He is clutching it when we get home, a new toy he isn't
ready to share (or give back to his brother). But somehow one of his
other brothers convinces him to show it to him and promptly shows him it is not
a bell but a whistle! Little man is TICKLED and excitedly comes to show
me what his big brother taught him. He is giggling and giggling- how can
I stop him? He's already sucked on it (before he came to show me), and he
is having SO MUCH FUN with it- belly rolling giggling at his discovery!
I saw a little prayer and call his brother up to tell me what he ate before he
used the whistle. Lunch...a dozen things could be living residue on this
whistle. We can only wait....
2 hours following the whistle blowing fun, he has a nasty
diaper with mucus and green slime (mixed in with normal stool, so not a full
diaper of slime), but the tell-tale smell of reaction permeates the house (and
his brothers are sure to confirm that....you'd think they'd be used to it by
now but the "he has a really bad stinky" yelling while running
through the house gagging apparently just never gets old.
He has some trouble going to sleep that night and the next
day he just isn't feeling good, noted by the whining, clinging and decreased
appetite. We had a busy morning with taking kids to school, to
preschool, dietitian appointment, etc...so I'm hopeful it is just from the busy
morning. His afternoon improved; so I'm hopeful we've seen the end of it
(whatever caused it). This allergy is so bizarre- and he's had dozens of
this type of cross contamination reaction - why do I still feel like I'm just
seeing things?
Over the next few days, he is still "off" and I
notice he has a small eczema patch on his leg I will be watching (he NEVER gets
eczema outside of a food trigger). Now, I'm actually hoping it IS
from the whistle (and not the Alimentum we've been questioning his tolerance
of) because it brought on more trouble than I anticipated....with all the
symptoms he had for a few days, I'm surprised he didn't vomit from it all.
I'm still banking on all of his symptoms being from that, as
they escalated and then seemed to peak and are now coming down, with a few
lingering ones that are still making me concerned. The night time waking
is the biggest one right now. He is awake in the middle of the night,
wide awake or crying awake and it's been too many nights now to be coincidental.
I am hoping it was related to the whistle because it is otherwise
related to his "feeds"- he is on a drip feed overnight to get
15-21oz. of formula that is too hard to give during the day without taking away
his hemp milk bottles (and his own eating skill) away from him -- which would
be going backwards so it is not something we want to do. If his hemp milk
were just water, that would be another discussion but his hemp milk is
nutrition itself and it keeps him knowing that he needs to eat (even if it is
drinking from a bottle) when he is hungry. The tube feedings are to help
him not be as hungry and provide missed nutrition, between his own
"meals" (right now hemp milk formula, peaches and millet cookies) and
provide nutrition....it is not meant to take away all his appetite and skill of
eating, for him.
We are at 3 weeks now on full Alimentum RTF with each day
getting more assurances that he is not having any reactions from the dairy
protein in it.
With this weekend being a slip back into the
"crisis" mode from his not feeling too well, a mode we have spent so
much time in over the past 2yrs., that has so much focus and attention on
Little Man and so much less than what we aspire to on the other boys, it is
giving me some comfort in the decision of the feeding tube surgery. If
this gives him the break from food trials by providing the means to give him
the formula that his body can thrive on, it will increase not only his quality
of life but his brothers as well.
A little message I needed, a blessing in disguise for my
heart....
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