Happy FIRST Birthday, Boo!

 This little guy turned ONE today!



As I think about this past year and all our struggles and challenges along the way with Crew, I am truly thankful that we've come so far.  As moms, when we are holding our sweet newborns in our arms, we never anticipate the trials that lie ahead.  We only look with tender eyes, grateful hearts and such an unconditional, unbreakable love that any struggle or challenge that presents itself is welcomed with an even deeper desire to fight.

Crew was a challenge from the beginning.  He was fussy.  Way more than our girls.  He cried, it seemed, for no apparent reason.  I would nurse him.  He'd cry.  I'd nurse him some more.  He'd cry some more.  I cut out foods, I tried every kind of homeopathic medicine or OTC medicine to relieve his achy tummy.  He had severe dry skin and excema.  I was trying to treat that.  He was a horrible sleeper.  Every night was a dilema of where to put him.  He hated lying on his back and woke so many times that keeping him in his room was not even an option.  Most nights I'd tuck him in with us- it was the only way either of us would sleep.  Many nights he'd sleep in his carseat and many nights I'd wake at some horrible time in the morning to put him in his carseat and sway him until he'd fall back to sleep.  Napping was just as challenging.  He'd cat nap here and there but never fall into a deep, long nap.  It made me hyper-sensititive to keeping the house quiet and I was constantly on edge with my girls.  Everything seemed to be hard.  Everything.

 

Then at 5 1/2 months we tried introducing baby oatmeal.  Two hours later, he began vomiting profusely.  He then proceeded to pass out for the next several hours landing us at the pediatrician's office first thing the next morning.  Chalking it up to a reaction from a dry cough he had had, we left happily thinking all was fine.  A week later, I tried the oatmeal again around lunchtime.  Exactly 2 1/2 hours later, while he was sleeping, he was awaken by severe vomiting.  It was exactly liked I had experienced the week prior.  I was truly fearful for my son.  I scooped him up, bathed him quickly,  and before I could even wrap him in a towel, he had passed out.  I cradled my poor son, naked, in a towel for the next several hours while he continued to vomit, turn deathly pale and pass out for four hours.  While I offered him tiny amounts of fluids, my brain starting making connections.  I sat on the couch holding my son while googling "baby oatmeal and vomiting."  The first thing that I saw was a condition called FPIES.  I read it.  I felt it.  I knew it.

 

Mom's have intuition, ya know.  And I just KNEW this had to be it.  While on the one hand, I was grateful to "have an answer," my heart sunk at what the next several months, years this would entail.  I approached our pediatrician about it at my 3-year's well-child exam and while I love my pediatrician, he quickly blew it off and simply told me to "avoid oatmeal."  I already knew that.

 

Another week or so later, I tried rice cereal mixed with pears.  Two and a half hours later, the cycle happened again.  That was it.  I was a mom on a mission.  I needed to be an advocate for my son and get him the help he needed.  I was not going to be brushed off any longer.  I drafted a letter to my pediatrician and faxed it in right away.  Later in the day, the nurse called to let me know he had read it, taken me seriously this time and was giving me a referral to a specialist.

 

The day I met with Crew's allergist I was full of mixed emotions- anxious, excited, hopeful, doubtful.  But as I sat there talking with him and explaining everything we've experienced up to this point, he confidently gave me the official diagnosis I had known all along- FPIES. 

 

The next several months were still hard.  Even though we avoided main triggers like the plague, and I cut them completely out of my diet since he was exclusively breastfed, he still seemed to be hurting.  A couple visits with our doctor later, we decided breastfeeding needed to be stopped.  I was sad.  I was conflicted.  But ultimately, I knew it was probably the right thing to do for Crew.  So, at 10 months, I completely weaned him.  With him solely on Nutramigen, I began to see a whole different child!  He was happy!  He was satisfied.  He was sleeping!

 

While it took me a long time to work through my fears and my anxieties about Crew and food, I eventually (after much prodding!) tried potatoes.  He passed.  I did the happy dance!  There WAS hope.  I googled anything and everything trying to find safe potato foods for him.  I even spent a small fortune ordering potato puffs for him I was so excited he actually had something he could eat!  We have since trialed pears, apples, peas & cucumbers and have all successfully passed.  While the anxiety is still there while trialing a new food, my confidence is increasing with every successful addition.

 

And now, here at ONE, I've come to terms with the fact he's not like other babies.  He won't be smashing a cake and I won't be capturing those priceless pictures.  But from where we've been, to where we've come, I am just grateful my son is healthy, he's happy, he's thriving and developing like all other babies.  And that to me, is so much more than smashing a cake. 

Happy Birthday, Crew.