Moments of Weakness

Eating on an allergen free diet is hard.  It's especially hard when I don't plan ahead and I'm hungry and dying for something to eat.  I cannot mess up otherwise I pay for it with Brooks' symptoms.  Last night I hadn't eaten anything substantial for dinner (I'd fed the rest of the family something that I couldn't eat because it was easy), and I decided to make some wild grain rice.  Something told me I shouldn't do it, but I was starving and just felt like eating something warm, nutty, and filling.  I knew Brooks' was allergic to white rice, but I'd eaten wild grain rice before and hadn't noticed it was causing any additional problems.  I haven't had any rice in over a month, so I knew if he had a reaction then I would know he's allergic to ALL rice.  Sure enough just now when I nursed him he threw up all over me and my clean sheets.  Twice.

Ugh.

Here's my list of his allergies so far:
Milk
Soy
Rice
Corn
Eggs
Peanuts (still not 100% sure of this)
Wheat

Last week after feeding Brooks' baby food he broke out in hives on his face 3 different times.  So I'm tempted to believe he also is allergic to a fruit.  Could it be a fluke, I don't know?

The hardest one is probably corn because corn syrup and corn starch are in everything, and not necessarily listed on all ingredient lists as an allergen, so I have to read carefully.  Good thing I love my baby, huh?

I also found out that Elecare the specialty formula that I have tried on Brooks' has corn syrup listed as the #1 ingredient (57% per serving).  No wonder he won't drink it!!!  I looked into the other brands and they also have corn syrup as the number one ingredient.  DISGUSTING.  Maybe I'll have to nurse him until he's 18 months old.

We also think that Preston has developed a corn allergy.  About 6 months ago we noticed that Preston was scratching his backside, bottom and groin to the point where he was bleeding.  We thought he had dry skin or eczema so we were treating it with lotion and steroid creams.  It would not get better and at night when he was sleeping was when he would scratch the most.  Once I realized the Brooks' was allergic to corn I took corn out of my family's diet.  It was pretty much the only allergen that Preston wasn't eating anymore.  We noticed that his skin cleared up completely and I mentioned to Kyle that maybe it was a corn allergy.  When we went to Vancouver a couple of weeks ago though the itching and scabs came back and he also had a huge red ring on his bum called an allergy ring (sorry to be graphic but I know this might help others).  He was eating lots of treats with corn syrup, corn chips, and many other corn items.  His backside looks terrible.  A few nights ago he woke up crying and Kyle found that he had scratched so hard he was bleeding.  So sad. It's going to be very difficult to manage a corn allergy on Preston if that's what he has because the kid is obsessed with candy and chips.

In other news, we have to get Brooks' tongue clipped because he's tongue tied and is unable to eat his baby food with a spoon because he can't get his tongue back there to swallow.  He gags if the food is not very thin because he can't use his tongue.  We are feeding him with a medicine syringe, but we will get it clipped soon by our dentist.  We had to clip Preston's tongue when he was 2, but his was because of speech.

30

 Turned the big 30 on April 27th.  Got to share the day with my miracle niece Clara, and Kyle took me out on the town in our friend's car.  It was a great day.  Luckily I've forgotten since then that I'm 30.  That just sounds weird!  I have a feeling that my 30th year just might be a crazy one!

Wheat Woes

Last night and this morning, I decided to test wheat back in to Brooks' diet by eating some noodles.  I wasn't positive he was allergic to wheat, but had eliminated it a month and half ago because it's a common allergen.  Sure enough an hour ago after nursing him, he projectile vomited EVERYWHERE.  It was scary how much he was throwing up.  By the end he had blood coming out of his nose from throwing up so much. So sad.  Good thing I was sitting on my leather couch because we both had to get in the shower.  He's happy though, and now I know for sure.  Hoping I can fatten him up with some solid food fast.  He's getting skinnier and skinnier by the day, and yes if you tell me he's skinny I might just deny it!  

I've ordered some Neocate formula to feed him at night to try and fatten him up and help him sleep at night, but that stuff isn't very high in calories because it's so broken down.  At least I can have it on hand for when we have a problem like today.

I love THIS article.  I feel like I could have written it!  Especially the part about the doctors. I took him to a GI specialist at the Richland clinic of Seattle Children's Hospital this week and the doctor made me feel like I was a fool for thinking he could be allergic to anything more than dairy and soy.  I was SO mad when I left and ended up in tears.  Having a doctor doubt you and make you feel like you don't know what's best for your child is so frustrating.  I will not be going back for the return appointment.

I will NOT be testing anything back into his diet from now on.  Mother knows best!

 

Winner!

I won the Biggest Loser competition at Kyle's work.  In 13 weeks I lost 19% of my body weight, which also happened to be 25 pounds! With everything that is going on with Brooks I have not been able to exercise, so I had to do it by watching what I eat.  I'm so glad it's finally over, but I'm so happy that we did it.  I'm sick of weighing myself 3 times a day!  I'm going to buy some new jeans with my $100 bucks.  Too bad they did 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners, so the amount wasn't very much, plus some people dropped out.  I'm so proud of Kyle because he lost 17 pounds, which was 9% of his body weight.  Maybe I'll take his $80 and add it to my $100.  I think I deserve it!  

