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Allergies and intolerances

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Help needed with allergic, refluxy, picky eater

1 reply

ItsHarryTheDirtyDog · 19/09/2018 10:38

DS is 22 months.

He had FPIAP from 4 weeks to 7 months, constant bloody diarrhoea that was less bad after i cut out all dairy and soy, but didn't clear up no matter what I cut out (dairy, soy, wheat, egg, fish, sesame, oats...), until suddenly it just went away at 7 months. I was told by paediatric immunologists that it is better to feed a complete diet than cut stuff out for FPIAP, so I started weaning with every allergen in small doses at 6 months (followed the EAT protocol, starting 2 months late).

However the FPIAP was then replaced by silent reflux, and over time, eczema. Kept ploughing on with a baby who never bloody sleeps, probably because of silent reflux. Omeprazole made a difference for about a week, then no difference, so we stopped it after a couple of months because it was so hard to get him to swallow it.

At 18 months he had some bug that made everything flare up - really high temperatures, eczema everywhere, reflux, snuffling, watering eyes, nappy rash - it was like a horror version of hayfever. Since that the silent reflux has been really bad, so we have gone strictly dairy-free and soy-free - again, it's made some difference but not a complete difference. Eczema is still there. I have also avoided beef (not that I ever ate it anyway) as he reacted badly the one time i ate beef when he was about 4 months old.

Since that illness he has been unbelievably picky about food, with the list of acceptable foods shrinking all the time. He will now only eat a few things - peanut butter (home made) on bread (home made), hoummous, porridge with oat milk and fruit, and lentil/chickpea/bean/carrot/celery/onion/stock soup. At least these aren't bad foods, but it's a massively restricted diet, and nutritionally insufficient. The other 50% of his diet is breastmilk, so that probably fixes the nutrition (I have been checked regularly for iron), but I can't cut down on the breastfeeding as he won't eat anything.

I think he needs specific IgE testing for as many allergens as possible, but even if we got that (and that is probably totally out of reach, in our country's health system), it's not going to tell us about delayed allergic reactions. He is also eating far too few foods and far too few textures, and I honestly just have no idea how to get stuff into him.

I have tried refusing breastmilk during the day, feeding only at bedtime and in the morning. That just results in screaming - all day and all night - for days at a time - not him eating any more food. We've settled for refusing night feeds but I feed on demand during the day.

Can anyone suggest what we should be doing?

OP posts:
ItsHarryTheDirtyDog · 19/09/2018 10:41

Forgot to say we have an appointment with the general paed at our hospital next week, so if there is something I should be asking for, that would be the time to do it.

OP posts:
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