More Doctor News

Nate had a slew of doctor appointments recently. I was hoping we would have some conclusions made at this point, but alas there is not much new.

The pediatric GI said that he feels he has some allergy but his weight gain is good so he is not concerned it is anything more serious. He also said that even if he has an allergy that they can't figure out, it is more beneficial to keep nursing him than to switch him to a hypoallergenic formula since he is only having sporadic, mild reactions.

The allergist said she felt we needed to do testing to help figure out what his allergy is. She barely looked at my food journal and just tested him for the six most common allergens using a scratch test. It was kind of silly since some of the things I hadn't had for months. He came back negative for soy, milk, peanuts, chicken, wheat, and rye. Her response was that I should further restrict dairy and soy by eliminating anything with soy lecithin (basically it is in everything) and a list of about thirty dairy-based ingredients (like casein and whey). I don't agree with this theory since those ingredients are in things I eat every day and he is only having a reaction about once a week. The food allergy network site also states that soy lecithin is not a trigger for people with soy allergies.

Nate's pediatrician followed up with us regarding his specialists. I told her my concerns about the allergist and she agreed with me but said it was possible he is having microscopic amounts of blood routinely. She suggested I drop off a few normal looking poop samples for the lab to test to see if they had "occult blood". If they came back negative it would support my theory that is it something I am only eating occasionally. If they came back positive, it would support the allergist's theory that I should further restrict dairy and soy. I like Dr. Reddy. She is so logical.

The test results that have come back so far have been negative for blood. Nate has had two episodes since his specialist appointments so I sent the list of foods I consumed the 48 hours prior to the blood to the allergist. She responded by suggesting maybe it is eggs. Nowhere on my list of foods did eggs appear. She suggested it could be an ingredient in pasta but I checked the packaging and there are no eggs in our pasta. Eggs are, however, one of the major offenders of allergies. It seems as though she just is going down the list of typical allergies without actually paying attention to what I am eating. I feel like if it were her decision, she would just tell me to avoid dairy, soy, peanuts, eggs, wheat, and all derivatives of the aforementioned foods since those are the most common allergens for babies. It is frustrating because I have been keeping a detailed food journal but she doesn't seem too concerned about actually looking at it to try to figure out what is causing Nate trouble. Every time I have suggested a food, her response is, "It would be pretty rare for a baby to be allergic to that".

So, several weeks later we are no closer to finding out what is bugging Nate. Further complicating matters, I'm now back at work three days a week and Nate is getting milk I pumped and froze over the last two months. So, if he has a reaction now, we can't really go by what I ate the previous 48 hours since it could be from the expressed milk which was collected last month and who knows what I ate the previous 48 hours to pumping. I am going to have to start tracking when the milk he drinks each day was pumped to know what other foods to include in the list. So complicated. I have a feeling he will end up outgrowing this before they figure anything out. I also think I am unnecessarily avoiding dairy and soy when he is probably allergic to something else completely.

So, that is our latest Nate update. We do have tons of photos but I am waiting on John to upload them. He said he would upload them tonight so I think I may have a chance to work on pictures this weekend. I also will post an entry about back to work : (