Ben: Version 2.0

We had a lot of health issues during Ben's first 18 months of life.  There was blood in his poop the first month, then the non-stop spitting up and the green poop and the eczema (food allergy related).  Then there was the time he swelled up when we gave him peanut butter and the fact that he pretty much dropped off the percentile charts after being at 50% for awhile.  Then a horrible face rash plagued him all winter last year.  Luckily, though, he's now healthy as can be!

I was really praying for a healthier baby this time around.  Unfortunately, it's quickly becoming clear that we are dealing with the same issues.  Only we can add crying-almost-every-minute-she's-awake-if-she's-not-being-worn to the list.  And being held isn't good enough.  She actually doesn't even really like being held.  She must be WORN.  She's been gassy and fussy for a few weeks now.  Then she started getting some mild baby acne a week ago.  That took a turn for the worse and in the past few days, has gotten horrible.  It's ALL over her face, her neck, her back, her chest, even in her ears and on her eyelids.  I'm not even sure this is baby acne now.  Her face feels like sandpaper.

Then enter today's newest symptom.  The green, mucus poop.  Sorry, but you are reading a mom blog.  The tell-tale milk intolerance poop.

I went off dairy and gluten and wheat and eggs starting on Monday.  I'm living on chips and salsa and coconut milk.  Yum.

It wouldn't be so bad if she weren't obviously in such pain.  At least with Ben, he seemed mostly content despite his issues.  It breaks my heart to see my baby hurting and not know what to do for her.

The silver lining is that we went through it all with Ben and came out on the other side with a healthy, happy (well, when he's not being two years old) toddler.  We'll survive this, too.  We could just use a few prayers that she gets some relief from the pain soon.

My poor, poor baby girl:

Throwing in the towel.

If you're not completely tired of hearing my whining on the subject matter of mysterious childhood illnesses, read ahead.

1. Ben is skinny. We get it. Once in the 50th percentile, he's now below the first. We tried plumping him up by keeping extremely detailed lists of every food that entered his little body and then played around with percentages. 50% fat and 1200 calories a day resulted in no weight gain and loads of diarrhea. So then we lowered the fat and raised the protein and that helped the diapers but not the weight. We were elated to discover he'd gained 4/10ths of a pound only to watch the scale plummet right back down a few days later. We're still keeping the detailed list of foods along with pictures of his face and butt (nice, huh?) to give the naturopath or allergist or nutritionist or whatever specialist we eventually decide on. But as for weight gain? I give up.

2. Ben is rashy. We get that, too. His rashes wax and wane, and they are most definitely much improved from the horrific-ness of weeks past. But they're still there and I just don't know why.

3. I kept him off all foods except the least allergenic for 15 or 16 days. Things got better. Then I gave him a banana. Whoa, dog. Insta-rash. Then days later, sweet potatoes. Whoa, diggity dog. Insta-rash/diarrhea. Then days later, milk. WHOA hot diggity dog. The worst of all reactions by far. He can't truly be allergic to everything, right?

4. I think Ben has Acrodermatitis Enteropathica (a fancy word for a zinc deficiency), brought on by undiagnosed food allergies. I think his is the acquired version rather than the inherited. I'm not doctor, but the puzzle pieces fit. The problem? We already know his zinc levels are scary-low and he's already on a supplement. If he STILL has low zinc levels, it's because we're still exposing him to allergens we don't even know about. This is never-ending.

I just want to change his diaper without watching him scream in pain because his butt is so raw that he can't even sit down. I just want him to be pain-free. I love my little snuggle butt more than words.

The rash, part 429.

I think I've solved it, folks! All of Ben's test results came back negative, which is a HUGE relief. After being on an elimination diet for about 10 days now, I feel safe in saying that his rashes are caused, in most part, by food intolerances. Ben's doctor thinks I'm crazy, but I'll let the pictures speak for themselves and continue to follow my mommy intuition. That's what it's there for, right?

At the beginning of the elimination diet, you might remember that his face looked like this:



That was at its worst, so to be fair, here's a picture of its "normal" state:



Though we haven't been able to get rid of it completely, it is SO MUCH improved and hardly red at all anymore. I've been taking some progression pictures through out the past ten days to prove to his doctor that I'm not as crazy as she thinks I am.











So, what worked?