Now I just need to get fit!  I still have 6 pounds to go before my goal weight, and hope to do that by exercising!  

Grateful

I just want to give a public shout out to my friend Mary Ann.  She is my source for EVERYTHING right now for allergies.  She has dealt with everything under the sun with her kids and allergies. She has definitely done her homework!  I can ask her about anything, and she has the answer.  I am so grateful for her right now.  No words.  

For those of you wondering why I'm still nursing, well there are a number of reasons.  Mainly because it's best for the baby, even if I have to try and figure out what's causing his problems.  The longer I nurse him, the higher is chances are of not having allergies later on.  HERE is a great link that Mary Ann sent me.

Last night Brooks' projectile vomited twice at night which he hasn't done since I've been off of dairy.  I've got to think that the rice is causing it.  

Today's goal: get Brooks' started on probiotics, figure out what to do with his double ear infections, get rid of my cold sore, and survive a preschool field trip with my 3 boys!

Another Allergy Update and Easter Pictures

I feel like my life revolves around cleaning up messes from my two older boys and figuring out Brooks' allergies, which also involves cleaning up lots of messy clothes from spitting up and diarrhea.  Brooks' seems to be regressing.  He's not gaining weight, he's still gassy, and still has bad diapers. I'm on a very strict diet, and have only "messed up" a couple of times with jelly beans on Easter and some jam that I didn't realize had corn syrup.  Well the last few days he seems to have been getting worse and worse and I'm not sure what to attribute it to. Tonight though I had some friends over and made some Mexican rice and used white rice.  I also had Rice Chex cereal with rice milk earlier today.  For lunch the last few days I've also been feeding him some organic rice cereal.  Tonight while our friends were still here, I nursed Brooks and he was spitting up so much and was fussy.  Literally he spit up until I put him to bed.  He was also arching his back, and seemed uncomfortable.  My friend was telling me she has a friend who is allergic to rice.  That's the only thing that I can think of eating that he could still be reacting to.  So far since I've been on my crazy strict diet, I haven't had one symptom free day for him.  Yes things have gotten better, but still there are problems that keep popping up.

For the past few months since we've been eating healthier, I've only had white rice a couple of times, and one of those times was tonight.  So that, in addition to all of the other rice products that I had in my system today, I' thinking that's got to be it.  Who knows though.  

Did I mention he just finished his antibiotic for a double ear infection, and I'm pretty sure he still has the infections?  Poor baby.

I started making the boys their Easter bow ties at 12:30 am on Easter.  It was a crazy day for us, and pretty much everything that could go wrong, went wrong.  However, I had in my head that I was going to make my boys Easter ties, and so I did.  I know, they look extremely amateur, but if you knew all the circumstances behind making these ties, you'd understand. I was using a sewing machine from the 1960's that I'd never used on my own before, I've never attempted my own sewing project, I had NO fabric, so I had to use some thick linen scrap fabric that I cut from some IKEA curtains, and Kyle was getting our truck towed to our house at 1 am after breaking down....I could go on!  Long story short, I finished the ties at 2 am.  I showed up for church and there were half a dozen boys in our ward with really cute homemade bow ties on so I was a little humbled :).  Good thing my boys didn't realize that theirs weren't quite up to par.  By the time church was over they had tugged on those ties so much that they looked a little rough.When we took these picture the boys were done with sitting still, they wanted to eat lunch and their Easter candy, and Brooks' was so hungry.  Note to self: NEVER take pictures after church.  I took a million pictures and these were definitely the best of the bunch! Oh boys!

What are the odds????

Our neighbor Bob calls our house all the time.  He LOVES to talk, I mean really, really loves to talk.  However, he never calls us from work, always from his home phone.  This morning my mom called me and asked me if I'd talked to Bob.  It was around 10 am and Bob was at work, so of course I hadn't.  I said, no and asked her why she was asking.  She said she she just got off the phone with Bob and he was at work and that he called for Kyle's phone number.  I was immediately confused!  Why would Bob call my parents house, but even more importantly, HOW would he call my parents house from a work phone?  He doesn't know where they live, he has no idea what their last name is (I don't even think he knew my mom's first name until I told him it was the same as his daughter's name this week), and he's most definitely never called my parents' home.

My mom said that the phone rang this morning, and she said hello.  The man on the other end said, "Chelsea?" and my mom said  "no this is Jill."  Bob said, "oh, are you babysitting the boys?"  She said "no, I'm cutting my husband's hair."  Bob was confused and so was my mom.  Somehow she found out she was talking to Bob, and he found out that he had indeed not called our home, but my parents home.  Our phone number is not closely related to my parents phone number at all.  My mom asked him what number he dialed and he repeated my parents home phone number to her.  She said "that's my phone number." Bob had the last four digits of their phone number in his head all morning he said.  She told Bob what our home number was, and sure enough Bob knew that was our home phone number and wasn't sure why he had dialed the number which was my parents.  Is this crazy to anyone else?  Bob was in shock all day.  My mom told Bob that God works in mysterious ways.

By the way, the odds are 1 in 10,000 that he would dial that number.  (they would be higher, but the first 3 numbers of our phone number are the same)