Just a normal day of research and reactions
Last night I bought some Florida's Natural grapefruit juice with calcium.
Since Baby E does well with the unenriched orange juice and the OJ with calcium is on the corn-free list, it seemed pretty safe. We've been drinking Florida Naturals orange juice for a long time with no adverse effects. Finding a safe source of calcium has been getting more urgent, since we aren't eating dairy products and I'm having more and more issues with my teeth.
I drank a glass of the juice before bed. It was good.
When Baby E nursed this morning, she got a spotty rash on her face. Then she had mild diarrhea. I was itchy and having the same kind of intestinal symptoms by then, too (hmmm--interesting!).
When I called the company, after quite a lot of runaround and being initially told it was corn-free, I finally got a straight answer.
The calcium citrate is a byproduct of citric acid production, made by a fermentation process. It may be grown on corn, they said, but it certainly wouldn't contain any corn protein and couldn't cause an allergic reaction.
Of course we know otherwise. It could be from the mold used in the process, from the corn, or both, but Baby E definitely reacts to citric acid derived that way.
The rash faded after an hour or two. When it was mostly gone I gave Baby E a dose of reflux medicine from the new bottle of Omeprazole.
################
She's so uncomfortable without the reflux medicine that I felt it was important to, if at all possible, get her back on it as soon as possible. If I wait until she's not having any reactions to try it again, it could be days or weeks of unecessary discomfort for her.
2 hours after giving her the omeprazole, I still wasn't seeing a clear reaction. That was encouraging, since she had reacted within an hour or 90 minutes before.
After 3 hours her cheeks were moderately red and she was getting a bit fussy and gassy, and saying "ow" occasionally. But it was well within the range of normal, and nothing that couldn't be from some other cause (running around roughhousing with her sisters, being overdue for a nap, etc.)
Of course, her earlier reaction today could complicate things or make it harder to discern a reaction from the medicine. Now that I'm nursing her again before her nap, I won't be able to tell which trigger causes any new symptoms.
If she did have a reaction to the medicine at all, it was much milder than the reactions she was having before. But I don't think she actually reacted to it. Of course, I'll be watching her carefully after each dose for the next few days.
It does seem likely that she may not actually be allergic to the omeprazole and that the last batch just somehow got contaminated with traces of her allergens. The fact that she was taking it for months with no ill effects and then started having problems with the recent refill would seem to point that direction. I really hope that turns out to be the case.
Before I went to bed last night, I set up a suprise for AJ and M&M. I made breakfast plates for them with banana bread, rice cakes with sunflower butter, and sliced kiwi fruit. Those went into the refrigerator on a low shelf. I set out art supplies and paper. Then I wrote a note telling them that breakfast was in the refrigerator, and that when they had finished their chores they could make Valentines.
They were so excited to get a letter. They loved having breakfast artfully arranged and ready for them to eat, and couldn't wait to do the craft. I've rarely seen them do their chores so quickly and cheerfully.
While the girls were doing art projects I let Baby E draw with colored pencils. I'd heard on the avoiding corn forum that Crayola colored pencils were corn-free, so they seemed the safest option for her to use. I've let her use them several times under close supervision, and she seemed to be okay with them.
All three girls had a great time coloring.
Then I noticed that Baby E had red raised welts wherever the tips of the colored pencils had bumped her skin. They seemed awfully big, raised and red for just pressure marks, so I called the company.
It turned out that the colored pencils do not contain corn, but they do contain soy.
There's no coconut/palm oil in anything other than the oil pastels.
The crayons contain cornstarch in the glue that fastens the paper wrappers. The crayons themselves do not contain corn, soy or coconut/palm oil. They are made in a paraffin base, not vegetable or beeswax.
I am going to try taking off the wrappers and washing the crayons, and then letting Baby E use them. I'm excited that the crayons will probably be safe once washed. She greatly prefers crayons to colored pencils, and she's always begging to use the girls' crayons.
The welts faded pretty quickly, so I'm not absolutely sure they were really from the soy in the pencils. Then again, her rashes are often short-lived even when they are definitely and reproduceably a reaction. She does still have a few red marks where the welts were, hours later.
Anyway, it's nice to know which Crayola products do and don't contain her allergens.
I took some pictures of the welts. I kept telling her to "look!" and pointing different directions to get her to move her head so I could get a good shot.
She figured out pretty quickly what I was doing. She thought it was pretty silly that I was telling her to look at the ceiling or across the room when there was nothing there.
A little while later, I was trying to get her to at least taste a bite of her lunch. As I was holding a piece of meat and trying to get her to open her mouth, Baby E suddenly got a glint in her eye.
She pointed to the window. "Ook!"
As I turned to see what she was pointing at, she snapped her mouth shut, turned her head and batted the piece of meat away. Then she laughed.
This kid picks up on everything.
Since Baby E does well with the unenriched orange juice and the OJ with calcium is on the corn-free list, it seemed pretty safe. We've been drinking Florida Naturals orange juice for a long time with no adverse effects. Finding a safe source of calcium has been getting more urgent, since we aren't eating dairy products and I'm having more and more issues with my teeth.
I drank a glass of the juice before bed. It was good.
When Baby E nursed this morning, she got a spotty rash on her face. Then she had mild diarrhea. I was itchy and having the same kind of intestinal symptoms by then, too (hmmm--interesting!).
