Failing Strawberries

What a mess, of the diaper explosion kind.  We're talking poop from head to toe.  TJ's freeze dried strawberries are the obvious culprit. About 1/4 cup of them.  No more strawberries. 

The end. 

One of THOSE nights.

I'm left wondering.... reaction or stomach bug?

We had dinner at my parents house around 5pm.  My mom set out a big plate of strawberries.  I have been giving Jake strawberries off and on, when I had them, if we weren't trialing anything.  Not an official trial, but a trial nonetheless. He's had a quite a few lately.  I'm not sure how many times he's had them though.  Four, five, maybe?  (must be more vigilant with the food journal, kicking myself)

He BEGGED.  I CAVED.  He had a strawberry.

Fast forward 11 hours.  YES, 11 hours.  He's crying in his bed.  He's covered in vomit.  I bathe him.  He vomits again.  I nurse him.  He vomits again.  Then he's WIRED.  Running around like a crazy guy.  Alternating between whiny, clingy baby, and rambunctious, hyper boy.  Three hours later, he asks for milk and to go to sleep.  He nurses and is now napping.  At 7am.

Sounds more like a mild reaction.  Certainly not shock-like symptoms.

The flip side... his five year old brother was up all night two nights ago vomiting.

I really thought the strawberries were safe.  He had no GI issues eating them in the past.

So which is it?  *sigh*

Pork Trial

Random.  But I made a pork sirloin in the crockpot yesterday.  With just water and salt.  I gave him some.  It ended up undigested in his diaper this morning. 

Jake is cranky.

Ugh.

Not sure what to do next.  I hate FPIES.

Breaking from Eggs

*sigh*

Capital B.L.O.W.O.U.T. today.  Mucus.  Black specs. All up his back and down his legs. 

Part of me wants to press on with our egg trial.  Is that crazy? 

Today was Day 4.  We've had zero signs of discomfort or crankiness until this morning.  He was a little clingy for our weekly visit to visit Granddad in the nursing home.  But he eventually warmed up.  I attributed it to his molars starting to push through and no morning nap.

We came home.  I made lunch.  I gave him an entire egg (about 1 1/2 Tablespoons?), grapes, cheecha puffs and a millet cookie.  He ate most of it.  He was happy.  He was walking around, playing, while I cleaned up lunch.  Big Bro says "Jake stinks!".  I didn't see or hear him do his business.  I figured it would be normal.  But it wasn't.  It was a blowout.  He was fine after.  Two hours later, he's still fine.  He nursed well and is napping.  He was happy going to bed.

I'm not sure what to think.  Was it a crumb he picked up?  Was it the eggs?  I have to admit my housekeeping has been less than stellar this week.  DH is out of town.

I'm not sure what our next step will be.  But for now we'll take a break.  At least until DH is back in town.

Shelving Avocado

We did one day of avocado.  I felt like I would "know" after one taste of it.  While it wasn't a vomit/shock fail, it was not a normal food adjustment.  Cranky, clumsy, clingy... then a nasty diaper the next morning.  It seemed once it was out of his system, he returned to normal.  He had a normal diaper a few hours later.  It was enough for me to put it on the shelf for now.  I'm a little bummed because he needs the extra fat and calories.  I think we'll have a few days of nothing, then maybe coconut next.

Meanwhile,  I'm on the search for some grass-fed lamb.  I've contacted a local farm here and I believe I can get ground grass fed lamb for less than $10/lb.

I think the turkey is helping our sleep issues a bit.  He was up only two times last night.  Down from three times a night for the past week. Which is down from 4-5 times a night the week(s) before that!  He doesn't eat that much turkey, however.  I've had to trick him a bit.  I've found he prefers the ground turkey over the roasted turkey (which I ended up pureeing and hiding in his food).  But I can't think of anything else that is different over the past few weeks. Unless it's learning to walk?  Maybe that's wearing him out?  Either way it's progress.  I like progress, especially when it involves sleep. 

The irony is... Jake failed ascorbic acid today.

So after freaking out over Jake's spit up incident, we failed ascorbic acid.  At least that's what I think we failed.  I picked up some prune juice with the ascorbic acid in it.  I was a little leary, that's two things we haven't tried.  I didn't want to do them both together.  So I thought first I would try some jarred pears that contained pear concentrate and ascorbic acid.  He has fresh pears almost every day.  He has had jarred food a few times before he had any FPIES reactions.  This was probably his third time having it.  Three.  It's the magic number.  He ate the whole stage 2 jar after his nap today.  One hour later (less than normal reaction time of 2 hours) he vomitted.  Then he went into his zombie state.  I was very confused.  This wasn't his textbook reaction, but it was definitely a reaction.  He only vomited once.  Then it was the lethargic, red rings around his eyes, stiffening with stomach pains every once in a while, then back to being lethargic.  Even his brother who always puts a smile on his face, got nothing.  Every once in a while, he'd look at me with this pitiful, pleading eyes, rubbing his face, obviously in pain, then surrendor and just lay there, unmoving.  I kept waiting for the vomiting to start.  I kept wondering if I should take him to the ER.  I kept thinking... when is he going to start the full blown reaction?  I always thought his lethargy was caused by his extreme vomiting.  After today, I'm sure it's not.  So what's going on inside his little body that makes him react this way?  What puts him in the zombie state?  After about 90 minutes it was over.  He was asking to nurse.  He nursed, fell asleep for about 45 minutes, then woke up like nothing happened.  I googled ascorbic acid.  The man-made version is derived from corn.  Is it corn then?  Then I thought... I just bought a bag of corn chips a few days ago.  I've eaten a lot of them.  Bad, I know.  Maybe that's why he wasn't sleeping well the past few nights?  Maybe that's why he spit up?  I think I may drop all corn from my diet.  I mean all corn, even corn syrup. 

FPIES is like this giant puzzle that I feel like I never have all the pieces to.