Where O Where Has the Little Blogger Gone? Where O Where Can She Be?

Where have I been? It all started when our computer got a virus. It was icky. For the first time ever, I had to send my little laptop away to the computer-doctor-men to be fixed. Those tech guys are kinda scary. They speak a foreign language and really don't like kids in their shop. Although, to be fair, my kids near their equipment might have scared them as much as their tech talk scared me. The computer-doctor-men confirmed that my computer was a wreck and needed a serious intervention. It was gone for days. I was email-less and blog-less and facebook-less and online FPIES support group-less for awhile. It was sad. I have to admit though, it did free up some time. The computer-doctor-men, true to their word, fixed things up and got us back together again, all for the low low price of $79.99.

It wasn't long after this happy reunion with my laptop that something even worse happened to my online life. Hackers. That's right. Hackers. I can't call them icky. I have worse words to use. They took over my email account. They took over my facebook account. I had to change the passwords for every online everything anywhere ever. What a mess. When I regained my email account, my inbox had been emptied. My contact list had been deleted. My facebook account, despite many valiant attempts at reclaiming it, remained closed for well over a month. This is when it all started - or ended really. After all that, I found myself online much less. Maybe my online habits were altered when the technology was on hiatus? Maybe I'm just wary of it all? Maybe this is all just rambling and with the holidays and 27 (no, that's an exaggeration, there are really only 7) family birthdays in December, followed by the flu and nasty colds running rampant in our house in the new year, life just got hectic. No matter the reason, I've been MIA. Guess it's time to make an online comeback...

While you and I were apart, Ginny has made some progress... as well as a few steps backwards, but good news first.


The GOOD NEWS:
I am happy to announce that Ginny now has (pears, apples, spinach, quinoa, millet, carrots, strawberries, blueberries, mango, bananas, avocado, salmon, broccoli and grass fed beef) FOURTEEN safe foods. Yup! FOURTEEN. The best part of this is that she can now have variation in her meals each day. I can combine the different fruits into a smoothie for breakfast, quinoa flakes almost always comprise the bulk of at least one meal and we still have more options left for lunch, dinner, and snacks not to mention various ways to serve the food - fresh, cooked and, Ginny's favorite, freeze dried (sweet and crunchy!).


The BAD NEWS:
Well, luckily, nothing has been all THAT bad. We haven't had any more food trial fails, so no more trips to the ER (excepting the one we had to make when Ginny fell down some stairs, but that's another story for another day.). We do have fourteen foods, however, Ginny now boycotts the millet puffs all together. No millet puffs no thank you. And she doesn't want anything pureed. No baby food type food no thank you. And, although we call the beef and salmon safe, she isn't really so much willing to eat them. No meat no thank you. So mealtimes are just tough... What she really wants are strawberries, broccoli and carrots all the time. More more more more. And throw in an avocado every once in awhile please and thank you.

And fourteen foods sounds great. I know FPIES kids who, after months of struggles, still have just two, but here is the kicker: Ginny should be getting about 1300 calories per day. We rely on breast milk for at least 320 of those calories. Ginny can down a cup of cooked broccoli in a grotesquely short amount of time and suck down an apple/pear smoothie like nobody's business, but a cup of broccoli has a whopping 80 calories and the apple/pear smoothie about 141. I have been trying and struggling and cooking and baking and bringing food with me everywhere and offering it to G NON-STOP. Still, on my very best day, I got about 1100 calories into my kiddo. 1100 calories made up of produce and quinoa is A LOT, volume wise. Unfortunately, we average closer to 900 calories per day. G did lose weight at one point but, mostly, she just isn't gaining weight anymore (and I haven't had the courage to weigh her since the flu wreaked it's havoc). She's growing taller, just not bigger. She'll look healthy to you. She looks ADORABLE and happy and full of smiles - but when you make her naked nude to put her in the tub you can really see how scrawny she is. And this worries me. I believe moms are hardwired to worry. It's part of our genetic make up and the role we play in the human story. I worry.

We had a very long conversation with Wonder Woman about Ginny's diet not too long ago (somehow, I thought I'd have to see a dietitian or nutritionist for insight like this but, go figure, Wonder Woman swoops in on her invisible plane and saves the day again) and learned quite a bit. Our biggest concerns nutritionally, besides the calories, are iron, calcium, protein and fat, hence our trials and intro of broccoli, salmon and beef. But you know what else would really help out? MILK! CHEESE! So we're considering it. Honestly, just typing that makes my stomach churn. You may remember that we did a patch test for allergies a few months ago and had a strong positive reaction to soy. But... since dairy is a common FPIES trigger and milk and soy proteins are very similar, we've avoided them both. But, this week, at the urging of Wonder Woman, we did a blood test for allergies (among other things we're checking out). If milk doesn't come back positive, I think we're going to give it a try.... eventually, soon-ish, I'm pretty sure... (i.e. don't go placing bets in Vegas).

But first... bison. Yup, that's right. You heard me. Bison. For lunch today. I went to St. Mary's elementary school and our mascot was a bison. I always liked bison (as far as animals to see at the zoo, but still...) and, I've heard, it has a much milder flavor than grass fed beef (which fills my house with a very game-y odor each time I cook it). So, in an effort to boost G's iron intake, find a meat she likes and have something else in our back pocket should things not work out with milk/so we're not putting too many eggs in one basket, we tried bison for lunch. G seemed to like it. No surprise that Ellie was a fan of it too. We are the bison couldn't be prouder and if you can't hear us, we'll shout a little louder.... I was a cheerleader in 5th grade. I actually did that cheer. Crazy.