Juliana's 6 Month Appointment

Yesterday we had Juliana's 6 month well child check. Here are her stats....

19lbs.4oz.... 90th%
27".....90th%
44cm head.... 85th%

She certainly is proportional. I can't even believe my tiny baby is that big. Pretty hard to imagine she was ever in the 3rd percentile for weight! Otherwise, she is doing very well. We did talk about her continued struggles with reflux and upped her prilosec per her new weight, but otherwise she is a very happy healthy little muchkin. She thought the paper on the exam table at the doctor's office was the best toy ever and managed to completely demolish it in the time we were there.

After her visit with Dr. Sarah we had an appointment with the allergist. They did skin prick food allergy testing and she tested positive to.... nothing. It was pretty great news and the allergist said that it hopefully means she just grew out of whatever she was reacting to. However, he gave us a 70% accuracy rate for the test so we'll still proceed with some caution. I'll be re-trailing milk soon and then soy (in my diet- her reactions have all been via breastmilk) and hopefully the reactions we got from milk a few weeks ago will just prove to have been a fluke and she can go on as an allergy free kid. If she reacts a second time then the allergist said we would call it a "positive" and just continue to avoid milk. She may be "MSPI" or simply, "Milk Soy Protein Intolerant" which is a more general term for kids that react to milk and/or soy proteins but don't have an IgE mediated allergy (skin tests look for reactions mediated by the IgE antibody, but your body produces many different antibodies that can be responsible for reactions. IgE is responsible for the traditional hives/wheezing kind of allergy). This type of allergy/intolerance is usually outgrown pretty early, sometimes even within a few months. So anyhow... the hope is that food allergy chapter in Juliana's life is simply coming to an end.

Gabriella's Allergist Appointment

Hanging out at the mall play place after her appointment

Today was a doctor visit day. After Juliana’s appointment we headed across town to see Gabriella’s new allergist. We saw an allergist last summer shortly after we discovered Gabriella’s life threatening peanut allergy. I wasn’t impressed with that allergist and so our pediatrician recommended this one. This guy is a Board Certified pediatric allergist and asthmaologist. Ok, so "asthmaologist" isn't really a word, but he had all sorts of credentials.

I liked this guy quite a bit. We discussed not only food allergies, but environmental allergies and asthma. Gabriella’s asthma has been reasonably easy to keep in check. Mostly she gets upper respiratory infections that lag on and the wheezing accompanies those. We use the nebulizer about every other month, on average. The allergist told us that they no longer give an official asthma diagnosis before three years old. He said that for her age he wasn’t too concerned with the amount that we need to use the nebulizer, but if next winter goes about the same way then they will officially diagnose her asthma and they will possibly want to treat it a bit more aggressively.

I did ask the allergist questions about Juliana’s food reactions (via breastmilk) and he said it did sound like allergy issues. He said he would be happy to skin prick test her as well so that we have more answers. If it is food allergies, then he said I’m doing the right things. He also advised sticking with the very conservative food introduction guidelines when it is time for her to start solids. He also said that with babies they re-test at 6 month intervals because they can outgrow these things so quickly. I guess I’ll need to talk to the pediatrician again about getting a referral for Juliana. I’m not sure if I want to do it soon or wait until she is six months and possibly get a slightly more accurate picture. Juliana may just have MSPI.. Milk/Soy Protein Intolerance and that won't show up on allergy testing (and usually goes away on its own.)

Oh and the Allergist earned brownie points with me by praising my ring sling. He noted how Juliana’s leg’s were spread apart at the hips and asked me if I knew that this positioning was good for her hip development (I did know this and it is one reason why I am not a fan of the Baby Bjorn and other similar front packs) He said that she will never have hip development issues (like hip dysplasia) and noted that in places like India and certain African counties where moms carry their babies in cloth carriers they don’t see the hip development problems that we do here. Chalk one up for the cloth sling.

OK… back to allergy testing…

He did three panel skin prick tests with eight items each that included basic food and indoor environmental allergens. It was surprisingly quick and easy. He just pressed each panel to her arm and it did all eight tiny pokes at once. I think it was a bit irritating, but not truly painful.

For food allergies- He did test peanut, despite the history of anaphylaxis. I was a little surprised they would give her the exposure and questioned him a bit, but he assured us it was fine to test. This one was obviously a blaring positive. Milk was the only other positive and it was “barely” positive. This was pretty exciting to us because last year when she was SPTed for milk (and only milk) it was a huge positive. They don’t test shellfish or tree nuts before age three.

For environmental allergies- Cat was the only positive. Dog, dust, mold, cockroaches and I can’t remember what else were all negative. I thought this was pretty great news. Outdoor environmental allergies (pollen etc..) will be tested after she is three.

