Rainy Day play

Have I mentioned that I hate Tuesdays? For some reason it is just the worst day of the week for me. 

Days like today have the potential to be major meltdown (mommy and kiddos) days; it's Tuesday AND it's a gloomy rainy day. 

We started out rough but quickly turned into tons of fun cutting up and taping cardboard boxes. We have tons of boxes, especially the huggies wipes boxes from Costco. 

They are the perfect size for making a little cardboard car for a seven month old and toddler :) 

Ty was loving it. This kid is always happy but he was ecstatic in that box. 

We also had a large box from Mav's new car seat. Last month we bought the same one for my car (and love it so we bought another) and I really wanted to do something fun with the box but hubby tossed it. This time I remembered to tell him my plans and turned it into a little house. 

 

Testing it out before I made the roof :)

It was such a fun morning! I didn't even need to resort to Pinterest for any more fun ideas the boxes have lasted us all day. Even after nap they were still fun! 

So potential crisis averted and we survived a Tuesday. The sun even came out and we walked to get the mail and played outside a bit before the storm came. 

They are calling for more rain this week so wish us luck! 

Sunday Social

 

1. What is your favourite scary movie?
 I do not like scary movies. Not one little bit. They terrify me, even as an adult I have intense terrifying nightmares after watching one. Especially the ones with zombies. Hate them all!

2. What is your favourite weird tv show you think no one else watches?
I wish I got to watch tv more... The shows I do get to watch are fairly popular (Big Brother starts next week!)Hubby pretty much monopolizes the tv and I tend to get my geek on with the computer

3. What is the song you can sing all the words to without any music?
These days pretty much any Raffi song or other random child song. Seriously these questions are making me realize I need more me time lol

4. What is your favourite book to re read?
Tuesdays with Morrie. Love that book. If you haven't read it I won't ask questions just go find it now ;)

5. The one website you visit more times daily than others?
Did anyone not answer facebook for this one?? hahaha I'm probably on there 10 + times a day. That's the my life on maternity leave :)

Mav allergy update

So on the topic of allergies I am pleased to say that Mav apparently does not have any.

Any IgE allergies that is; now knowing what I know about FPIES I am certain Mav's past reactions to banana's were FPIES reactions. But that will be something we explore on a different day.

As for the reactions he has been having since last summer, apparently he is not allergic to anything. He has recently been tested for seasonal environmental allergens and passed all those, he also passed two rounds of skin prick testing to check for common allergens as well as check some of the things we felt he was reacting to.

They all came back clear.

Now I should be jumping for joy with news like that, and believe me I am happy but that epi pen will not be leaving his bag any time soon. He has been participating in an allergy study since birth and one of the researchers commented on his reactions basically thinking that he may not be actually reacting but instead may just be overly sensitive. So for instance when I give him food that has ketchup on it, or ketchup to dip into his lips will start to look a little funny after a few bites. Same thing happened with chips he was given, and olives, and hotdogs.... It is the only pattern that seems to make sense. We were thinking his was having allergic reactions when that may not have been the case after all. Actually we know he's not allergic to those foods because of the testing.

So it makes it a little easier to go ahead and let him eat things, but I would be lieing if I said I wasn't nervous each time it happens. I try to limit those foods just in case.

The allergy study recently contacted us to actually do some blood work and use him as the non allergic control half of the next portion of the study. So we will be signing up for that. I really wish I had of signed Ty up for all of this, he would have made for a more interesting subject.

FPIES update

Just over a month ago we found out that Ty has FPIES; a type of allergy that results in delayed reactions primarily affecting the GI system. For Ty that meant 2 hours after eating the trigger food he gets violently ill, his last reaction was to oats and he ended up at the hospital with shock symptoms.

