In the middle of January of this year my son was diagnosed with both milk and egg allergies. However, that simple statement wasn't so simple to come by for my family and my then 8 month old son. Finding out that my son had allergies was a long process that began before we even suspected that he had any. Around the time that my son was 5 months old he stopped gaining weight. At first his doctor wasn't concerned, after all he was born at 10 Ibs. and both my husband and I are pretty average in stature in addition when I was 6 months old I too stopped gaining weight. The doctor told us to just monitor him and wait...so we did.
As we waited our son continued showing signs that he wasn't growing. I was breastfeeding at the time that all of this was occurring and we spoke to the doctor also about our feelings that our son wasn't drinking enough and that he wasn't interested in drinking water or formula to supplement his liquids. The doctor recommended that we supplement him with yogurt. This was around Thanksgiving and we visited my brother for the holiday. While we were gone we noticed our son wasn't feeling so well, however, we weren't in our environment so we thought he was just having a hard time adjusting to the new place. About four days after he started eating the yogurt and a few days into our trip 2 very hellish months began when he began projectile vomiting. We called our doctor who suggested we see our nephew's doctor in the area. We asked this doctor if our son had an allergy and we were informed that it wasn't related to the yogurt at all and that he just had a virus. This diagnosis was later confirmed by our doctor when we returned home for our vacation.
This was the beginning of the "virus" period. We went to one doctors appointment after the other: including a Gastrointestinal pediatric specialist. We were told that our son had a virus that could last up to 4 months and that his stomach had probably been partially paralyzed. This was the explanation for our son's continued vomiting. It also led the doctor to prescribe our son prevacid. In the meantime our son was no longer just not gaining weight but he was losing it. The worst point was when he lost a pound in a month and went below the growth charts. We began going to the doctor just to weigh him. I felt desperate to find out what was going on with my son. I still was suspicious that he had an allergy to milk because he wouldn't eat any plain cheeses or pasta with cheese and he refused to eat the yogurts. Nonetheless, the doctors still thought that he didn't have any allergies.
Around the beginning of the new year I realized that my milk had dried up and that he needed formula. Unfortunately, he didn't want to drink the formula. We thought it was the type of bottle we were using so we tried different ones, then we thought it was the type of formula, we even tasted them thinking that maybe it was the taste, so we went from Enfamil to Simlac (it tasted better). He still wouldn't drink it though. After 2 days of not drinking anything he finally drank 8 oz. of formula.
I put him down for a nap. When he woke up an hour later his face was completely swollen to the point that we couldn't see his inch long eyelashes. His face was covered in hives. When I unzipped his pajamas he had hives everywhere and his entire body was also swollen, his stomach was three times its normal size. He was also sneezing and coughing a bit. We called the doctor who told us to give him benadryl and just have him come in to the office in the morning. Now we know whe should have rushed him to the ER.
As we waited our son continued showing signs that he wasn't growing. I was breastfeeding at the time that all of this was occurring and we spoke to the doctor also about our feelings that our son wasn't drinking enough and that he wasn't interested in drinking water or formula to supplement his liquids. The doctor recommended that we supplement him with yogurt. This was around Thanksgiving and we visited my brother for the holiday. While we were gone we noticed our son wasn't feeling so well, however, we weren't in our environment so we thought he was just having a hard time adjusting to the new place. About four days after he started eating the yogurt and a few days into our trip 2 very hellish months began when he began projectile vomiting. We called our doctor who suggested we see our nephew's doctor in the area. We asked this doctor if our son had an allergy and we were informed that it wasn't related to the yogurt at all and that he just had a virus. This diagnosis was later confirmed by our doctor when we returned home for our vacation.
This was the beginning of the "virus" period. We went to one doctors appointment after the other: including a Gastrointestinal pediatric specialist. We were told that our son had a virus that could last up to 4 months and that his stomach had probably been partially paralyzed. This was the explanation for our son's continued vomiting. It also led the doctor to prescribe our son prevacid. In the meantime our son was no longer just not gaining weight but he was losing it. The worst point was when he lost a pound in a month and went below the growth charts. We began going to the doctor just to weigh him. I felt desperate to find out what was going on with my son. I still was suspicious that he had an allergy to milk because he wouldn't eat any plain cheeses or pasta with cheese and he refused to eat the yogurts. Nonetheless, the doctors still thought that he didn't have any allergies.
Around the beginning of the new year I realized that my milk had dried up and that he needed formula. Unfortunately, he didn't want to drink the formula. We thought it was the type of bottle we were using so we tried different ones, then we thought it was the type of formula, we even tasted them thinking that maybe it was the taste, so we went from Enfamil to Simlac (it tasted better). He still wouldn't drink it though. After 2 days of not drinking anything he finally drank 8 oz. of formula.
I put him down for a nap. When he woke up an hour later his face was completely swollen to the point that we couldn't see his inch long eyelashes. His face was covered in hives. When I unzipped his pajamas he had hives everywhere and his entire body was also swollen, his stomach was three times its normal size. He was also sneezing and coughing a bit. We called the doctor who told us to give him benadryl and just have him come in to the office in the morning. Now we know whe should have rushed him to the ER.
The doctors finally agreed that my son had a milk allergy. Thus, we were sent to the allergist to do scratch tests which is how we found out that he also had allergies to eggs too.
Unfortunately, things didn't get easier just because we had a diagnosis. This blog is meant to be for all those parents who just found out about their child's allergies or who have known it for a while. It is for those parents who would like support and to know that they aren't going through this whole experience alone.
Unfortunately, things didn't get easier just because we had a diagnosis. This blog is meant to be for all those parents who just found out about their child's allergies or who have known it for a while. It is for those parents who would like support and to know that they aren't going through this whole experience alone.
2 comments:
hi yael and co....
i frequent a message board that also has a message board for mothers so i told them about your blog. it's great that you are documenting this, i didn't know that there was such a lack of knowledge about these allergies. next time i see ben's dad i'll ask him about it because he's a pediatrician.
hope yoav and everyone is doing great...steph
Yael! I feel for you so much! This must have been such a terrible time for you and Dave. I think this blog is a terrific idea. I have friends who has one child that is allergic to both soy and milk protien and needs an eppi pen when they go out. I will indeed pass this blog onto them. Please give Yoav a hug and a kiss for me and I hope to talk to all of you soon!
Love,
--Deborah
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