I thought that seeing as Iyla just turned 2 it really was time for another update! It's been over 2 months since the last one! Things had been going really well with Iyla. We were almost set to call her allergy free. That was until 3 weeks ago when we trialed corn...one of her last bad foods to trial. It was a build up reaction over 5 days. But we had to stop giving it to her as she was just getting sicker and sicker from it.
She was back to her happy little self a few days later and with her eating again i started giving her nutella on her sandwiches for lunch. She had, had it randomly but never more then a few times a week. We hadn't noticed any issues before but after a week of her eating it every day, her mood, sleep, poo and reflux all started going downhill. It finally clicked that i had to go back to good old cheese on her sandwiches instead.
Only a few days after that gastro hit our family with force. It's been 10 days now since Iyla had it but there hasn't been any improvement in the diarrhoea. The poo just wont stop coming! Her mood is all over the place too. She definitely isn't her normal happy little self. There are tears, screaming and tantrums most of the day. But thankfully if we are out and about she is distracted and mostly happy. I can't wait for things to go back to normal though. I'm not sure if the diarrhoea is still from the gastro or if she is reacting to something that was safe because her stomach is so messed up. We will just have to wait it out a bit longer and then decide what to do if things don't get better. I have no idea where we would start!
Here is Iyla on her birthday with her favourite present. She managed a smile even though she had just been having a complete meltdown about the fact i wanted a photo.
Iyla is almost 22 months and seems to be at the end of her FPIES journey! After her last bout of vomiting which thankfully turned out to be gastro, she is just passing food after food after food. We started trialing things 3 foods at a time but now we are getting braver and are giving her small amounts of most foods except her previous really bad ones. Things that we know for sure she has passed are
tomato
yeast
all oils
cucumber
peas
green beans
zucchini
passion fruit
pineapple
grapes
fish
almond
coconut
lettuce
2 times now she has had the same dinner as us which is so exciting for her and us! The first was spaghetti (i just used an organic pasta sauce) and tonight she had chicken parmigiana, chips and salad. She is also eating shop bought bread without any problems. Which is quite amazing as it has soy flour in it!
The only thing that she has eaten recently which has caused a mild reaction (up all night with tummy pains both times) was m&m's. But really what was i thinking? Definitely not the best food to feed a kid with allergies. I just couldn't resist those pleading eyes and cute little voice asking for 'more lollies.'
I'll keep you all updated as to how she continues to go but it is looking extremely promising!
We started Iyla's next 3 foods trial on Friday and we thought it was going really well. We were trialling, almonds, spinach and cauliflower. The first two days things were great. No issues what so ever. Then yesterday she refused to eat the piece of almond slice i had made her in the morning. I didn't push it and then decided while i was making her a meatball for dinner that i would add a little bit of almond meal just to make sure she got some that day. She ate her meatball fine, she loved it. All was well until 8pm...exactly 2hrs after dinner. Then she started vomiting, which went on for about 2 hours. She got to puking bile and then finally went to sleep. She slept till 12.30am but woke up throwing up bile again twice. At 4.30am she woke up again and was thirsty. I let her have a little sip and after keeping that in for 20 min i let her just sip more water slowly over the next two hours. She was back in bed at 6.45am and then basically slept all day. She was only awake between 9.30 and 11.30. I had to wake her to pick up Connor from school but thankfully she was lots happier then. She still isn't really eating but she is drinking lots which is most important right now.
We'll wait a week before starting the spinach and cauliflower trials again but we wont bother giving almonds another go.
Last week Monday i did something crazy...I started 3 new food trials with Iyla at the same time! I admit i was scared, but i also just want to add to her diet so badly. I figured if things went badly it wasn't too hard to cut back on two of the foods and then trial one at a time. We were extremely lucky..blessed really...that she has past all 3 of those foods!!! It's so exciting!! So now we have added sweet potato, mushrooms and pear into her diet. With pear being a previous bad food it was very exciting that she passed that one too! I wanted to try mushrooms so that i could get more flavour into her dinners. I am a little shocked still that she LOVES them and although she won't eat them raw, she will eat them after they have been fried and has happily eaten them alongside her breakfast for the past week. Sweet potato was a bit of an issue at the start as she really didn't like it. But after hiding it in her vitabrits every morning she started to get used to the taste and now i have added it to her dinner without any gagging or spitting it out.
For this week we will just keep going with the 3 new foods and hope for no build up reactions but next week we are planning to start another 3 food trial. Hopefully we have the same results!!
Of course with my hubby gone for 3 weeks the reactions have to start! So much for no food trails so I could avoid dealing with reactions on my own!!
