Even though Zac hadn’t returned to 100% baseline, on Saturday, we started re-trialing bananas.
He’d gotten increasingly picky, and I was worried about his weight. Hey, it worked for quinoa, right?
So far, okay.
Saturday he had a good diaper, and no acute FPIES signs.
Sunday he was a tad cranky during the day, and about an hour or so after eating some banana ice cream he had a strong case of hiccups, but that was it.
Since he hasn’t had bananas in a while, this could just be the effects of fructose on his little body. It’s happened before, after all. That’s why we started limiting him to ten bananas a day.
But yesterday he only ate 6 bananas. So, I don’t know.
It’s early, still. We’re going to give it at least 4 days before deciding if we lost bananas in the Great Stomach Bug Debacle or whether they were just a little rough on his tummy immediately after.
By Wednesday, we’ll know.
Some fingers crossed and praying would be very appreciated right now! I really don’t want to lose bananas, even if they are a little fructose-y.
__________
In the meantime, life goes on.
My parents brought the boys home last week with a gift: a nice, big pumpkin to carve for Halloween.
I thought Jed was going to explode from excitement!
This weekend, we carved a pumpkin.
More specifically, Darrel carved a pumpkin while letting Jed think he was helping as I took pictures and video and Zac tried to stick his head inside the pumpkin to see what was going on.
Never a dull moment with small children around!
It turned out great!
Jed actually did help draw the face of the pumpkin, and while Darrel did the cutting, Jed and Zac helped pull the cut pieces out.
The family effort gave me this:
And it only took about 60 photos to get THAT shot!
Trying to get two small kids to sit still and look at the camera while smiling simultaneously is like herding cats on meth.
(If you have small kids and want professional photographs? You are NOT paying the photographer enough. Just sayin’.)
Zac’s hands are a little blurry because he decided to wave at me, but it’s the ONLY picture I got with both of them looking at the camera and not blinking or making funny faces.
Good. Enough.
__________
I experimented in the kitchen a bit this weekend. Zac has been, as I said, increasingly picky, and I was desperate to find something he would eat with gusto.
It occurred to me that I had never made him quinoa noodles yet!
Since he can have eggs, I adjusted my egg-free quinoa noodle recipe to use eggs, omitting the starch, and made him some noodles.
He liked them.
Eventually.
It took about three attempts to even get one past his lips. But he did finally try one. Then he ate the whole bowl.
__________
Last week, when going through the office, I found some colored pencils we’d used for a short time with Jed.
Since their return, both boys have eagerly drawn on every piece of paper they could find.
This might only be the third time I’ve sat with Jed and REALLY worked on his letters, but he managed to accomplish this:
I’m so proud.
My boy is finally starting to write!
It’s fun teaching him things. I think I’m more excited when he finally “gets” something than he is.
I’m a little sad that his signature on birthday and Christmas cards won’t be an enthusiastic scribble anymore, but excited that my sweet boy is growing and learning.
__________
On the subject of paper, Sunday afternoon I looked up and shook my head. THIS was what my living room looked like:
(No, it doesn’t look like this all the time!)
What amazed me was the thought that a year ago, this sight would have had me in hysterical fits.
A year ago, I could never have allowed that much paper in my house.
We could never have left books unattended in Zac’s presence.
The typical kid past-time of playing with empty cardboard boxes? Verboten in our house.
A year ago, Zac was still eating paper every chance he got, and having FPIES reactions to every bite of it.
Today, though, I can go ahead and let Jed play with that crushed roll of unusable wrapping paper I found going through the office and laugh about it, instead of locking Zac in his high chair while desperately searching for every stray bit of ripped paper Jed scattered and earnestly impressing on Jed the importance of NEVER EVER leaving paper in the living room.
FPIES is still a part of our lives.
But at least my children don’t have to live behind a gate in their own home any more.
I’ll take that as a victory.
__________
What victories have you had over FPIES or food allergies?
A reaction to paper too?! Wow. Love the pics. Your boys are cuties. I hope the bananas pan out and he tolerates them. The noodles sound good too!
Yes, Tina, to paper. 🙁 More specifically, the corn the paper is made of and/or the soy the ink is made of. Lots of FPIES kids have had these reactions if those are their triggers.
I think we’re safe to say bananas are a safe food (again)! Yay! And the noodles were delicious. 😉
Looks like a great time! You sound amazing–you have to deal with a lot more than I do! (Peanut, tree nut, and egg in our house.) I hope things work out with bananas, and that you have more improvements, like on the paper front!
One thing, I’m mainly randomly scouring the blogosphere and found your blog, and after probably 20 minutes of reading through your recent posts and the beginning of your story, I still don’t have the slightest idea what FPIES is. I’m curious, but have limits to the time I’ll spend looking around… maybe have a “what is FPIES” link somewhere obvious to help out wanderers like me!
Eileen, thank you and welcome! Things did work out with bananas; they’re safe again!
That’s a really good suggestion. After so long writing our story, I sometimes forget that new folks come by and won’t know some of the terms that have become commonplace in our world. I’ll get something up right away.
Just for clarification, though, FPIES stands for Food Protein Induced Enterocolitis Syndrome. It’s a rare food allergy that affects the gastrointestinal system with delayed onset reactions to food triggers. The reactions range from severe (violent vomiting to bile and hypovolemic shock) to mild (if one can call screaming in pain, sleep disturbances, and bloody diarrhea mild). It’s very rare and most doctors are ignorant of its existence, causing many children to go undiagnosed for months or even years. Many mothers have been accused of Munchausens because the doctors didn’t believe them.
FPIES is why my son only has 11 (maybe) safe foods at almost 2.5 years old. Since there are no tests for FPIES, we have to feed him a food for a period of weeks and see if he reacts or not. He’s reacted to a lot of foods, and each reaction requires gut rest to heal before moving on to the next trial.
Hope that clears it up! We also have IgE allergies to egg and peanut, histamine intolerance, fructose malabsorption and salicylate sensitivity between the two boys and myself. It’s oodles of fun at mealtime! LOL
Did you click on the recipes tab at the top? If you have to avoid allergens, all of my recipes are peanut free and most are tree nut and egg free. You may find something new to eat!
I really enjoyed reading your perspective on snack day at school. I’ve always taken the opposite approach: it’s too dangerous. Too risky. So I enjoyed reading how you approach it as a training model; it really gave me food for thought. Your school must have excellent teachers! And I’m very impressed with Zax self-advocacy! That’s awesome!
Glad you stopped by, Eileen! Hope to see you again!
Pingback: Zac’s Banana Muffins - Cradle Rocking Mama