Because the milk was such a “barely” positive we were given instructions for a “food challenge.” She was to get 1 tsp. (watch for reaction) then increasing amounts in 30 minute intervals. We were given a sheet that told us what amounts to give at what times and had places to record any reactions. The allergist told us she had a very excellent chance of passing. We went home excited and nervous and decided to just go ahead and start the trial. I gave her the first teaspoon of milk and she said it was tasty. Less than 10 minutes later she was scraping her tongue and said that she didn’t like cow’s milk because it made her tongue feel funny. The hives and just a tiny bit of lip swelling followed that. We gave her benadryll and things cleared up. So much for that hope! We’re keeping an eye on her and we’ll call the allergist back in the morning. She'll go back in six months.

Juliana's 4 Month Well Baby Check

Everyone knows that the first thing they do at a well baby visit is weigh and measure the baby. Juliana measured 24.5 inches and then weighed in at…. 15lbs 8oz. Seriously. I knew that she had a growth spurt. I knew that some cute baby rolls had appeared on her sweet little legs and I knew that she had jumped percentiles, but I still can’t believe she is that big. At two months old she was 9lbs 3oz and in the 5th percentile for weight. Two short months later she has picked up more than six pounds and is in the 75th percentile for weight. Can you see why I was astonished?

We talked with Dr. Sarah about acid reflux a bit because it hasn’t been very well controlled on either axid or zantac. We asked about her nasal “snorting” that she has had since she was a newborn. Dr.Sarah said her nasal passages were indeed inflamed from the reflux coming up into her nose. We’ll be moving up to the next level of reflux meds, a PPI. They are very safe and should give Juliana some relief. However, we will have to go to a special compounding pharmacy to get them.

Developmentally Juliana is on track and then some. Dr. Sarah said she was rather advanced with gross motor skills. She can already roll and scoot around the floor to get her sister’s toys. Hopefully she’ll stay content with that mode of (slow) transportation and not be an early crawler.

Food allergy/sensitivity and breastfeeding wise I’m still avoiding soy protein, milk, eggs, nuts and seafood. I tried eggs and it seemed to make her react considerably, but I also ate a plain burger at a church BBQ the same day… so it could’ve been cross-contamination of that. I am successfully eating soy oil now (the protein is the offending part of the food. Refined oils have the protein removed and most allergic/sensitive people can have them.)

We’ll get the food thing figured out eventually, but for now Juliana is healthy, happy, growing insanely fast and on the move!

A Tale of Three Pizzas

Most of you know that Gabriella is allergic to all dairy products and that she also has a life threatening allergy to peanuts. Many of you know that Juliana started to display many allergic symptoms (including failure to gain weight) at only a few weeks old. Working along with our pediatrician and a lactation consultant, I cut a lot of foods out of my diet in order to continue to breastfeed. More specifically, I cut out all of the top eight allergens. Recently, I have trialed wheat back into my diet and so far that seems to be going well.



When people hear about my restricted diet, most of them ask... "What on earth CAN you eat?" Truly, most prepackaged items are out for me. Soy is particularly terrible for appearing in everything. We do have to read each and every label, but we were already in that routine because of Gabriella's allergies. It was a pretty bumpy start to cut so many things out at once (and unlike Gabriella I actually know what cheese tastes so the lack of it gets to me much more than it does her), but right now it is a pretty livable routine. I started off my day with some Special K "red berries" in rice milk and for lunch we all had pizza. We made three pizzas actually. Jonathan's was a pretty traditional canadian bacon/pineapple on a Bobolis individual serve pre-packaged crust. Gabriella had hers on a whole wheat bagel sans cheese (she can't have the Bobolis because of milk ingredients.) My pizza was Gabriella style, but on an organic spelt tortilla... which is one of the few grain products I could find prepacked without soy and of course had to be purchased from an organic foods store. So maybe all of that is a bit complicated, but like anything else you get used to it and make new routines. Jonathan has been great about trying out new recipes. Last night he made AMAZING Mongolian beef. I can't tell you how excited I was to have chinese! I can even take a small part in that victory because I actually made the soy sauce substitute (although Jonathan found the recipe.)

Probably the second most frequently asked question is, "Are you losing tons of weight?" In short, no. I've pretty much ditched all the pregnancy weight, but you won't exactly be seeing me in a bikini this year with a shockingly slim figure. You see, I have developed a love affair with olive oil. A lot of fats are out of my diet, but this lovely little "healthy fat" has moved right on in. I add italian seasoning and dip homemade bread in it, I drizzle it on broccoli and roast it in the oven and Jonathan uses it in cooking a ton. Between that and my discovery of coconut milk ice cream... there is little danger of me wasting away.

Since most of you probably just come here for pictures of my cute children and were extremely disappointed by the pizza shot, I'll add these gratuitously....











I will warn you though that Food Allergy Awareness week is coming up soon and you'll probably see something here about that.