Life Continues: A Jump to the Present

From September until now, life has continued to push forward. Elianna has successfully passed and can eat these foods now: apricots, peaches, plums, cherries, and nectarines. She has had small 'licks' of blueberries and grapes, but not enough to call them a pass. I spent the last few months canning, freezing, drying, pureeing, fruit leathering, and whatever kind of preserving I could think of while the pit fruits were still in season. All I kept thinking about was what were we going to do when they were out of season and I had nothing to feed her? Thankfully I grew up in Northern California and had access to fruit straight from the orchard. Family friends have blessed us tremendously with cases of fruit 'to feed that baby'. Not all organic, but not processed or coated with anything in any way. Best of all, the fruit helped solve the problem with constipation.

In the meantime she ate a crayon and had a reaction. Safe, non-toxic crayons have soy.

She began eating large amounts of hair, fuzzies and string. We are now watching and wondering if it is PICA.

We finally head back to the allergist for atopy patch testing. (More on that in another post)

Her eczema has become full body. Some days she just has reflux and stomach pain and we cant figure out why. And she has had lots of diaper rash problems that are getting worse.

We realized that over the counter tylenol and motrin make her vomit and we need compounded medications for her. And I have begun the search for a safe probiotic for her.

She sucked on the adhesive on a cardboard box and had a mild reaction.

I have had to cut back at work in order to provide a predictable schedule for her, and have her home where we can practice eating. It's hard to give a toddler a tray full of puree to explore when not at home. It's hard to take her to someone's house and say 'do you mind if I vacuum your floor?' And it's hard to work full time while learning to be a suburban pioneer woman because your child can have nothing from the store.

Meanwhile the medical bills are rolling in and copayments continue. Now the GI wants us to send her to speech and occupational therapy for food therapy.

And I am thankful. Thankful that she has never been below the 90th percentile. Thankful that we now have 5 safe foods. Thankful that she is growing, less puffy, and turning into quite the little toddler full of personality. She never stops talking (we think she is fluent in Chinese). And her laughter is contagious.

We are making the necessary adjustments in our family, and working hard to accept the changes. They are not easy, and some days are definitely harder than others. But we have hope.