Allergies

A few months ago, we found out that Fox developed food allergies. 

It all started when we were in Chicago and Katie’s mom, who was taking care of him at the time, reported that he was throwing up his milk every time he drank it. We stopped giving him milk and took him to the doctor the next day to see if there was anything going on with him, but the doctor suspected it was the flu and said we can give him milk again after a couple of days. When we did, the same thing happened, so we switched to lactose free milk and just kept watching him.

It all went well for a couple of days until he ate some cheese crackers and threw up all night long. We took him to the doctor again, where we finally received a referral for a blood draw.

Let me just tell you, those five minutes were awful. He begged us for “no pokes” and screamed bloody murder when it happened, while we pinned him down. My Mama heart broke seeing him like this and not being able to explain to him why we were doing this to him. 

It’s been three months since and he is still talking about the “poke”. Poor kid. 

So while we were waiting for the results of the blood test, we cut out all dairy in his diet. The milk part about it was the easiest, because we simply replaced his milk with almond milk, but the rest of his meals were not so easy. There is dairy in so much stuff he used to love and we threw it all out. 

While we were hoping that he didn’t have a dairy allergy, it wasn’t a surprise when his levels were highly elevated and we found out he had a severe dairy and egg allergy. They wanted us to see an allergist because there were other red flags in the blood work and of course, we also wanted to know exactly what we have to look out for. It took about a month to finally get the referral and appointment with the allergist and while Mr. Fox didn’t have the time of his life, it wasn’t as traumatizing to him as the blood draw. 

Luckily no other allergies were found. They prescribed us an Epi Pen, because they said that while he is “only” throwing up now, it could develop into something much worse, so we needed to be prepared. The good news is, that there is a possibility that he grows out of it by the age of 7, so that’s what I’m hoping. 

So our picky eater went from barely eating anything to eating even less than before. It surely has been an adjustment and we are slowly learning and finding new things to feed him. The only thing that we haven’t been able to replace is Cheese. There is a dairy free cheese, but it tastes like shit, and all of us tried it and none of us liked it, so that’s that. 

We practically gave up going to restaurants, because there is never anything available that he can have (or would eat), sometimes we bring his own food when we go out.

I’m sad that Fox will not be able to eat the same lunch as the other kids at school (they order in every day, and he will always have to bring his own lunch). I’m sad, that he can’t have cake at any birthday party we go to, and there are often multiple parties a month. 

Amazingly enough though, this little two year old understands much more than we give him credit for, and he realizes that he has an upset tummy when he eats certain things. So while he still asks to eat the cake at the party, he is not upset when we remind him why he can’t have it. Katie has been making him dairy and egg free special desserts or vegan gelato (pictured below) and we bring it with us when we go to a party, so that helps as well.

And while I am sad for him that he has to go through this, I’m so happy that he is healthy otherwise and that this is the only thing we have to deal with right now.