Grant update

I wanted to give a quick (it turns out to not be so quick actually) update for all you Grant Fans out there. This is his allergy results from last year….

The Dr. circled everything he was allergic to. He didn't react to wheat and milk during this test, but both of those things REALLY aggravate his eczema, so we chose to eliminate them, along with soy, eggs, peanuts, nitrites, food dyes, and high fructose corn syrup. I talked all about it HERE. It's been almost a year since we eliminated those foods. We tried re-introducing some things, but found him reacting. Things were getting really frustrating with his Dr.'s…. really really frustrating. We were eliminating the foods like we were supposed to, but Grant's moods were haunting…. What was wrong? I took him to a homeopath (the best decision I ever made). How a small white pellet dissolving on my sons tongue twice a day can cause such change still amazes me, but it worked…. I'm a believer. A LOT changed.

So, fast forward to now. I took him in for another allergy test, here are the results…

I don't know how closely you're looking at these things… but some of his numbers doubled. He's REALLY allergic, holy cow! So much for "growing out of his allergies." Because he's only 4, they only test for these 25 'most common' allergies. Adults are tested for 100 or more. I asked the Dr. if Grant could be tested for those other things because I have a sneaky suspicion that if he's allergic to almost ALL from this panel, there's more he's allergic to that we don't know about. The answer is NO, until he's about 7 or 8 yrs. Well, is he a good candidate for allergy shots? The answer again is NO, until he's about 10 or 12. Poor guy! We'll just continue to keep him away from what we can, like the foods and the animals.

But that brings us to another problem. Eliminating all of that food has left my already-picky boy almost malnourished. The nutritionists are worried about the little guy because he's only gained 1 lb. in the past year. His growth chart has come to a plateau and he is no longer growing. What can we do?

Then we received an answer to our prayers…. WIC provides supplements for children who are classified as "failure to thrive." It wasn't hard for them to label him such. We got set up through them and a nearby hospital to receive Peptamen Jr.

The hospital delivered cases of it to our house and we started giving it to him. That night was AWFUL. He was reacting to something… but we had checked the labels and Peptamen was fine for Grant. But it did have Soy Lecithin. I've been told that soy lecithin doesn't have soy protein in it and that someone with a soy allergy would be able to tolerate it. Well, not in Grant's case.

So we returned all 90 cans and talked about other options. The only product that was soy AND dairy free was Neocate Jr.

It's a powder formula that you mix with water, which had me worried because I didn't think Grant would drink a formula based drink. But they had chocolate flavor, so we ordered that. Come to find out, the hospital will not provide chocolate (who knows why), so we got TROPICAL. And boy, is it disgusting! Getting Grant to drink it has been trying. But we're working on it. We've put it in smoothies and fruit drinks, and even in popsicles. We're having to get real creative. His doctor has recommended that we try to give him some dairy and wheat, so we've been limiting that in his diet. So far things are going well.

This has all been a real ordeal, but just within the last couple months I feel we've been getting some of the help we've needed. Answers are coming, and doors are opening. The products that WIC are providing are more expensive that anything we could buy him ourselves. What a blessing. It overwhelms me. Thank you to everyone who's been so supportive and loving toward Grant, and us, as we struggle to find our way through this. I still feel like we're in a fog just grabbing at methods and answers in all directions. But things seem to be clearing up. We love this little boy and just want him to be happy!