Ten Thought Tuesday: November 26th

1. Just got back from the 1 year vaccinations (Happy Birthday, now let me stick a needle or two or three or four in your arms!).  I took the 3 “normal” vaccines but declined the flu vaccine (I figured three needles were enough for today).  I’m unsure whether I should vaccinate the little guy against the flu or not.
2. This weekend we will be going to an awesome kiddie indoor playground complete with things to climb, ball parks and a whole bunch of other interesting things.  I can’t wait to see Little Dude in action.
3. Charles reacted to something at daycare this week.  So far, every time he’s had a reaction there he’d had chicken.  Since we know he’s not allergic to chicken, I can only assume it’s to a spice.  *Scratches head*
4. Weaning is going well so far, the little guy will take a bottle in the evening no problem even if I’m the one to give it to him.
5. Look out for an interesting guest post tomorrow!
6. Swimming lessons are almost over.  In January, the little man will be starting a baby gymnastics class where he’ll be able to climb, learn to roll and do a range of other fun things!
7. Finally found the bathplug yesterday.  Turns out, the little guy didn’t flush it down the toilet after all… (he just hid it in a cupboard…).
8. I’m really happy because this weekend, I’ll have enough time to make a birthday cake for Charles.
9. I’m finally feeling better and I think I might actually be able to work the WHOLE week for the first time since the beginning of November.
10. Fall is definitely behind us (despite the fact that we haven’t got any snow yet).  But I still managed to snap some awesome shots of Charles in the ginormous looking leaf pile about two weeks ago.
    
    

    

    

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Ten Thought Tuesday

1. Today, my son has officially survived his 11 first months of life.
2. I was so excited yesterday when I received the email confirming that I was accepted into the Top Mommy Blog directory.  There are so many great blogs there.
3. The little guy gets so excited when he plays with crayons at daycare.  When he realized that he was coloring his page yesterday, he let out a war cry and was so pleased with himself.
4. I have a cold…and it sucks…
5. In light of Valerie’s recent posts on weaning, I’ve started thinking about how and when to start my own weaning process with Little Dude.
6. Now that I think about it, I would really love a guest post on weaning for Write for me Wednesdays.
7. I finally managed to finish Splinter Cell: Blacklist, on to Red Dead Redemption.
8. Halloween is coming up and I still don’t know what I’m dressing up as.
9. Next week we are finally going to our appointment with the pediatric allergist for my son’s food allergies.
10. I really need to finish the custom MOC LEGO post office for my partner; he’s participating in an exposition in a month.

I’m Allergic to Dairy.

Actually, I’m not.

But it feels like it.

Here’s the thing though, I’ve been dairy free for a little over a month (I think) now.  As hard as it was in the beginning, it has now become normal for me.  I don’t look longingly at cheese anymore.  I don’t miss milk or ice cream or yogurt anymore.  I’ve become adept at recognizing the hidden milk names in the ingredient lists and am starting to know which products are safe to eat.  Instead of looking at what I can’t eat, I look at what I can eat.  And there is PLENTY that I can still eat.

However, I wonder when I will be eating dairy again.  You see, as you can imagine, I’ve been reading a lot on food allergies since I first “diagnosed” my son when he was six months old (need I remind you that he hasn’t been officially diagnosed because our appointment with the allergist is at the end of October?) and there is a lot of research.  Among this research there is – you guessed it! – contradicting information.

Some sources say to try again after a few weeks.  Others say to do so after a couple months.  I’ve also read to wait until the age of 1.  And then there’s all of the other foods that I’ve opted not to try yet.  This includes nuts and strawberries, to name a few.  A part of me is afraid that he’s going to have a severe reaction but a part of me wants to try the foods out anyways.  Although “common knowledge” dictates to wait until the child is 2 to introduce peanuts and tree nuts (some say to wait until the 4th birthday for kids who have allergies or who have parents with allergies) new research has revealed that the sooner you expose your child to a food, the less likely they are likely to develop an allergy to that food.

I was thinking of reintroducing dairy in my own diet first to see how my son reacts to it.  If his eczema doesn’t come back and his stools stay nice and solid (I’m sure you’re all very happy to read about my son’s bowel movements haha), it would be a good sign that he’s on the right track to eating dairy himself.

What to do, what to do?

I’m reluctant to speak to our pediatrician about this.  I’m also reluctant to reintroduce dairy in my own diet lest my son develop bad eczema again by his next appointment at the end of the month and she indirectly accuses me of being a bad mom again.  Perhaps I should just wait and talk to the allergist about it at the end of October.

Thoughts?

