Our First Food Trial: Pears, Day 3 (With a little bit-o-good news thrown in)

I told you I wouldn't write every day, and I won't. Really, there isn't much to say about the food trial at this point, but I keep thinking of other things I should tell you and I know that if I don't just do it, I just won't do it. Know what I mean? And quick, short, easy to digest posts are better than those novellas I used to write, right? Right.

So, to get it out of the way.... another 1/4 t. of pears in this morning at about 8:30 (G slept in) and all is well. I could give you all the details - at home, we're documenting every diaper and burp and fart and the slightest of redness on her skin in the greatest of detail - but I'll spare you... with one exception. We're documenting the diapers and I was quite surprised to find a special treat in there yesterday: grass. It's so tough to be outside with G because she love love LOVES to pick and attempt to eat handful after handful of grass. I forgot about this stage. I thought I had been rather successful in keeping it out of her mouth. I guess I was wrong. Does this count as a 'passed' food for our FPIES list?

Now onto the other news... Boy Wonder called us yesterday, quite out of the blue! After further research (and conversations with the doctors at CHOP, I think) he is now willing to do a patch test for eggs. Hooray! Eggs would be such a nice, versatile food to have on our safe list if all went well and we actually decided to trial it. So, all I have to do is find powdered egg (apparently, using this gives the most accurate result) and bring it along to our appointment. I can do that.

Furthermore, I thought I'd fill you all in on our long term plan for food trials. From what we can tell from our research and reading, the foods that most often show up on 'safe' lists for FPIES kids are pears, spinach and grass fed lamb so, after pears (I'm obviously feeling very positive and optimistic at this point) we'll do those. I am considering trying some form of potato before we do spinach, because E happily ate potatoes with spinach mixed in, but never spinach on it's own and, to be honest, the thought of pureed spinach doesn't really appeal to me either. So... pears, potatoes (not sweet because those are really a legume, I think), spinach and grass fed lamb. If we passed all of those, we would have a fruit, a veggie, a starch and a meat at the end of just 16 short weeks. Just so you know, I have eaten lamb in gyros and on limited other occasions, but have never made it at home so I have some research to do. It will be an adventure for sure!

I think that's it. Tomorrow Genevieve will get a 1/2 teaspoon of pears from Daddy for breakfast. I actually think he's pretty excited to get to feed her. Now I'm off to play with some dinosaurs, mermaids and space shuttles. Yes, they're all friends and they play together on Sesame Street in Ellie's world. Got a problem with that? :)

Our First Food Trial: Pears, Day 2 (A Slight Change of Plan)

No, I'm not going to blog every day about our first food trial. We'll be trialing each food for two weeks, so that would get incredibly dull, wouldn't it? Go ahead. Nod your head. Don't feel bad. It's true.

But I am writing this morning... 7:45, another 1/4 teaspoon of pears in. I won't be increasing the amount yet. Thanks to Joy and other moms all over the FPIES internet world, we have a small change in plans. We'll feed G the same amount for 3 days and, should she tolerate it, we'll double that amount, stay there for three days, etc. Part of me just wishes I could serve up a big 'ol bowl of pears and let her dig in and part of me wishes we weren't even at the 'feeding' stage yet. Most of all, I'm just glad we haven't needed to head back to the ER!

And just so you know, I was right on with the tooth prediction. This morning we're celebrating the arrival of tooth #2 (bottom right). Hooray! Oh - and more than anything, we're celebrating a 3rd night of incredibly improved sleep.

Our First Food Trial: Pears, Day 1

At about 7:30 this morning, Genevieve ate about 1/4 of a teaspoon of homemade, organic pear puree. Since then she's nursed, napped, played with friends, nursed again and is now napping some more, right on schedule. She seems to be just fine. Tomorrow, we'll give her 1/2 of a teaspoon. There really isn't anything else to say. So far, so good. Don't believe me? Here's a picture of Little G after she finished her itty bitty breakfast:

Awww... isn't she just too cute? She has one tooth on her bottom left side now and is working on the second bottom one. I'm sure we'll see it any day now. Go G!

As I get ready to start our first food trial...

As I get ready to start our first food trial tomorrow (pears!) my head is racing. I think that when people have a manic episode, it might feel a lot like this. I can't stop thinking about FPIES FPIES FPIES. I've gone over things a million times and can't find a reason not to do this. We've done all the prep we can. As I go around and around reviewing all the FPIES info stored in my noggin I've realized that there are some things we haven't told you and, as long as I can't stop thinking FPIES FPIES FPIES I might as well type those things out for you. It's better than driving John nuts anyhow, right?

So here's what you don't know yet....
1. Although we did get an (oddly belated) FPIES diagnosis from the doctor at Comer Children's Hospital, as well as a confirmation of this diagnosis from Boy Wonder, Ginny's case has always been a bit unusual. Although first time reactions for allergies and intolerances are often not immediate (and sometimes don't even occur until a second ingestion or sting or skin contact, etc.), Ginny ate rice cereal on a Thursday and didn't vomit until a Monday night. That's kind of a long time. It has stuck with us and with doctors as something odd, and certainly makes John worry, occasionally, that Ginny still hasn't been correctly diagnosed. So... I was pouring over the FPIES chat boards last night (someday, I will devote an entire post to praising these incredible, intelligent, caring women!) and found something that feels a lot like a light bulb to me. The first time we went to the ER, John was convinced that G was puking because he had let her drink too much bath water. At the time, I called him crazy. The ER doctors assured him that this was not a possibility. Now? Well...at the time we were using Burt's Bees Baby Wash which, it turns out, is chock full-o-soybean oil. If she does react to soy and he let her drink lots of water via the wash cloth (yes, I know that is really, really, really gross), well then... that might be our missing link. Wow! Crazy, right?

The Here and Now

So let's see... last I left you we had been to the allergist and learned that Ginny is 'regular' food allergy free and I went on a little dairy binge. I'm not gonna lie to you, it was yummy. I ate dairy and eggs (in reasonable quantities, it really wasn't a binge) Monday night, and all day Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and, by Thursday, Ginny was a rashy, rashy mess. Why? Your guess is as good as mine. I cut dairy out again and the rash cleared up. I slowly re-introduced it again and.... nothing. Nothing at all this time. Remember, she could have no 'regular' allergy to milk, but still be intolerant to it and reacting or, not have either an allergy or intolerance but it could still trigger an FPIES reaction. Only time will tell.... But for me, for now, I'm back to eating anything and everything (and, to be honest, because I'm exclusively nursing a 9 month old, I'm eating a lot of everything). Just an aside, should you ever REALLY want to lose some weight fast, go dairy and egg free.

Can you see Ginny's rash?