When I called the company, after quite a lot of runaround and being initially told it was corn-free, I finally got a straight answer.
The calcium citrate is a byproduct of citric acid production, made by a fermentation process. It may be grown on corn, they said, but it certainly wouldn't contain any corn protein and couldn't cause an allergic reaction.
Of course we know otherwise. It could be from the mold used in the process, from the corn, or both, but Baby E definitely reacts to citric acid derived that way.
The rash faded after an hour or two. When it was mostly gone I gave Baby E a dose of reflux medicine from the new bottle of Omeprazole.
################
She's so uncomfortable without the reflux medicine that I felt it was important to, if at all possible, get her back on it as soon as possible. If I wait until she's not having any reactions to try it again, it could be days or weeks of unecessary discomfort for her.
2 hours after giving her the omeprazole, I still wasn't seeing a clear reaction. That was encouraging, since she had reacted within an hour or 90 minutes before.
After 3 hours her cheeks were moderately red and she was getting a bit fussy and gassy, and saying "ow" occasionally. But it was well within the range of normal, and nothing that couldn't be from some other cause (running around roughhousing with her sisters, being overdue for a nap, etc.)
Of course, her earlier reaction today could complicate things or make it harder to discern a reaction from the medicine. Now that I'm nursing her again before her nap, I won't be able to tell which trigger causes any new symptoms.
If she did have a reaction to the medicine at all, it was much milder than the reactions she was having before. But I don't think she actually reacted to it. Of course, I'll be watching her carefully after each dose for the next few days.
It does seem likely that she may not actually be allergic to the omeprazole and that the last batch just somehow got contaminated with traces of her allergens. The fact that she was taking it for months with no ill effects and then started having problems with the recent refill would seem to point that direction. I really hope that turns out to be the case.
Before I went to bed last night, I set up a suprise for AJ and M&M. I made breakfast plates for them with banana bread, rice cakes with sunflower butter, and sliced kiwi fruit. Those went into the refrigerator on a low shelf. I set out art supplies and paper. Then I wrote a note telling them that breakfast was in the refrigerator, and that when they had finished their chores they could make Valentines.
They were so excited to get a letter. They loved having breakfast artfully arranged and ready for them to eat, and couldn't wait to do the craft. I've rarely seen them do their chores so quickly and cheerfully.
While the girls were doing art projects I let Baby E draw with colored pencils. I'd heard on the avoiding corn forum that Crayola colored pencils were corn-free, so they seemed the safest option for her to use. I've let her use them several times under close supervision, and she seemed to be okay with them.
All three girls had a great time coloring.
Then I noticed that Baby E had red raised welts wherever the tips of the colored pencils had bumped her skin. They seemed awfully big, raised and red for just pressure marks, so I called the company.
It turned out that the colored pencils do not contain corn, but they do contain soy.
There's no coconut/palm oil in anything other than the oil pastels.
The crayons contain cornstarch in the glue that fastens the paper wrappers. The crayons themselves do not contain corn, soy or coconut/palm oil. They are made in a paraffin base, not vegetable or beeswax.
I am going to try taking off the wrappers and washing the crayons, and then letting Baby E use them. I'm excited that the crayons will probably be safe once washed. She greatly prefers crayons to colored pencils, and she's always begging to use the girls' crayons.
The welts faded pretty quickly, so I'm not absolutely sure they were really from the soy in the pencils. Then again, her rashes are often short-lived even when they are definitely and reproduceably a reaction. She does still have a few red marks where the welts were, hours later.
Anyway, it's nice to know which Crayola products do and don't contain her allergens.
I took some pictures of the welts. I kept telling her to "look!" and pointing different directions to get her to move her head so I could get a good shot.
She figured out pretty quickly what I was doing. She thought it was pretty silly that I was telling her to look at the ceiling or across the room when there was nothing there.
A little while later, I was trying to get her to at least taste a bite of her lunch. As I was holding a piece of meat and trying to get her to open her mouth, Baby E suddenly got a glint in her eye.
She pointed to the window. "Ook!"
As I turned to see what she was pointing at, she snapped her mouth shut, turned her head and batted the piece of meat away. Then she laughed.
This kid picks up on everything.
Labels: allergies, just life, muddling motherhood, product information
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Posted by purple_kangaroo at 12:39 PM[Permanent link]
4 Comments:
Oh my. It would never occur to me to think about corn and soy in art suppliles. There isn't anything you can take for granted.
"Ook". :) That is hillarious. She is certainly sharp! --Kathy J.
If it not an allergen, broccoli has more calcium than dairy products ( as well as other vitamins too:))
MD
Phantom, no I can't take anything for granted at all.
Kathy, I'm glad you enjoyed the story about Baby E. :)
Mama duck, we do like broccoli, but it doesn't actually have all that much calcium.
One cup of cooked broccoli contains 62 MG of calcium . . . about one-sixteenth the daily recommended value (700-800mg for a woman, 800-1000mg for a man, 1000 mg for a pregnant or nursing woman). One cup of skim milk with Vitamin D has 306 MG.
Here's the USDA list of calcium content of various foods.
I try to sneak in dark green leafy vegetables like spinach, kale and beet greens whenever I can. Without legumes, seafood or dairy it's a real challenge to get enough calcium.
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