Related articles

• A Whole New World…and Lots of New Adventures (nutfreeadventures.wordpress.com)
• Waaaay Past Annoyed (mommytrainingwheels.com)

Allergy Elimination Diet, Part 1: Dairy

After finding out that my son is currently allergic to dairy and that his bad eczema is most likely caused by the dairy (and/or something else) in my own diet, I’ve started an allergy elimination diet in hopes of controlling his eczema without the use of prescription creams.  I decided to start with eliminating dairy first because that is something I am certain his body can’t handle now that he’s started solids.

To help me with this, I went to see a dietician last Saturday.  I needed to make sure that my body had everything it needed (emphasis put on vitamine D and calcium) even though I’d be removing a whole food group from my diet.  The dietician I met with was really nice and had a lot of resources to share with me.

Among the food other than dairy that contains a decent amount of calcium that is well-absorbed by the body, there is:

– Enriched soy beverage (except we agreed that I should try to stay clear of soy as it is very common for children who are allergic to dairy to also be allergic to soy);

– Sardines (with bones);

– Pink and Sockeye salmon (also with bones)

I also told her that I had been drinking almond milk and rice milk (which are both very yummy) and she suggested I check if they contained decent amounts of vitamin D and calcium (which they do so yay!).

She also told me to check the list of ingredients in things such as cold cuts, bread products, cereal, mayonnaise and chips because they are all things that could contain milk ingredients.

Speaking of milk ingredients, did you know that there are a whole bunch of hidden names for milk protein?  I found this pdf document that lists them all from kidawithfoodallergies.org an awesome site full of ressources on food allergies.  They also provide a list of hidden names for other common allergens such as eggs and wheat.

I’ve been at it for a little less than a week now and though it is hard (as I LOVE dairy) it’s not as bad as I though.  There are so many great products out there after all.  The hardest part is thinking before I order something while eating out.  For instance, having the cheese sandwich at a local sub shop is not a good idea when one is not allowed to eat cheese.

Right now, my son’s eczema seems to be under control (I must grudgingly admit that the prescription creams are doing wonders in that department) and hope that the fact that I’m not having dairy anymore will have a positive impact once the creams run out.  Changes don’t happen overnight and I know that I have to wait at least two weeks until I see changes caused by my change of diet, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed so that I don’t have to eliminate another major allergen from my diet.

I’m also happy to say that we have not had any allergic reactions since my son’s smoothie last week so I’m hopeful that his other reactions were just caused by his immune system being on high alert from the dairy he’d consumed.

Now, I just have to find a dessert that I can have when my friends come over this weekend.  Hey, I don’t suppose anyone knows a good dairy-free recipe eh?  (You know, the kind that doesn’t contain milk, butter, cream, chocolate or the like…)

Related articles

• What is a Dairy Allergy? (nutallergycomm.wordpress.com)
• Learning She Has the Food Allergy Trifecta (babylovesbroccoli.wordpress.com)
• Elimination Diet (momtoboogie.wordpress.com)

Oh No, Not Again!

Guess what?

Yeah, my son had another reaction to something he ate.  *Pulls out hair*.  I swear, I’m going to have to invest in benadryl stocks…

Of course, now I’m getting paranoid, so, naturally, I’ve been doing some reading on food allergies.  Here’s what I’ve learned so far:

–  It generally takes a few exposures before the body has an immune response to a food that was consumed (which explains why my son seemed fine the first time but then broke in to hives the second or third time).

– 90% of food allergies are caused by an item from the “top 8”: cow’s milk, soy, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, crustacean shellfish and wheat

– Don’t assume that a reaction to a certain food will always present itself in the same way (which means that “just” because my son has been breaking into hives, doesn’t mean his body can’t eventually have a more severe reaction like anaphylaxis).

– Symptoms might appear a few minutes (hives) after eating an offending food, or many hours after (eczema).  This sent off a light bulb moment in my head.  You see, my son has had eczema pretty much from day 1.  Therefore, it is entirely possible that he’s been reacting to what I’ve been eating through my milk!

– If a parent has a personal history of allergies (seasonal allergies, eczema, food allergies, asthma) their child has a greater risk of developing an allergic condition.  In our case, dad has no allergies but I have seasonal allergies and have developed an asthmatic reaction to cats when I was in my preteen years.  It has mostly disappeared now, but I still keep my inhalers just in case.  This surprised me, because I thought that he would only be at risk if either his father or I had food allergies, which we don’t.

– Many children outgrow their allergies to foods other than peanuts, tree nuts, fish and shellfish.

Now, I’ve been communicating with a couple of mommas on a food allergy board, both of which suggested that I get my hands on an epipen for my son after seeing how widespread his reaction was when we initially went out to buy some benadryl.

So, where does that leave me?

1.  I need to call his pediatrician’s office again to see if she can write Little Dude a script for an epipen.

2.  Keep up the food log and take note of the other more subtle signs of an allergy.

3.  Keep a food log for myself and see how what I eat affects his eczema.

4. Call the allergy department of the hospital again to see if I can convince them that my son is more important than all of the other children that have an appointment before him to move up my son’s appointment before I run out of things to feed him.