1. Moving to a diet of ONLY the least allergenic foods in organic form (absolutely no processed food whatsoever). We also moved to gluten-free and replaced cow's milk with goat's milk.

2. Replacing all the chemicals in our home with natural products - vinegar & water and hydrogen peroxide & water to clean with, natural laundry detergent, Dr. Bronner's baby mild soap and organic toothpaste. We stopped using disposable wipes and instead we're just using cloth wipes with water only. This, in combination with banning disposables completely, has really helped clear up the diaper rash. I learned so much this past week about the way chemicals are absorbed into skin and how the skin "revolts." Some great articles to read can be found here, here and here.

3. Trashing the aquaphor. I had a hunch that the aquaphor was actually making Ben's face rash worse. Almost as soon as we stopped using it, the redness in his face rash completely disappeared. Now I only use coconut oil when it gets super dry.

4. Taking a daily probiotic.

5. Taking baths every other day, sometimes every third day.

We'll start the process of re-introduction once we get to South Carolina and have had some time to get back into a routine. It will definitely be interesting to find out what he's allergic to. I'm hoping for dairy only, but I do have a hunch that it might be more than that.

One of the most exciting parts of this elimination is watching his tummy problems straighten out! You might remember that I shared a little too much last week when I mentioned that Ben has had daily diarrhea for, oh, months and months. Guess what? Gone!

If I've learned nothing else lately, I've learned that I should always trust my gut. The doctor would have us on all foods except peanuts and she'd want us to "ride it out." Moms really do know best.

I want to end on this note: check out the Skin Deep database! Since our beauty products aren't really regulated, companies aren't required to list the ingredients that go into making them. The Environmental Working Group took it into their own hands by researching thousands of products and dishing on the safety of each. I was surprised to learn that Ben's organic body wash was a 3 on a scale of 1-10 (3 being a moderate hazard) and that my hair mousse was a TEN! Highly hazardous!

The saga lives on...

It seems for every step we take forward, we take two backward. I hate whining, especially publicly, and I try to keep it in check. But right now I am having a tough time holding it back and being a positive, cheery person. I find that health problems in my child make me negative, grumpy and weepy so visit my blog at your own risk for a bit...

We've been on an elimination diet for four days now. Right? Yeah, I think. Anyway, it's been okay, though we haven't really seen much improvement in the rash department.

Then Ben's teeth started chipping.

Then his eczema started spreading and he's now a head-to-toe eczema baby. The rash on the rest of his body pales in comparison to the mouth and diaper area, but I'm sure it's not comfortable for him.

I'd had enough, so I made yet another doctor appointment for this morning. Ben's lost weight since his last appointment and he's now measuring in the whopping 3rd percentile. He used to measure in the 50th, people. Apparently this isn't cause for concern, or so says our pediatrician. She says they see this happen when children become mobile. But seeing that Ben's been walking for six months now, I just can't wrap my mind around that being the cause. Three weeks ago he was in the 10th percentile. You can't tell me that dropping to the 3rd percentile in three weeks isn't concerning, especially when his teeth are chipping and he has, er, terrible GI problems every single day. Yes, my baby's had diarrhea every day since ten or eleven months old.

His ped says it's not an allergy because the RAST testing is very accurate. I find that hard to believe when every article I read about RAST testing says the exact opposite, but whatever. She says we need to reintroduce dairy and, I suppose, just wait it out. I haven't been trusting of doctors for a long, long time, and this isn't making a case for a renewed trust any time soon.

I'm so fed up. So, so, so fed up. I've just gotta get it out. I want my baby to be healthy and comfortable. Is that so much to ask for?

We will definitely be going the naturopath route soon.

Barley is yummy!

I made the executive decision to put Ben on an elimination diet, thanks to Dr. Sears. I trekked to Whole Foods, dropped a large wad of cash and set out to make this as pleasant on him as possible. We're going to nix these allergies and rashes once and for all!

Today we discovered:


Ben really likes peach/mango/goat milk smoothies!


A child can consume a huge bowl of butternut squash in one minute. Who knew it would be his favorite new veggie?!


Barley is AMAZING with a little goat milk and a drizzle of honey. Seriously - AMAZING! I ate a whole bowl for dinner. Ben didn't share my excitement, however.


