Our precious son was born Saturday, October 24, 2009. Beginning about the 20th week of my pregnancy I was labeled high risk. Owen was not growing as he should – I had a high placental resistance. The Sunday after he was born we started noticing he would curl up in a bawl and cry out in pain. He also had the most comical gas. Our pediatrician said it was just "colic." His diapers were immediately suspect. They were runny, slimy and smelly beyond words. In addition, he had the worst diaper rash that was raw, weepy and bloody. I was breastfeeding. We have a daughter, Cate, who is just 17.5 months older than Owen. I successfully breastfed her for 6 months and we never, ever saw diapers like these with Cate. His cramping and crying out continued. By week 7, blood was appearing in his bm’s. I refused to take “colic” as the reason. Suspecting it was an allergic reaction to dairy and soy, I eliminated those from my diet. But his symptoms persisted. I stopped bf’ing and began Nutramigen by Enfamil. Almost immediately the blood disappeared and the cramping subsided. However, the mucous filled diapers were still there. Around mid January a friend suggested we try Nutramigen AA. I asked our pediatrician and he said it wasn’t necessary. I ignored him and ordered a case full. (You cannot buy Nutramigen AA in the stores – only online.) Within a few weeks his cramping and crying out were completely gone and his diapers became more solid. I was sold!!! Since he obviously had some dietary issues, upon the advice of our pediatrician, we waited until 6 months to try solids. We started with sweet potatoes. Within 24 to 48 hours after consumption, the crying out in pain returned and so did the scary diapers. We also tried pears, bananas, carrots, apple sauce, peas, green beans, rice cereal. But he reacted to EVERYTHING. There is nothing worse than having your child cry out in horrific pain and there isn’t a thing you can do for them. When going through an ‘episode’ he doesn’t want to be held, he doesn’t want to be left alone. He thrashes about. His poor tummy becomes as hard as a rock. This will last a couple of hours and then he is fine. His diapers aren’t, but at least he isn’t acting as if he is in pain.
We finally got in to see a pediatric gastroenterologist at the start of August. His advise??? Try organic, unprocessed food. I hated to hear we had more food challenges ahead but I did as he said. We tried organic rice since that is what the doctor was positive wouldn’t hurt him. Nope. Same result. So I stopped. I refused to give him anymore solids. At the end of August we went to a party. Tons of food was within reaching distance for him and although we tried our hardest to keep him away, we think he got a cracker. The next night was one of the worst nights ever. The pain seemed to be multiplied and it lasted longer than usual. But we never saw him eat a cracker so we can’t be 100% sure. That same weekend we gave him Motrin for a fever. So maybe it was that???
Mid October (Wednesday the 13th) we had a follow up with his GI doc and I was told to try foods AGAIN. I argued with him, told him I didn’t want to do that. And he told me, he didn’t want to put Owen through a biopsy if he didn’t have to. I gave in, tried homemade plumbs and by the following Wednesday, we had an endoscopy scheduled for the following Friday (October 29).
All the while Google became my best friend and I became convinced he suffered from fructose malabsorbtion and Celiac disease (based on suspicions the GI doctor had and families with similar stories on the Internet had).
See the post re. "Diagnosis. Or Lack Thereof."
