Episode 10: Eat, Papa, EAT! - Part 3

*I am a terrible blogger. Here is Part 3, much delayed.*

We got an appointment to see Dr. Wood – the head of the pediatric allergy division at Johns Hopkins. Well, that at least made me feel better. I mean, that’s the guy you want to see. Our appointment was on February 1.

We spoke extensively with the nurse practitioner, Carrie Holbrook, and provided a detailed history for the little man. We told her about our suspicions that he was allergic to milk and soy, and provided, as well as we could, a list of all of the foods he had been eating since we introduced solids. The allergist said that the eosinophils appeared to mostly be at the bottom of the little man’s esophagus, which sometimes suggests that the child has reflux, which could be easily fixed with medication. However, they wanted to speak with the GI doctor to see what he thought. In the meantime, they wanted to do a blood test to see if LM had any allergies. Ms. Holbrook said that LM’s symptoms could be the result of a contact allergy, and not an IgE allergy, which is what the blood test would find. IgE allergies are allergies in which your antibodies react to an allergen. If B had only contact allergies, and not IgE allergies to these foods, he could potentially eat them again. However, if he tested positive for IgE allergies, he would need to avoid these foods altogether, since the reactions to IgE allergies tend to get worse as time goes on, and could eventually lead to anaphylactic shock and/or death. We went across the hall and got blood drawn, which I only watched, since I didn’t think I could hold him down. 

Now, we wait. Again. This time for the allergy test results to come in.

I went to visit my parents for a week, since the Big Man was out of town. My mom bought some snacks for the Little Man to try, and some of the snacks had cheese or milk in them (including cheddar goldfish crackers). We gave them to him, and he actually swallowed them! And, we didn’t see any hives, so we were beginning to think that he only had a contact allergy, and maybe we wouldn’t have to check his foods so closely after all. Near the end of the week, the Big Man came home and told me that we had gotten the results from the allergy testing in the mail. I asked what the verdict was, and he told me he didn’t know. He read off a list of numbers for the different allergens they tested for, but neither of us knew what those numbers meant. There were instructions to call the allergist’s office to get the information we need about the results. I called the following Tuesday, and talked to Carrie Holbrook again. She advised me that LM had tested positive for an allergy to milk, soybeans, and eggs. They also suggested that we avoid peanuts, since he had a tiny reaction, and peanuts are in the same family as soybeans, and the allergists really don’t like to mess around with peanut allergies. They also recommended that we avoid tree nuts, since many tree nut products may contain peanut traces. I asked her whether he could still have almond milk, but Carrie advised that almond milk was fine, as were other tree nut products, as long as we avoid products that say “may contain traces of peanuts.” I asked what the numbers meant, and she told me that it really depends on the allergen. For some items, the number was an insignificant result, bur for some others; it was enough to recommend avoidance.

Throughout this time, we were continuing to feed the Little Man regular foods. At some point in mid- to late February, we were visiting my parents again. While I was out of the room, the Big Man was watching the Little Man sitting on the counter in my parents’ kitchen. LM grabbed a grape from the bowl and popped it into his mouth! Now, for any other baby, one would immediately swoop in and get that out of the baby’s mouth, to avoid choking. However, with LM’s history of not eating, we never want to take any edible food out of his mouth before he gets a chance to try to swallow it. Well, he chewed and chewed and chewed and chewed, and we watched and watched and watched and watched. And then, the Little Man spit out just a little bit! Hardly any grape at all! And the rest of the grape was gone! We were amazed! Maybe we were finally getting some traction here. But, at the same time, I was afraid to get my hopes up in case this was a false alarm. I spent much of this process feeling very negative about things, afraid to be disappointed if things didn’t get better without some kind of treatment.

Also, since New Year’s Eve, the Little Man was getting better and better at eating purees. He eventually accepted and ate the puree without a Cheerio on top of each spoonful, and was eating some different flavors, though his favorites remained the fruits. I became a big fan of Gerber’s SmartNourish line, especially the fruit & grain mix purees. I figured if he’s only going to eat a few bites, they should be as packed with nutrients as possible. On the advice of the nutritionist, we were mixing in some meat purees with the fruit/grain mixes so that LM could have a more balanced diet. Also, on the advice of the behavioral therapist, we started mixing some baby oatmeal in with the purees, so that they would have a more evenly textured consistency. At one point, I felt like I was creating gourmet baby food concoctions: One whole container of Strawberry Pear Granola puree, 3 large baby spoonfuls of Chicken and Chicken Gravy puree, one-half of a Flintstones vitamin (crushed), and a tablespoon or two of baby Oatmeal, mix thoroughly and enjoy!

So, we kept trying regular foods, and less and less food was getting spit out at each meal. We had no idea why this was happening, but we were SO thankful! Eventually, on March 3, 2011, we were scheduled to go back to KKI for our second appointment. When we got our confirmation/reminder for the appointment in the mail, it listed the people we would be seeing from each discipline. Now, I had been on the phone several times with both the nutritionist and the behavioral therapist from the original appointment, so when there was a different nutritionist’s name, and no one at all listed for behavioral therapy, I started to get into a panic. This panic was heightened by the fact that the doctor and occupational therapist listed we also hadn’t seen before! I was going to have to explain all of this AGAIN!! And AGAIN, no one is going to understand or believe me when I tell them what is going on! I was not looking forward to this meeting. 

*Tomorrow, read the thrilling conclusion!!!*