Ritz Cracker Non-Reaction

Last week was brutal. I’m feeling very off my game right now, so this might not be the best writing I’ve ever done. Still, I wanted to give an update on the tomato trial, since I announced it last week.

The tomato trial never happened.

Zac helped us pick out tomatos in the store. He helped bag them. The morning of the trial, he helped wash and dice them. He told me how he wanted me to serve them to him.

He seemed VERY excited about tomatos!

Until I put the plate in front of him.

Then he absolutely refused to even taste a tiny little piece of tomato. He even pinched his lips closed when I attempted to feed him a little dice.

Grr.

As we went about our business for the rest of the day, I contemplated how I was going to “sneak” tomatos into his food for a trial. Darrel was all for skipping tomatos and moving on, but, as I said, I really want to eat tomatos! If I could think of a good list of ways to pursue the trial, I was going to do my best to convince Darrel we should continue.

The kids ate a good, big lunch, and we went to town for speech therapy and a quick visit to the health food co-op. They really shouldn’t have been hungry until dinner time.

However, at the co-op, they both started whining and crying for food. “Mommy! I’m hungry!”

I don’t know what possessed me. After three years of dealing with FPIES, I’ve gotten very good at telling the kids “no” and making them go hungry until we get home on the rare occasions I don’t have safe food with us. But last Monday, I found myself seeking out the produce manager to ask questions about bananas.

The organic bananas at my health food co-op, she assured me, are not sprayed with anything. Theoretically, that makes them essentially the same as the bananas we’ve been having shipped in from Florida. Theoretically, that means Zac can eat a banana from my co-op without incident.

My parents have asked me several times why Zac can’t have bananas from the co-op, and every time I’ve responded that we don’t want to spend time on a trial for a version of a food he already has since we’re trying to get NEW foods for him.

But the tomato trial didn’t happen. And I had to leave for work in two days. I wasn’t willing to start a trial the day before I left work, which meant any new trial had to start RIGHT THEN.

Oh, what the hay. I bought Zac some bananas.

The child was thrilled!

For the first time in his life, he got to eat a food right there in the store. Seriously. He has never eaten ANYTHING that didn’t have to be specially sourced and prepared at home.

We didn’t even leave the checkout line before he was digging into the bags to pull out a banana. He ate it as he walked back to the car, a grin on his face.

I texted Darrel, informing him that tomatos didn’t happen and I guessed we were doing a banana trial now.

We decided it didn’t need to be a full trial; just a short one to make sure the bananas were as safe as we imagined they would be.

It looked good for those bananas, too, and then on Thursday, BOTH boys ate Ritz crackers and Dasani water.

I was at work when I learned of this, and was very upset. Ritz crackers are not exactly a great choice for my kids. I expected reactions from both of them.

Amazingly enough, it’s been decidedly quiet on the reaction front. Despite being made entirely of wheat, Jed didn’t have any Meanies from them. Why he had the Meanies from the wheat in the batter on some fried catfish but not from a cracker made entirely from wheat is beyond me, but it is what it is.

Zac’s poops have been…not perfect, but not anywhere near as bad as I would have imagined after drinking Dasani (aka CORN) water and eating Ritz crackers with a zillion ingredients.

I’m flabbergasted.

Still, since the next trial we want to do is potatos, and I REALLY want those to be a safe food for him, we have no choice but to wait a good week or two before pursuing the next trial. I don’t want a repeat of the bell pepper incident; it’s safer to wait just to make sure any mild internal reactions he’s having are healed up before introducing a new food.

I have some really cute pictures of Zac eating his first banana, but, last week was brutal. I don’t have the energy to deal with photo editing right now.

In the meantime, we’re back in a holding pattern, and waiting until we’re sure Zac is totally healthy before introducing potatos.

Also, I don’t know what to think about this Ritz cracker debacle. Do you think it’s a sign Zac may be outgrowing FPIES? I don’t know what to think. Maybe it’s just that since we’ve done such a good job of keeping him healthy he can handle small doses of triggers without incident?