We still haven't been to see the specialist in his actual clinic, there was hope that they would be scheduling something in the month of June but the doctor said it would be most likely be July. After our little mini crash course with him I took it upon myself to find out everything I could to help prepare myself for what lies ahead. A lot of what I have found is terrifying. Some of these poor kids have very few safe foods. These parents monitor every little symptom their child shows and relate it to being FPIES related. Things like stomach cramps, FPIES. Reflux, FPIES. Poor sleep, mood changes, constipation and diarrhea, FPIES. Apparently There are kids with Chronic FPIES reactions (most of the above symptoms) that last longer periods of time from what I can tell, and then there are Acute reactions which is what Ty has.

My poor little brain has so much to learn.

So armed with my new knowledge and my starter list from the doctor we began our food trials. I found a dairy and soy free rice cereal which Ty hated. He hated it so much that I am not really comfortable saying it was a pass, after two days of force feeding it to him I moved on to sweet potatoes. Not only did he love those but they were a definite pass. Things were looking great, he was back to pooping regularly and overall doing great. Next up was squash. The doctor did not specify which kind so I asked the  "expert" moms on one of the facebook groups I have joined and it sounds like I will need to trial all different kinds. So far we have tried butternut, and although he has not vomited from it I am hesitant to call it a pass right yet. Some external factors like my left nipple cracking and him ingesting lots of blood have made for some funny stools and make it difficult to know what exactly is happening.

Since those were the only three foods the doctor listed us to start with I decided to go ahead and make the decision of what food we were trying next. I figure we will need to try most things anyways so I picked plums. I wanted something that will hopefully help him to become more regular, I think my next choice will be another fruit for the same reason. So far we are on day three of plums and everything is looking great. They are a little bitter tasting (I chose black) but if I mix it with breast milk he gobbles it right up and is yelling for more. This kid just can not get enough food.

I have a small calendar book that I have now dedicated to tracking child related things like illness and food trials. I probably should have started something like that when Mav was younger, poor kid has been sick so many times it would have been useful when talking to doctors. Anyways I like that I can plan ahead using the monthly calendar and I've created a symbol legend for poops and illness etc. I log the info in more detail on the daily pages, each day being sure to include what it was Ty ate and how much. Part of me wants to just be carefree with all of this and wonders if it is a bit much at times but then I remember feeding Ty will not be carefree for a few years* (hopefully he will outgrow it by age 3 with the majority). When planning the food trials its also helpful to see the calendar when planning since I do not want to risk a hospital trip on a day when I am alone with two kids.

So as of right now our food stats stand as follows:

Safe Foods
- sweet potato

Trigger Foods
- Oats
- Dairy (assumed)
- Soy (assumed)

Uncertains
- Butternut squash
- black plums

"What do you mean it's all gone!?!?"

Hello? Is anyone out there???

Man it's like a ghost town around here. And by here I am referring to my neighborhood in the blog world. It seems everyone on my reading list has gone on hiatus, slowly over the past few months less and less posts are being written. What happened?

I know I am guilty of this as well. I mean well I promise. Life with two kids is busy, and I think you get so used to not having things to say. Or I realize I am late at posting and then stress about being late with an update and then decide its too late and don't post anything.

I need some new blogs to read, maybe that would help me feel motivated again. Now to just find some more blogs.... anyone out there?

Maybe a smoke signal would help ;)

While I am here I may as well give a quick update as to what has been going on.

Ty has started his food trials, no word yet when he goes to the specialist which makes me think July.
Mav is potty training! My baby wears undies!
Ty is now 6 months and has a tooth.
Mood wise I'm still not 100 percent but doing better. Still battling this au natural but did come close to getting meds from the doctor.

And that's it.
Really.
No wonder I never blog!

Until next time.

What the F....PIES

FPIES.

Or better yet, Food Protein Induced Enterocolitis. 

It's looking like Ty has it, and we have been referred to a specialist we will see either June or July. 

So let's back it up a little and I'll explain how we got to this assumption. 

