So far so good!

We have been feeding Iyla Neocate Spoon on and off for a week now and so far so good. The first day she did some big vomits but was happy so the next day i gave her a break as it was also Abbey's birthday and i didn't want to ruin her day. Since that day though things have been pretty good. She had a slight increase in reflux and sleeping issues but that seems to be going back to normal again. Today i fed her 2 teaspoons and she is finally getting the hang of actually eating and not just spitting it all out. She was so excited to eat it. We haven't finished the trial yet but with things actually improving instead of worsening i'm very hopeful! Even though it's not 'proper food' it's still exciting!!

Quick update

Hi everyone,
It has been awhile since i have updated you all but nothing has really changed. Iyla hasn't been well the past few weeks. She has had random on and off fevers and a bad cold. She still isn't 100% so we haven't started any food.
I have received some tins of Neocate Spoon from a fellow FPIES mum to trial so if Iyla is finally better on Monday we will be starting that.
She has barely been drinking anything lately but has thankfully put back on the weight she lost with her diarrhoea plus an extra 300 grams. She now weighs 8.1kg. Nicely average for her age! She is extremely tall (73cm) so she is a tall and skinny little miss. So different from Connor and Abbey. Here is a recent picture of her. She is such a cutie! Love her to bits!

Ear infection, onion, reaction, poo, poo and more poo

Last Saturday Iyla was completely miserable. She screamed almost the whole afternoon, hysterically! She was constantly pulling on her ear and it was quite red. After Abbey reacted to so many antibiotics for ear infections when she was a baby we found out that onion juice is an amazing natural cure and worked awesome for her. We decided to see if putting some in Iyla's ear would make her happier. Within a minute she was back to her happy normal self and actually fell asleep!! The next day she was mainly happy, but by night time was a crying mess again. I used the onion again and within minutes she was back to herself. Monday things began to go downhill. She refused to sleep, she cried and cried and cried no matter what i did. Onion in her ear did nothing. Monday night she barely slept and Tuesday she was even more miserable. Because she wasn't spewing i thought it couldn't be a reaction and i thought maybe the onion hadn't worked for the infection. I took her to the doctor but her ears were completely clear and nothing else appeared to be wrong. I didn't bother with anymore onion knowing her ears were now fine. Late that afternoon had been 24hrs since her last onion dose and she was finally happier again!!! The only thing now was that diarrhoea had started. But as long as she was happy, i was happy.
Now it is Friday and the diarrhoea hasn't let up. Sometimes all she is pooing out is big blobs of mucus and she has a terrible nappy rash. Poor poppet. We are hoping that it ends soon. She is still mostly happy apart from when her rash is hurting her.

Who would have thought though that it was possible to react to something through an ear?? It baffled me but it's really the only thing that makes sense. I guess we will know for sure next time she has an ear infection. I would still choose the onion over antibiotics.

Today i also had this thought. It was a thought that got me really excited. What if Iyla isn't allergic to apple, but because i cooked it in a pan that has cooked other food she is reacting to that instead. So we decided to use our trusty muscle testing again. We tested a plain raw apple which we have tested before and it tested good. Again it tested good. We tested the apple i cooked for her and it tested bad. We then held the pan against her and tested and that tested REALLY bad! I don't want to get my hopes up! But i am getting them up! I am going to buy a new pan that i will only use for cooking Iyla's food and we are going to retest apple! How awesome would it be if she can tolerate it!? Hoping and praying this is the case!!!

First solids- apple

So on Monday we started trailing apple with Iyla. Her very first food! It was exciting and a bit daunting actually putting food in her mouth for once instead of frantically trying to get it out. The first two days she wasn't that keen on the apple. She just spat it all out. But today, day 3, she ate the whole lot (she was up to 2 teaspoons) and she loved it. All morning she was happy as. Then she woke up from a nap at 1.30pm screaming blue murder. I thought she might just be hungry as she hadn't finished any of her bottles today. She still didn't want to drink it though. For the rest of the afternoon she cried, and whined and was extremely tired but wouldn't/couldn't sleep. She spewed a little but it wasn't too bad. I did notice lots of wet burps which made her scream and lots of putrid farts.

When Reuben came home from work i decided to do that muscle testing the chiro taught us to see if she was allergic to apple now. Monday and yesterday the muscle test tested good. But this afternoon my arm dropped. I did the NAET treatment myself straight away so now have to wait 24hrs to see if it's worked. Hoping and praying because this allergy isn't too bad (yet) that the treatment will actually work.

Good days!! Yay!!

We have finally been blessed with some good days. 5 in a row actually! It's been so nice! Apart from one terrible night and one slightly fussy day she has been happy, smiley, barely spewing, sleeping great and just being awesome. Such a nice way to spend the holidays especially. She is such an easy baby when she is feeling well.

She also turned 6 months old today! Where has the time gone? I love her so very much and i can't imagine my life without her. Even with all the hard times she is so worth it. Hopefully the next 6 months wont be as difficult as the past ones.

Positive!

It seems that there is just one thing after another lately and it has really been getting me down. I'm finding it hard to stay positive. So i've decided i need to write down some of the positives in life. I know that i am greatly blessed!

- I have God in my life to help me get through all the hard times!
- I have 3 beautiful children!
- Iyla's and Abbey's allergies are not going to last forever!
- We have good days where Iyla isn't in any pain!
- Iyla has slept through the night for 4 nights in a row!
- It is summer and we have beautiful weather!
- Reuben is on holidays so i'm not dealing with it all on my own for a few weeks!
- I have amazing family and friends!
- I am apart of a very caring, loving and supportive church community!

Reflux meds # 2 = FAIL!!!

Some people already know this but i thought i better update my blog anyway. On Thursday, just after i wrote my last post my doctor called and said she would like us to try another reflux med with Iyla. I couldn't get hold of the dietician still so we were kind of on our own. My doctor read out the ingredients over the phone and it didn't sound like there was any food product names in there that i knew so i thought we might as well try it. She wanted us to try Zantac. I picked it up that day and decided to try it on Friday. I had to give her 1ml twice a day. I gave her the first dose in the morning. She spat most of it out. For the whole morning she was really happy. Then 4 hours after she had the meds she started spewing. She did small spews constantly for 2 hours and screamed A LOT!! At the end of the two hours she did a massive spew but was thankfully happier after that. On Saturday morning she did a disgusting poo that exploded out of her nappy and soaked through her clothes. It was also full of mucus. Since that fail i have learned that Zantac is made using corn syrup. Wish i had figured that out before giving it to her...sigh.