My Rookie Mistake

Mr. Happy has been teething.  He actually cut his second tooth last week!

Here’s the problem: he’s a rotten teether.

Mr. Charm was great – we hardly ever knew he was teething.  It was as if he thought to himself “Excruciating pain in my mouth?  Whatev!  I have people to charm and things to do!”

Mr. Happy, on the other hand, says “Pain?  MAKE IT STOP!”

And he whimpers.  And cries.  And screams.  And moans.  And refuses to be put down without a full on, ear blasting explanation of ‘why that sucks’.

Well, okay.  I have ibuprofen that I can give him. So I gave him ibuprofen.

And started noticing a really NASTY smell from his diapers.

My fellow FPIES Mama’s confirmed: stinky diapers=reaction sign.

Not good.

Except…that’s pretty much all he was doing, reaction wise.  He got a small case of eczema, but nothing too bad.  He got stinky diapers.  He got stinky breath.

That’s it.

Still, it is a reaction.  So I asked the Mama’s on the boards about it, and turns out methyl cellulose, which is the only other ingredient in our compounded ibuprofen, is often corn derived.

Corn.  Which we suspect is an issue food for Mr. Happy.  Yeah.

So the question for me is: do I let Mr. Happy suffer through acute teething pain (that makes him and everyone around him miserable) or do I give him the medicine that makes him very happy and agreeable, but is causing minute chronic damage to his system?

Why does every decision regarding my children, no matter how small, have to be fraught with so many consequences?

I’d love to be able to get back to the days of saying “Sure, why not.  It won’t kill him!”

Here’s where it gets interesting, though:

Did you ever have one of those moments where you just feel like slapping yourself on the forehead saying “Stupid, stupid, stupid!” I just had one of those last night.

I looked up yesterday and realized that uh-oh!  We were almost out of diapers.  The first chance I got to head to the store was after the kiddos were in bed, so off to the grocery store I went.  I figured that while I was there, I’d pick up more staples: grass-fed beef, organic potatos, olive oil, etc.

I decided to treat myself to something different from ground beef (which I’ve basically been eating for three meals a day – it gets old) and was looking for a pack of stew meat or steaks when suddenly my brain registered something it didn’t notice the last two times I bought the meat at this store: the meat I was picking up did not specifically say ‘grass-fed’ on the package.

No, it said “Organic, humanely treated, minimally processed, antibiotic and hormone free, fed a 100% vegetarian diet”.

As in, this might be better meat to eat, but it is still GRAINED MEAT.

How on EARTH did I make such a rookie mistake???

When we got to town last week we went straight to the store.  Mom was standing next to me, pointing to the general area where the specialty meats are kept (they also have bison, lamb, and a few other ‘oddities’) and said “Here’s where the grass-fed beef is”.

So I basically just assumed that all the meat in the case was grass-fed.  NEVER ASSUME ANYTHING!  THAT’S RULE NUMBER ONE!!!  I KNOW BETTER!!

SO…is it JUST the methyl cellulose?  Or is it the grain in the beef?  Or BOTH?  

And why do BOTH my boys have to be such sensitive reactors?  Huh?  Why must the smallest amount of their particular poisons be so immediately problematic?

OK, small rant over.  Moving on…I started reading labels and found a pack of ground beef that says “100% grass-fed” on the front and have no choice but to accept that at face value.  I bought 4 pounds of that, and headed on my merry way.  The store (HEB, for all you Texans out there) says they will accept the ‘bad’ ground beef as a return, but I overheard the girls talking and realize that they will have to ‘damage’ it out and basically throw it away.  I hate the thought of wasting such delicious and really pretty good meat, so I’ll probably just give it to my parents to eat and go buy some more grass-fed stuff for me.

Tomorrow I’m calling Colliers to get them to dry batch some ibuprofen for Mr. Happy and, with any luck, they can have it ready before the Geek has to fly down so he can bring it with him.  If not, I’ll just keep trying to make Mr. Happy build his pain tolerance by only giving him the ibuprofen at bedtime (’cause Mama would like to sleep and not be ‘moaned at’ all night long).

And for God’s sake – I’m going to start reading every single label again, even of foods I ‘know’ are safe because I don’t want another “Rookie Mistake” on my conscience!

Anyone else have a ‘rookie mistake’ moment of their own that they’d like to share?  So my readers (me) won’t feel so bad?