Turns out all my angst was for nothing. At least for now.
The strawberry trial didn’t happen.
Shortly after I shared that post, I gave Zac some fresh strawberries. He refused to even let one touch his lips!
It was a straight repeat of the maple syrup trial the night before!
As I made phone calls and went to the boards to ask how I could possibly get Zac to eat a strawberry, he got a hold of one of Jed’s crackers. He grabbed it, shoved it in his mouth, and ran to hide under the kitchen table.
By the time I got him out from under the table, he had chewed the cracker and was swallowing it as I tried to pry his mouth open.
Stinker.
These are Back-to-Nature Multi-Seed Gluten-Free Rice Thins. They have 8 ingredients!
BROWN RICE FLOUR, POTATO STARCH, SAFFLOWER OIL, SESAME SEEDS, SEA SALT, BLACK SESAME SEEDS, POPPY SEEDS, FLAX SEED.
Oh, hell.
So the strawberries went back in the fridge, and I started watching the clock.
Nothing happened.
But that’s not too unusual; Zac’s reactions – even acute ones – have always taken longer than the 2-4 hour traditional FPIES timeframe.
The very week that Jed “graduated” out of speech therapy, Zac received his EI speech therapy evaluation. He qualified, and that afternoon was his first session.
So, watching him for reaction signs, I took the two of us to the shower to get cleaned up and ready to go.
While we were in the shower, I noticed him repeatedly holding his hands over his ears.
Uh-oh. That’s pretty much the only obvious sign Zac ever gives us when he has an ear infection.
So I hauled out the otoscope and took a peek. Yup. Ear infection. (Or, at least, ear irritation.) In BOTH ears!
Sigh.
Some days it just never ends, you know?
When we got home from speech therapy, the little stinker managed to grab ANOTHER of Jed’s crackers and eat it. He’s too fast for his own good sometimes, and he’s downright sneaky, y’all!
By that night, he had shown ZERO FPIES reaction signs.
Seriously?
Darrel and I had a moment of complete insanity when we considered trialing the crackers. Sure, he might still have a chronic reaction to them, but if he didn’t…well, that’s EIGHT ingredients added to his diet all at once!
Wham, bam, take that FPIES!
The thing that holds me back is the potato starch. If he did react to the crackers, I can’t risk losing potatos from my diet yet.
If only those crackers didn’t have potato starch…well, it’s probably for the best. For now, all food trials are officially on hold until his ears clear up.
That night I made some garlic oil and began treating his ears. If they don’t clear up soon I’ll take him to the doctor for antibiotics, which will only delay food trials for even longer.
So far he seems to be doing better. He’s not touching his ears as much, and that’s a good sign. We closed up the house and turned on the AC to reduce environmental elements, and the garlic oil seems to be helping. Fingers crossed they clear up completely soon!
In other news…
I hate it when I’m right.
Well, sometimes.
Actually, I only hate being right when it’s about something bad. I love being right otherwise!
Zac and I absolutely, without a shadow of a doubt, have fructose malabsorption.
Drat.
This certainty came from our recent discovery that bananas are a safe food for Zac.
Once we moved past the trial stage, we let Zac go hog-wild for bananas!
“Na-na” is one of the first words he’s ever used, so when he verbally asked for a banana, we rewarded his speech by giving him the requested banana.
Friday, he ate over 20 of the little Mysore Bananas!
He also had a poochy tummy starting about mid-afternoon, farted a LOT, had hiccups, undigested food in his poop, and had a little bit of an attitude with us in the evening.
It was nothing as bad as what Jed has exhibited before, but those are all signs of fructose malabsorption that I’m very familiar with.
Bummer.
I know I’ve been operating as if he does have FructMal, but I secretly hoped he would luck out on this one thing and NOT take after his Mama, grandparents and brother. Isn’t FPIES and histamine intolerance enough?
Alas, it is clear that he, too, has issues with fructose.
In good news, it seems that for him bananas are a “quantity” issue, though. He had no disturbing signs during the trial when he was eating fewer bananas on a daily basis. It was only when we let him scarf down bananas like they were air that he showed any signs.
So bananas are still “in”…just not unlimited bananas.
On Saturday I made a batch of pancakes with bananas for me and Zac to enjoy. We did! They were delicious!
But I most certainly had a fructose reaction to the bananas, and it was a wretched experience. So in case I had any doubts, I, too have FructMal.
Another bummer.
What a weekend for us! Best laid plans going awry, ear infections, and finding out for certain that Zac and I have FructMal. Ugh. I’d really like to find more FPIES safe foods that are also GOOD for Zac!
How was your weekend?
Well I can only say I relate! I know I have FM! Fruit hates me, really it does! And honestly I don’t like it much either! But oh the fun things we deal with in this world LOL
Until I started on the TED for Zac, I never knew I also had food issues. My symptoms were never severe enough to make me realize it was connected to food; it was always easily explained by other things…a cold, sinus problems, seasonal allergies, stress, etc.
Turns out, I also tend to have an addiction to the foods that make me the most wonky, so now I’m suspicious of all the things I used to love to eat – and things like watermelon, cantaloupe, apples, pears, bananas, onions and garlic are WAY up at the top of my list of things that probably make me sick!
Yep. SO MUCH FUN. (Not.)
FM on top of fpies really sucks. We have both here. My youngest spent part if the weekend hospitalized trying to figure out why her blood sugar keeps crashing so all of our holiday plans flew right out the window also. Her dx list is becoming too long for me to even remember. :'(. Are you doing speech they EI at home or are you taking him to an outside therapist. We started with EI but now use theraplay for OT PT and ST. Yep 5 hrs per week of therapy right now on top of trying to sort her medicl issues. Needless to say we are in the land of no food trials also. It sucks but the important thing is to keep our kids healthy and not lose out on a food due to ill times food trials. Hope Zac ‘s ears clear up without antibiotics. Hang in there.
Oh, dear, Anissa! I know I’ve already told you I’m praying for you and your sweetie pie, but I’ll tell you again – you’ve had such a stressful weekend and you’ve been on my mind. I seriously hope you get answers and help soon.
We’re taking him to the therapist; we live too far out in the sticks for them to be able to come to us. But we love this therapist! I did everything I could to get Zac the same speech therapist that worked with Jed. She’s amazing, very good at her job but also very receptive to the food issues we deal with.
His ears are doing better, thanks! And I will continue to pray for you and your little bug; I hope she feels better soon and progresses into the land of food trials faster than expected. HUGS!
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