Also, I have awesome friends! My friend Anne came over last night with a bottle of yummy wine and an awesome chick flick to give me some adult interaction. She rocks!

Tim should be home in 2.5 hours and I'm counting down every last minute!!!!

Milk's the culprit?

For those of you following the WHERE IS THIS STUPID FACE RASH COMING FROM?!?!?!?!!? saga, time for an update. As of last Sunday, I got rid of the milk. It seemed too coincidental that this face rash started around one year, when he also began drinking milk. What didn't, and still doesn't, make sense to me is that he can eat things with dairy in it just fine. Anyway, let's get to the results of this experiment, shall we.

About six days off the whole milk:



Since the rash didn't go away, I chalked it up to a failed experiment and reintroduced milk yesterday. This afternoon, he looks like this:



YIKES! I still don't know if it's coincidental because I reintroduced the milk yesterday afternoon and he was completely fine until just about an hour ago. And his rashes have been known to come and go in intensity regardless of diet. But it's a start and we are becoming a dairy-free family...that for sure.

In other news, Tim's coming home Thursday! Man, it can't come soon enough!

Please solve our mystery.

I'm currently accepting ALL suggestions as to this plague running through my little guy's body. As documented earlier today, Ben's face rash was finally almost gone. This was amazing since his face has been in such bad shape for so long now. So I'm like, "Ooh, let's document this occasion with a picture!" I guess I jinxed us, because I put him down for a nap right after that picture and this is how he looked when he woke up:





HELP! I'm so frustrated and so tired of seeing my little babe like this. :( He's been allergy tested and he's only allergic to eggs and peanuts. I've scrutinized everything that's gone in his mouth for a week now, and there hasn't been a trace of either. I thought maybe it could be something in his crib, but I just washed his sheets over the weekend with the same detergent as always and he slept in that same crib all weekend, when his face improved. I just don't get it. He ate his normal breakfast this morning.


Yeah, kiddo. I feel ya!


UPDATE as of November 2011: FINALLY found a solution!  Read about it here.

The Case of the Overnight Mullet.

Sometime between Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, this sprouted:



It's a little scary looking and definitely in need of a cut. How does that happen overnight? I thought maybe it was just a bedhead thing; that maybe it just needed a wash. Not so. I washed it this morning and when it dried, it looked exactly the same. Don't you love how it just shoots right out the back of his head?



In other news, I am not always the mom I thought I'd be. No, I let Ben watch Sesame Street and I DON'T FEEL GUILTY. Imagine!



And in other other news, gosh, this kid is CUTE! And his rash is almost gone!



Our weekend was filled with sweet relaxation. I even let the house get dirty for a few minutes. We are trying to load up on Daddy time since he's leaving for ten days on another business trip. What's the worst part, you ask? Oh, just the fact that HE'LL BE GONE ON VALENTINE'S DAY. But, you know, it's whatever.

We'll call this blog post YAY!

We got back most of the test results I mentioned earlier this week and I'm happy to report that we're 99% sure Ben doesn't have Celiac disease. Woot, woot! The only way to be 100% sure is to biopsy the colon, and that's not happening.

I'm also happy to report that we do not have a dairy allergy.

According to his pediatrician, "The tests confirmed what we already knew: he's a really allergic kid. That's why he has such bad eczema." But luckily he's only really allergic to peanuts. So I picked up this bad boy:

The only thing the test confirmed that we didn't really know is that:

1. He's deathly allergic to peanuts.

2. He's mildly allergic to eggs.

So now we're moving to an egg-free diet to see if we can get this horrible face rash to clear up. We'll also be removing all traces of peanuts from this ole' house.

I spent my entire day yesterday shopping and cooking up a storm. I decided to try my hand at OAMC (once-a-month cooking) to shave some more dough off our grocery budget. I did it all with a nasty sore throat, so that kind of sucked. Especially since I stayed up until 2:00 AM for some clean-up action and, consequently, woke up with an even worse sore throat. Such is life. At least I have a packed freezer to show for it!

I'll post all the deets later today! Especially the part where I brag that I only spent $166 on a month's worth of groceries!

*Happy dance, happy dance!*

PS - Rock Chalk, my jayhawk folks! We pulled off a win last night again K-State which means we'll be ranked numero uno now! Do I smell another National Championship? I do indeed...and it smells yummy!