5.  Become “that annoying mom that’s always calling” until I get answers.

Sound like a good plan?

 

The Waiting Game

This morning, I dialed the number that my son’s pediatrician had jotted down on the post-it she stuck to the allergist referral she gave me yesterday.  I did not hold for a very long time on the line before hearing the receptionist’s greeting.  After a brief exchange of formalities, I explained why I was calling.  She then proceeded to ask me quite a few questions to open up a file on my son for the hospital.  Among the questions, she asked what my son had had a reaction to.  I told her, specifying that Little Dude had only been on solids for three weeks.  The lady, then gave me some instructions to follow.

For our appointment, I need to bring all of the fruits and vegetables my son has had an allergic reaction to in separate ziploc bags, taking care that there is no cross-contamination.  This means that I am really going to have to give my son just one food item at a time for a given meal.  The rest of the food, they have at the hospital.  I was also instructed to make sure that my son is not given any anti-histamines for a whole week prior to the appointment.  This includes benadryl and means that I will only be feeding my son food that I know he won’t react to for that whole week (no introduction of new foods in that period of time).

Then, she gave me the date of the appointment.  It’s going to be on the 30th…

…of October!

Yeah…that means I get to play detective for the next five months or so.

Good thing I have my blog to keep track of everything he ate and everything that happened.  I also decided to start a spreadsheet so that I could log my son’s reactions to different foods.  I have a tab per month and have a column for each date.  I programmed it so that if I write an “o” (as in OK) the cell will turn green and if I write a “n” (as in No) the cell will turn red.  This will help me greatly in discovering the offending foods and will allow me to see a pattern emerge (if any).

I’m actually hoping that by the time the appointment comes around, there will be no allergies to be seen and the allergist will chalk it up to me being over-worried.  But I’m not holding my breath…

How To Stump A Pediatrician

For those of you not following my blog on BLW, here’s a small recap of what has gone on so far.

We started BLW when my son turned 6 months old – nearly 3 weeks ago.  Seeing as neither my partner or I have any food allergies, we dove right in and avoided only foods that had a high risk of triggering an allergic reaction like nuts.  Things were going really well until I noticed one day that my son had a pretty gnarly rash on his lower face and forearms.  At first, I brushed it off as being an eczema flare-up, a decent assumption given that I only noticed the redness the following day after an overnight change of temperature from cold to hot.

The thing is, though, the next time I gave my son some yogurt, I wiped him down, sat him on his playmat and, when I turned around to start cleaning the table, he started screaming.  I looked at him and immediately noticed this his lower face, cheeks and the inside of his arms were bright red with little white bumps all over.  Enter Benadryl…  Eventually, I put two and two together and realized that my son was reacting to dairy, or, at the very least, yogurt.  Reading up on it, I found that it wasn’t uncommon for babies to have trouble processing lactose and that this reaction could just be the result of his system not being mature enough to handle it.  ‘No matter’, I thought, we’ll just wait a few months before reintroducing dairy.

Then, he had a reaction to tomato – the second time he ate it only.  I thought that it might be because the second time around it had been in contact with an acidic dressing, but I still decided to err on the side of caution.  Henceforth, I would only introduce one new food at a time.  I made some fishcakes.  New ingredient: panko bread crumbs.  I did not want to use the other breadcrumbs because I read in the ingredients that it had been produced in a plant where they also use milk ingredients (yeah, you can say that I was overcautious…).  The first time he ate some, he was fine.  The second time he ate some, he was fine.  The third time…the third time he had an allergic reaction.  His lower face was bright red again and some bright red patches with little white bumps had crept on his back as well.

Damn.

So…where did that leave me?  I had (read: have) no idea what my son can eat.  I mean, seriously, why is he fine one day and not the next?  So, I rang up my pediatrician’s office this morning to see if I could get an appointment and perhaps a referral to an allergist.  Her office was very accommodating and found a spot for me today!

Well, after spending about a quarter hour in her office, she was stumped.  At first, she thought I might be mistaking an allergic reaction with eczema.  I suppose, however, that after asking me the same question about five different ways and getting the same answer from me, she realized that I actually was able to distinguish the two (don’t fault her for asking in so many ways though, she was being thorough!).  What also confused her was that I hadn’t changed my diet since giving birth.  She told me that, according to what she knew, my son shouldn’t be reacting to food because he hadn’t had any reactions to the proteins that were in my milk.

Eventually, she took out her prescription booklet and a post it and told me that she would be referring us to an allergist at a children’s hospital.  I’m calling tomorrow to get an appointment.

In the mean time, we are going to continue solids and I will be jotting everything down.  That way, I will have a mine of information by the time we are able to see the specialist.