It all started when we began giving Brynn solid foods. When she was 5.5 months, we gave her her first taste of Gerber rice cereal. Not a big fan. She spit it all out, made faces, and cried. I tried it the following evening, assuming she just needed to get used to the taste/texture of something else. She didn't like it again. Until this point, she had nothing other than breastmilk and an occasional bottle of formula at daycare if I didn't pump enough the previous day. The next day, I figured I'd start with some baby food purees, so I could mix it with the cereal...she tried sweet potatoes, squash, bananas, pears...and she did fine with all of them (only had them 2 days in a row before moving to next food). So after all of that, I decided to have her try peaches...I figured she would just love them considering how she gobbled down the other fruits. However, this time I decided to add a little cereal to her food (maybe secretly hoping it would help her sleep longer..shhhh). She ate it sooo fast..it was just gone in no time, I couldnt' get it in her mouth fast enought for her! Danny was gone (hunting I believe), so Brynn, Cody and myself just hung out after supper. We were playing in their bedroom, and (exactly 2 hours after eating), Brynn projectile vomitted EVERYWHERE. My first thought was OMG, poor thing...she's sick!! So I called Danny and told him, he said he'd be right home. 5 mins later, EVERYWHERE again. I had just changed her, and it happened again. Cody began whimpering, wondering what was wrong with his baby sister...I just tried to explain that she's sick and needed mommy to hold her and help her...that was good enough for him and I quick turned on a cartoon for him to keep him occupied. I changed her again and wrapped her in a blanket to hopefully keep her jammies clean so we didn't have to change anymore. I was holding her in my arms and she just closed her eyes and went to sleep. I thought, ok she must be totally worn out from all of that! She then sat up (eyes still closed), and began throwin up again (this time I had a bucket to catch it in)...all while her eyes were closed. She was good for about 10 mins...Then she sat up, gagged, spit out some mucousy junk, tried to open her eyes and they just sort of rolled back in her head...I assumed she was going back to sleep. After almost an hour and a half of that, she was done. She stayed asleep for the next 4-5 hours (very unlike her), woke up, nursed and went back to sleep...from then on, she seemed totally fine. Danny and I both took 1/2 days at work so one of us could be home with her at a time. She was irritable the next day, but that was nothing new. Since she was about 2 months old, she had terrible, awful screaming fits-totally inconsolable. She didn't want to eat, she didn't want to be held, she wasn't tired...just screamed and threw herself around. She actually had my mom and myself in tears numerous times because we didn't know what was wrong and didn't know how to help her. Eventually, she would calm down...some of these lasted up to 1.5 hours though. Ugh.
So after seeing that it probably wasn't the flu, we waiting 4 days and tried sweet pototoes with rice cereal again. I figured it was some sort of reaction to the peaches since it was a new food. Nope. Exactly 2 hours later, same exact thing happened. I brought her to the dr the next day. They had no idea what was wrong with her...referred us to a pediatric GI specialist in the cities. She also said to wait a few more days and try again. We did, I gave her peaches again...nothing (totally forgot that they previously had rice cereal in them). Tried a few days later with sweet potatoes...nothing. I figured it was just a fluke that she got sick those 2 times, but kept the GI appt just in case. A week later (no food since the sweet potatoes), I had an epiphany. I remember that the first 2 times had rice cereal mixed in. So I tried sweet pototoes with rice cereal....2 hours later, here we go again. Puke everywhere. Danny even commented that he thought she was throwing up bile.
This began my google search. "Vomitting 2 hours after Rice cereal". This is where I read about FPIES for the first time. I started really researching and it sounded just like her. I found a wonderful forum with parents of FPIES baby giving advice and told our story. Everyone said, yes it for sure sounds like a classic case of FPIES. They also recommended bringing some info on FPIES to the GI appt because not all dr's really know a lot about this. I got info ready and called the GI office and asked if the dr we were seeing knew about FPIES--they said he was familiar.
So off we go to the GI dr ready for some answers and a plan of attack. Not what I expected. The papers when we left said "?REFLUX? ?FOOD ALLERGY?" and we were prescribed a reflux med. BLAH! This is not reflux! I was so mad. I asked him about FPIES. He said no way, there hasn't been blood in her stools. Ok, so away we went.
I talked to a couple moms on the FPIES forum and they suggested just getting an appt with an allergist (Dr. Helm--he seems to be the one who knows most about this and takes it seriously). I checked with our insurance and we could totally make an appt without a referral! So I did. Now we wait...wait until Dec 7 when we see Dr. Helm.
In the meantime, we are going to start our first food trial. Tonight, Brynn will try some bananas. I'll let you know how it goes!!!!
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