Bottle please, mommy

He ASKED for a bottle! Actually 3 times yesterday!  What music to my ears!  He asked for a bottle! (this is normal for him except in the last few weeks).   So, maybe we are turning a corner and he is healing or whatever it was that was the catalyst for this recent spiral is moving out of the picture?...

The other thing I changed was that I increased the hemp in his formula "recipe"- taking the recipe from the 18cal/oz to 21cal/oz (at least) - and he is feeling SO much better!  I did have to change the amount of ProViMin that goes in to the recipe (and haven't calculated out that yet), but this seems to be the break he needed in this spiral....he needs the calories more than the nutrients (so his body tells us) - and I had it the other way around.   The 'recipe" is too thick with either too much hemp or too much ProViMin (powder).   I will have to do some calculations over the next few days to see where he is now at with nutrients but I am just so relieved he is coming out of this "funk".   He has a few spots in the day where he is edgy but nothing compared to how he has been over the past 2-3 weeks.  Another situation where you kid yourself on how bad it is, just finding ways to get through it, until you're over the hump and looking back realize how hard it was - which means how "off" he was.   

I still am unsure what the catalyst was- whether it was the heat and then not getting enough to eat or if it was the work in the basement (mud and taping,etc) and the subsequent corn exposure it gave him.   His allergy is a gut allergy and we avoid corn ingestion like the plague.  In fact, he hasn't had a corn ingestion reaction (full vomit) since a multivitamin in Jan. 2011.  However, he's had corn contamination symptoms, and he's had an inhaled corn reaction (vomit).  This concerns me that his corn allergy is worsening, or that he has more than FPIES going on (which we have suspected all along anyway) - not that other kids don't experience inhalant FPIES symptoms as well but it is more commonly heard of with EGID (eosinophlic gastrointestinal disorders) - which are very close in nature to FPIES.  In fact, I've often wondered if he doesn't have some form of an EGID that has gone undetected because of how difficult/specific it can be to diagnosis - especially when we keep his diet so tightly controlled.  I don't know but inhalant allergy symptoms sure do bring things to another level.  And I've been noticing a pattern of this in the past - days when hubby mows the lawn and little man wants to ride on the tractor- he inhales all those fumes (yep, ethanol = corn), times when I've used a different laundry detergent and it has a perfume smell, he gets very pale/sheet white on these days...the smell alone - with all the corn, is making him sick.   

I asked this on one of the corn free forum's I follow and was actually a little surprised by the answer- how many people had actual experiences with house remodeling....and ER visits because of how severe it set off their corn allergy (people on these forums have varied degrees and forms of corn allergy from your typical allergy of hives/wheezing/etc to GI distress to neurological, emotional/mental effects,etc).  I follow these groups because it is at least a starting point to helping me learn and keeping our son safer.  And I am so very grateful for them. 

The dietitian let me know today that she was low on her numbers for his calories/ounce in his formula recipe- wow, that is a relief!!  Although it is still only 20cal/oz, it is better than the 18 she had mistakenly calculated it at.  She thought something must have been off so she went back and recalculated it.   She has a program for calculating it but the Hemp seeds aren't in that program- so she has to add those in by hand - and she was doing a full analysis of EVERY.SINGLE.NUTRIENT.   I'm glad she double checked, it makes me feel a little less sad about how low he went for those days - either because of the heat or because he was feeling poorly from the potential corn-y exposures....or (and likely) a combination of both.   

Whatever it was, we seem to be over the hump - and I know the prayers that went up were pivotal with this.  God has been trying to teach me this....that the answers to my prayers don't always come from my whisper to His ear but instead from my whisper to the hands (and knees) of family and friends....showing us that we are never alone....no matter how isolated we feel when no one knows how to help when he is sick.  

We are blessed.