It all started on Wednesday after i took her to swimming lessons at the pool for the first time. It hadn't even crossed my mind that she might react to the water until we were in the pool and she just kept swallowing it. I hoped for the best but 7hrs later we got the first poo...and it still hasn't stopped. We had a few bad nights but thankfully she has mostly been happy enough. That is until yesterday afternoon when she found the empty muffin case from one of the other kids. In it had been a banana choc chip muffin. She barely got any of the crumbs from the edge before i saw her. I wasn't too fussed as she seems to be fine with small amounts of bad food lately. She barely ate any dinner last night but that isn't necessarily a symptom. We were at my sisters for dinner and she often isn't interested in food when we are not at home. Everything seemed fine until 10.45pm when the screaming started. It didn't stop till 3.15am. Finally she fell asleep only to already be awake at 6.30am!
Today was a horrible day! So much screaming!! After two water and mucous poos she got a little happier but was very lethargic and spent most of the afternoon either laying on the floor moaning or laying on me. At 4pm the non stop screaming started again until she finally crashed at 6pm. So for those of you wondering why i wasn't in church today this is why. I am really really hoping for some more sleep tonight and a happier little girl tomorrow.
1 and a half weeks ago my little climber got into the pantry, climbed up a few shelves and found a box of muesli bars. I was busy hanging up washing outside and had no idea what she was up to. When i found her she had bitten through the wrapping and eaten about 1/4 of the muesli bar. I was in sudden freak out mode. There were sooo many bad foods in that bar! Oats, rice, sultanas, apple, sunflower oil and the list goes on. Amazingly though apart from a few foul poos the next day there was no reaction. I was in shock and so confused. How could she react to such a teeny tiny amount of pumpkin just days before and then eat a few mouthfuls of her worst known foods without a single problem?? FPIES is so weird!!
The next day i decided to be brave and fed her a little bit more of the muesli bar. I just wanted to know if it was just a fluke that there was no real reaction or if she had actually started to outgrow some of her allergies. There was still no problems apart from one mucous filled poo. Excitement started to kick in. Could this be it?? Could her body be starting to tolerate foods that previously she reacted to severely? I decided then it was time to do an oat trial.
It's been 9 days of her having small amounts of porridge for breakfast. Things since starting have been very confusing. We have had good days and bad days, normal poo and disgusting poo, tantrums, sensory issues and some reflux. It hasn't been overly bad but even staying on 2 teaspoons hasn't improved anything. I was going to stick to it but this Mumma needs sleep. Night times (especially the last 3) have been terrible. I'm tired and over it.
It is absolutely awesome that she has tolerated oats so well compared to what used to happen when she was a baby. But i don't think there is any point pushing it right now. I'll wait another 6 months and then give it another try.
For the next three weeks we are having another break from trials as Reuben is away and i don't feel like dealing with any reactions on my own. I'll keep you posted on what we try next.
I usually don't start trials at dinner time but sometimes i have this feeling Iyla will be fine with the food and then just give her some. Well last night was one of those nights where it was my own fault i was up all night with a screaming child. After her usual dinner i went to give her half a teaspoon of the pumpkin soup i made. She HATED it and spat what i thought was all of it out. I then gave her some cheese and she dropped it into a drop of the pumpkin soup that was on her highchair. Well as i'm sure you guessed she down right refused to eat that cheese even after i wiped the soup off. This is extremely out of character for Iyla. She likes most foods and you would think that pumpkin soup being so sweet would be a huge hit. And to give up her cheese like that! Anyone who knows Iyla well enough will know how obsessed she is with her cheese!
She must have ingested the tiniest bit of pumpkin and we had a pretty horrible night. There was no vomiting but lots of obvious tummy pain and reflux. Usually i would push on for another day and see if things got worse but because she isn't going to eat it anyway there is no point. We'll just add it to the bad foods list and stay away from it for now.
Over the past 5 weeks we haven't done any food trails as we all just wanted a break and to be able to enjoy Christmas and the start to a new year.
But it's about that time again that we start a new food. It's going to be pumpkin so we will see how that goes. Right now i have some pumpkin soup cooking on the stove with butternut pumpkin, onion, potato, carrot and homemade chicken stock. It should taste good! Hopefully Iyla thinks so too and isn't too upset that she can only have one spoon of it at the start. I'm not sure yet it i'm going to start tonight or wait till after the weekend. I can't decide what is better, having Reuben home to help me deal with it if she does have a reaction or waiting until during the week so that we can enjoy our weekend together. Hoping we get another pass anyway! Having no reaction would be awesome!!
I'm not sure if i mentioned earlier but before our break Iyla added beef to her diet. This has been really handy!
I hope this year is a fantastic year for all of you!
