Zinc & Laxatives

It has been a difficult three weeks. I know, this is nothing new. I spent a lot of time calling doctors' offices and exchanging emails with other Mommies - the previous one is frustrating. The secretaries promise to have the doctors call you back and you wait and you wait until you don't want to wait anymore and you pick up the phone the following day and go through the same conversation with the secretaries - it was beyond frustrating.

The emails with Mommies are far more reliable, the replies almost instantaneous and the notes are more personal and warm and with a wealth of useful information. Ladies, if you are reading this please know that I am very, very grateful to have known you. Courtney, Wendy, AnnaDawn, Erin - you are heaven-sent.

So the updates from the last 2 weeks:

• Still constipated. My suspected culprit is the new antibiotic, Bactrim, but he's been off of it for a week now and he is still constipated. We just started him on MiraLax with no result. I find it odd that he feels the urge to "go" almost every hour but produces only little pellets of stool. It's almost like diarrhea in it's frequency, but constipation in the stool's consistency. This has made Bambino more miserable than he already is. I made a mental note to call GI again on Monday regarding this.

• I called the Derm to let him know that Bambino is still itching a lot and hasn't been sleeping even after 10 days on Bactrim. He put him back on Fluticasone 0.05% (Cutivate), a topical steroid and ordered to increase bleach bath to 1x/day from twice a week. He also told me to soak him in the tub thrice a day but I haven't been doing this since his tushie is already raw and painful from too much "activity" and sitting on the tub is not a very pleasant experience these days. Diaper changes are extremely difficult.
  

• They started him on Zinc supplement two days ago. He's is to take it for 10 days and it's supposed to improve his appetite as well as correct his deficiency.

• We saw his Immunologist last Wednesday. He weighed in at 16lbs 15oz. We're one ounce away from the 17lb mark, yay!! We got his latest batch of lab results. The notable allergens are as follows:

1. cod fish - class 6 (the highest class there is.)
2. almond - class 2
3. black-eyed peas - class 3
4. pumpkin - class 2
5. rye - class 4
6. tuna fish - class 1 (borderline)

Interestingly, the results show that he is extremely allergic to cod fish and only slightly allergic to tuna; which is confusing because they are both saltwater fish. I've discussed the similarities and differences between these two fishes with my husband and mother-in-law, but I still can't figure out why they give him very different reactions. But like everything, these are all theoretical - he hasn't really eaten any kind of fish at all to know how he would actually react to them.

• He is still not eating. I was hoping to get a yes or no answer from the GI doc last week reagrding G-tube, but he wanted more information from Bambino's medical records. These doctors! Do they want to see my baby waste away before they do anything about it? They keep saying he is not malnourished. But his growth chart tells us he is stagnating! Even the Dietitian thinks a tube is what my baby needs right now.

I had an interesting email exchange with a Mom from San Diego who told me her kids got growth hormone shots and got excellent results. This possibility was brought up by our Pedia on his 18th month check. I intend to do my own research on the matter as well.

Allergy Scare

Yesterday, I tried to poison my little one.

I came home from the gym and he came rushing to me in the kitchen. Hubby told me he didn't touch his formula while I was gone so I picked up a glass of milk from the kitchen counter and gave it to him. It is not unusual for us to put his formula in our drinking glasses so I really thought it was his formula. When the white liquid touched his mouth, he gagged and spit it out, prompting me to take a sniff from the glass. I realized right away that I gave him his brother's cow's milk. That's when it all started: his first severe allergic reaction.

I don't think he even ingested anything because he spit it out right away, but the fact that the milk touched the inside of his mouth triggered all these reactions:

He started gagging, attempting to vomit but there was really nothing in his stomach at the time. He was drooling so much. He kept his mouth wide open as if he didn't want to taste his own saliva. After gagging several times, he managed to throw up some bile. He continued to drool and was screaming the entire time. He didn't want to drink anything, not even iced water or breast milk - two things that he never refused before.

My husband, having experienced these extreme reactions before, warned me to watch for anaphylaxis: wheezing, breathing difficulty or swelling of the lips and tongue. We gave him a dose of Benadryl which knocked him out after a while. But although he was asleep in my arms, he still wouldn't close his mouth and he continued to salivate plus he would kick and scream every few minutes. He was restless.

After reading up on dairy allergic reactions online, I learned about the metallic taste and tingling sensation in the mouth that people experience during a reaction and it all made sense to me; the drooling and the open mouth.

I've never really realized how bad his allergies were until this frightening experience. I am very grateful that we didn't have to run to the ER, but I dread to think of what could've happened had he swallowed even just a drop of that cow's milk. I am glad that his senses are apparently equipped to distinguish the things he is allergic to. The experience also opened my eyes to the challeges we will continue to face in his lifetime.

Update From Immunologists

Yesterday, we were back to UCLA to see Dr. R, Bambino's Immunologist/Allergist. No good news here, but nothing unmanageable either:

• Bambino lost a few ounces compared to his last visit in March. I attributed it too the fact that he hasn't been eating much the past three weeks due to teething and break outs. Yesterday, he weighed in at 16lbs 8 oz.
  
• The doctors increased his dosage for Periactin to see if it will help alleviate the itching and maybe help with the sleep issues.
  
• They gave him a script for zinc (his zinc levels are low). We're hoping this will also improve his appetite.
  
• We found out the classes/levels of his allergies - Class 6 being the highest and 1 being the lowest in terms of reaction:

1. eggs & dairy - class 5
2. pork and beef - class 3
   
3. turkey - class 2 (he fairly tolerates turkey)

• They ordered more tests on more allergens, including some food that he's currently eating right now since we don't know for sure whether the hives and other symptoms he gets are allergic reactions or just a natural part of his disorder.
• One of my concerns on this visit is his enlarged lymph nodes on either side of his neck. He's always had swollen lymph nodes but i've never seen them THIS big, even the three docs who came in with Dr. R agreed that they're unusually big. To address this, the docs ordered another 3 weeks worth of Keflex.
  

Understandably, he was unhappy giving 7 vials of blood yet again for these numerous tests.