Ty is a very eager eater, I've mentioned before how breastfeeding has been not so pleasant this time around so about a month ago I decided to try to introduce formula as an alternative on days when either he was extra hungry or I needed a break. Unfortunately for everyone involved after two types of formula I gave up. We tried enfamil and similac and both types caused him to have very violent projectile vomit approximately 2-3 hours later. I wasn't overly concerned but had planned on talking to our doctor about it when we go next week. Don't get me wrong, I was concerned with his reaction but he is a breastfed baby and aside from my own physical discomfort there is no real reason not to nurse. He is always hungry so approximately a week ago I decided to grind up some oats and make him oatmeal. Once again approximately 2 hours afterwards he got sick. This time was frightening it was so bad. It was extremely forceful, projecting out of him and he was choking on it when trying to breathe. This "episode" as well as the previous ones all last approximately an hour.  This time he also turned a greyish colour, appeared very lethargic and almost unresponsive to stimuli around him. So off we went to the hospital. I probably should have called an ambulance so we could get there sooner but instead I waited the worst of it out at home and took him down once I felt comfortable having him in a car seat. Of course being that the worst was over the doctor decided he must have a virus. 

That brings us to our clinic visit yesterday. I took Ty down with a sample of his poop from the evening before. This poor guy is constipated a lot. And he gets very uncomfortable, it's so different than Mav who poops multiple times daily. Anyways the sample I brought in had a bunch of black stuff in it, my main worry was he was bleeding inside for some horrible reason. Well talk about right place at the right time because the medical resident we saw works with the specialist we are being referred to. Once she got all the background info she decided we needed a referral (I should mention the doctor she was actually working with that day felt there was nothing wrong) and luck struck once again because once she left the room to call the specialist she discovered he happened to be in the building. So we met with him and were given some basic intro to FPIES and we will move ahead with his clinic. Apparently this type of allergy is rare and most doctors are unfamiliar with it.

Obviously being that it is a rare type of allergy I needed to go do some more research once I got home. This is what I have discovered.

"Food Protein-Induced Enterocolitis Syndrome (F-PIES) is a type of food allergy affecting the gastrointestinal (GI) tract."

- symptoms include but are not limited to extreme vomiting approximately 2 hours or more after eating, diarrhea, and subsequently dehydration.
- symptoms can lead to lethargy, decreased body temperature, and lowered blood pressure. Reactions can have serious consequenes such as shock and need to be treated.
- unlike common (IgE allergies) , FPIES is a non IgE allergy and therefore can not be tested the same way. foods can test negative with a skin prick or blood test but still cause a FPIES reaction.
- Proteins in breast milk may or may not cause reactions in infants.
- children can have one or multiple trigger foods (trigger foods are the foods that cause the reaction)
- children are most likely to outgrow FPIES by the age of three.

I still have a lot of reading to do and am on the hunt for blogs, support groups, and basically any information I can find. From our initial meeting with the doctor we have been given the direction to go ahead and try rice cereal followed by squash, and sweet potatoes. All three of these foods are listed as being common FPIES triggers so that scares me a bit. It is suspected that diary and obviously oats have been the cause so far and I really would like to have a positive experience with the next food we try.  So fingers crossed. I may try the rice cereal this weekend while my mother is staying with us. There's something comforting about having your mother around, even as an almost 30 year old. I really cant be trying new things on days when its just me and the two kids, if we needed to go to hospital I do not want to try to bring Mav.

So wish me luck I have lots of reading and planning to do!


Here are a few of the resources I've been reading so far:
FPIES Foundation
Kids with Food Allergies
Allergy UK









 

This love

Life has been for lack of a better word busy lately. 

We have our good days and bad. Two steps forward and the occasional step back. 

I'm trying my best to do a good job at this mothering thing. I feel like it's natural to have insecurities and doubts, we are not perfect. 

But then on days like this, when a moment like this is captured it really goes to show how well we are doing. 

Two little babies, 5 1/2 months and 26 months old embracing each other unprompted by anyone. 

This is true love. 

No one told them to love each other, no one taught them what love even means. They just love. 

Having my babies so close together has been extremely difficult on me; and difficult on my marriage. We are battling with the "terrible twos" as well as post partum depression. But I wouldn't change it for the world. And if I could only be given one wish it would be for my boys to keep this love strong between them. They are in this together. <3