Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Not So Happy Again

Baby E had another fabulous day yesterday. We even left her with a babysitter last night, along with the older girls. When I said goodbye Baby E just grinned at me and toddled off in another direction. That's so unusual for her.

It was a wonderful few days.

After talking with the pediatrician and getting some input on a celiac support forum, we decided to go ahead and introduce barley yesterday. It's fairly hypoallergenic. We're pretty certain she's not allergic to it, but it is a gluten-containing grain.

I gave her some cooked hulless barley for dinner last night. She enjoyed it. I expected that if it was a gluten issue, it would probably take a few days for it to start bothering her.

Unfortunately she started coming down with a cold last night, and she has a very stuffy/runny nose this morning. Great timing, that.

By bedtime last night Baby E was a bit fussy. Once she got to sleep, she slept very fitfully. She kept whimpering and crying in her sleep. I'd hear her crying and go in to her, only to find her asleep. She only woke completely once, but she had a very restless night.

This morning she's very tired, whiny and clingy. She had a full-blown flailing and screaming episode after breakfast. She took a brief and fitful nap, but woke up screaming as soon as I tried to lay her down.

Only time will tell whether it's the gluten, the illness, or some combination of the two.

Right now my project is trying to find out exactly how long we need to have Baby E back on gluten before we can do the testing. She's only been completely off gluten for a week, but she ate it only sporadically before that--probably a few times a week.

It could be a very long few weeks before we can do the celiac testing and stop feeding her gluten again.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi, I stumbled across your blog by accident and read a half dozen or so entries. You may have already investigated this angle, but have you considered the possibility of candida overgrowth? It mimics many other conditions and can cause a great deal of gastrointestinal problems. Many people with it can not tolerate gluten, corn or soy and they symptoms can be sporadic. If Baby E was your last child and delivered vaginally, there is a good chance you had candida overgrowth and she picked it up in the birth canal. It is very hard to find a traditional gastro doctor who will acknowledge candida overgrowth, although they are out there. Good luck to you.

1:36 PM  
Blogger purple_kangaroo said...

Thanks, Anonymous. Please feel free to sign your posts with a pseudonym. You can put it in the "name" slot when using "other" or just write it at the end of your post when choosing the "anonymous" option to comment. It helps to keep all the different "anonymous" people straight (and to tell them apart from the spammers and trolls).

Candida is definitely something we are looking at. I had a severe candida overgrowth 7 or 10 years ago, and the same naturopath that helped me then is working with us to figure out if that's part of what's going on with Baby E and me now.

1:42 PM  

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