Dang it! I couldn't get my camera fired up in time before a fit broke out, but Catherine is the poster child for food allergies tonight. Allergic shiners so dark she looks like a raccoon, and her perpetual fingertip-sized eczema spot is about the size of a nickel. She's also puking non-stop. And she had nothing new today ... except for two more Ritz crackers. Ugh!

Oh Lesley, I am sorry. Poor baby. Do you have any idea what it is?

Oh no, Lesley! I'm so sorry to hear that! The poor little girl!

Oh Lesley, I'm so sorry to hear that. Was it the Ritz crackers? Food allergies suck, it's so hard to feed them when they can hardly have anything anyways.

Poor little Catherine! What does the GI say about food allergies? If she consistently has the eczema patch, wouldn't that mean she's being consistently exposed to an allergen? I don't know...I feel so bad for her. I wish I could do something to help. She's such a cutie pie and it sucks that things like this would happen to her.

Poor thing!
We just went through this recently but I gave Zach foods with dairy deriv...
He was pale as a ghost DARK circles, red dots on his face etc
We stopped the dairy and after a few days he is looking and feeling better
the annoying thing is in the past, he's had these reactions and I am SURE he ate nothing new?
I hate this guessing game..hope your little one feels better soon

Kim

That's the pits! I sure hope she is feeling better soon! I can only imagine how frustrating it must be for you!!

Hugs! That's one more problem food allergies, something safe in teh past may not be safe now. AJ ate eggs fine for a few months before becoming intolerant to them. We strictly avoided them (after it taking more than a week to figure it out) and he outgrew it in just a few months. I hope you figure it out soon.

If she consistently has the eczema patch, wouldn't that mean she's being consistently exposed to an allergen?

I'm pretty sure it's soy as she wasn't constipated or have significant eczema when she was only on Alimentum. However, dairy products completely constipate her so soy is a compromise. She's constipated but can still pass the rabbit pellets. On dairy (and all she's ever really had in her life is a short trial of milk-based formula and Yo Baby for a couple of weeks), she's constipated to the point of not being able to stool at all and has shrieking, screaming fits (remember THOSE weeks???). Her complexion got much worse when we tried soy milk for two weeks, and the most she ever got of that was a 25%/75% milk/formula blend.

We can't go to rice milk because she's still primarily formula fed, and Alimentum just seems like a mental step backward that I'm not willing to take. Right or wrong, I just can't go there. We make very little other forward progress, so I can't lose that ground. Make sense?

Hugs! That's one more problem food allergies, something safe in teh past may not be safe now. AJ ate eggs fine for a few months before becoming intolerant to them. We strictly avoided them (after it taking more than a week to figure it out) and he outgrew it in just a few months. I hope you figure it out soon.

Thanks, Jennifer. We struggle with protein sources as dh is convinced her speech delay is the result of inadequate protein intake. Whatever. The child is still primarily formula fed so she's getting plenty of protein (I think).

As much as we hate to take what we think are steps backwards, it's often those steps that actually put us more forward. If she's not tolerating the soy, this may make her so she's not tolerating other things, making reflux worse, bowels are obviously suffering etc. Baked up bowels can keep her from eating as well and might even cause malabsorption issues. If putting her back on Alimentum helps her take in more food, that may help w/ her speech (though she's awful young to be talking abotu speech delays) b/c she's getting more oral stimulation. Of course there are ways to stimulate her w/out food as well. I would really think about doing the Alimentum again for what 24ozs a day and then maybe using rice milk for the rest of her liquids. Maybe talk to a dietician about this? We added protein powder and olive oil to AJ's milk to get the fat and protein in there. I know it's hard, Evan is 14 mos and only eats rice.