Dietary/Health Update

In my last post, I invited requests for topics to cover as I (hopefully) start blogging regularly again. Liz requested an update on our family's food issues. I'm going to broaden it a bit to make it more of a general health update. :)

Warning: This may be a long, boring post.

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In a nutshell, we're all doing pretty well.

Ebee is doing great, and seems to have completely grown out of all her food intolerance issues. She still isn't having reactions to corn or soy derivatives, and it's so nice not to have to worry about that any more. Her dietary fructose intolerance has also improved. She can even eat moderate amounts of apple and pear now without getting diarrhea and a tummyache.

She's really growing up, and is reading fluently now. I love watching kids get to the stage where they devour pretty much any book they can get their hands on. She's even reading chapter books now, and is very excited about that. She'll be 6 next month--can you believe it?!

M&M just turned 9, and is such an active, happy kid. She and Ebee are both in gymnastics and loving it, but M&M is really gifted at it. They're taking a break at the moment as all three kids are taking swimming lessons this summer instead of their regular activities.

M&M still avoids eating large amounts of milk, but doesn't seem to have much of a problem with lactose intolerance these days.

She does still have days where she hurts all over and is very tired, especially for several days after a greater-than-usual exertion, which concerns me a bit given the family history, but the pediatrician isn't worried about it. She has very flexible joints (can bend her elbows partially backwards and has mad skillz with her finger joints, etc.) and is more prone to sprains and things like that than the other kids, but she hasn't subluxated (popped out of joint) either elbow again recently, after having it happen about 3 times when she was younger. I think the flexibility really helps her in gymnastics. :)

AJ at 10 is still her quirky, unique, wonderful self. She really loves to sing and has been in a children's choir for the past 3 years, and has gotten to sing solos at their recitals. The teacher said that she feels AJ is ready to move on/up to more focused training and has probably outgrown this particular choir, so we're looking into doing either private voice lessons and/or letting her join a drama team or children's theater.

She's doing much better with her anxiety/OCD-type issues, but still struggles with reading social signals and sometimes knowing how to determine appropriate interactions for a given situation or level of relationship.

We're working with her to help her learn things like choosing to put a hot pack on her head for the heat and pressure she craves rather than trying to push her head under a person or dog when she's overwhelmed or overstimulated. She's working on learning how to learn to read facial expressions and body language better, understanding and respecting others' personal space, and that sort of thing. Lots of coaching and practice, mostly.

She is still seeing a therapist occasionally (although much less frequently now) who helps us with ideas for things like that, and helps her brainstorm things to do to calm herself when she's upset and work through issues she's worried about so she isn't as likely to dissolve into full-scale meltdowns or long-term panic. She has really improved dramatically, and is enjoying life a lot these days.

AJ still sleeps poorly, is having recurrent intestinal issues (diarrhea, stomachaches, gagging sensations and occasional vomiting), and has been sleeping sitting up in bed lately due to how much her reflux is bothering her. The pediatrician said she probably has IBS, but since he didn't really do anything to rule out other causes, I'm wondering if we should pursue that further or not. With her, it's really hard to know how much is actually a physical issue and how much might be related to her tendency to overstress and worry about things.

We've tried a few different reflux medications that the pediatrician prescribed, and he's ready to prescribe something different if the current one doesn't help more than the others have. We've tried taking her off gluten for a few weeks to see if that helps, but it hasn't really seemed to make a difference. She is still lactose-intolerant and avoids most dairy products, but will occasionally make exceptions for small amounts of foods she feels are worth the discomfort. :)

At the advice of the research scientist from the study I was in (on the effects of excitotoxins on fibromyalgia and IBS symptoms) and with the approval of the pediatrician, we are trialing all 3 kids on going off excitotoxins for a few weeks, to see if it makes any difference particularly in AJ's IBS symptoms and M&M's aches and pains.

Since there is such a strong history of people in our family having trouble with excitotoxins and getting intestinal and/or fibromyalgia-type symptoms from them, it seemed wise to try to figure out whether the kids are sensitive to them or not. So we're making sure they don't eat any excitotoxins for at least 4 weeks, and then we'll try giving them something with MSG in it (ick!) 3 days in a row while closely monitoring the effects on them. I was able to get copies of the symptom-charting forms that were used in the study to use in evaluating data for the kids. This should give us a pretty good idea whether they have an adequate blood-brain barrier to tolerate normal amounts of excitotoxins, or if they have inherited the family difficulty in processing them.

Other than that, the last few years we've just basically tried to eat a well-rounded, healthy diet at home with as many whole fresh unprocessed foods as possible, avoid excessive amounts of things like lactose for those we know don't digest it well, and not stress out about what the kids eat otherwise. :)

DH eats whatever he wants, but he is trying to work on eating/drinking a bit healthier and getting more exercise.

For myself, I'm still avoiding excitotoxins. It really makes a big difference in my symptoms and functionality, and whenever I've cheated it has made me so sick that I've decided cheating isn't worth it for me.

I recently had a couple of months of feeling a lot worse, and finally figured out that it seemed to be correlated with eating xylitol. I'm feeling much better after having cut that out.

With having our college student helper move out and life getting considerably busier this year, I haven't been able to pace myself as well or rest as much. A somewhat constant level of "overdoing it" built up over the course of the year to the point where I was struggling quite a lot physically again.

Now that the pace has slowed for the summer (and I figured out the xylitol thing), I am starting to feel better. I'm happy about that. :) We're brainstorming ways to help me pace myself better on a continual basis, including maybe hiring more help with household tasks and changing what we're doing for schooling the kids.

We are still trying to get our house decluttered and organized, get non-essentials packed and put into storage, and get some minor repairs and sprucing-up done so that we can hopefully put our house on the market soon. Our hope is to move to a place slightly farther out in the country with some acreage, a barn, and hopefully a second residence or apartment in case a parent or sibling needs a place to live, since our parents are getting older, DH's mom has early stage alzheimer's, and both of my siblings have disabling health issues.

We've also been researching schooling options, and have finally decided what we're going to do about school next year. But this is already long enough, so I'll leave that for another post.

Still floating

Baby E is still doing fabulously after the in-office corn trial yesterday. Still no sign of any reaction more than 24 hours later.

She got to eat her snack in the room with all the other little kids at the homeschool co-op today.

For me, I stood there and stared at the food table with snacks for the moms and tried to get my head around the fact that I could eat anything I wanted without worrying about traces in my milk making Baby E sick. Then I did. I had coffee with non-dairy flavored creamer in it, some fruit, and instant oatmeal from a little package. LOL. The little joys of life.

On tonight's menu . . . popcorn!

It still all feels rather surreal to me. Surreal and wonderful.

Miracles

Baby E had her in-office food challenge today.

They started out by taking her blood pressure and everything, then did a skin-prick test with the fresh-cooked corn we brought and smeared some corn flour mixed with water on one cheek. 15-20 minutes later, so far so good.

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Then they started feeding her corn. They started with half a kernel and gradually increased the amount, feeding her another dose every 20 minutes until finally they just gave her a little cup of corn and let her eat as much as she wanted. She liked it.

By the time all was said and done we had been at the allergist's office for over 4 and 1/2 hours, feeding her corn and watching her. She had no reaction whatsoever. None. Maybe a slight tummy-ache, which is fairly normal for her anyway. Nothing that looked like an allergy.

Sometime this afternoon DH said she had a soft BM that looked like it may have had some corn in it. But she does the same thing with other fruits and vegetables high in starch and/or sugar, so that's nothing unusual for her.

It's now been about 14 hours and still no sign of any kind of reaction. Not even a mood change, difficulty napping or red cheeks. Nothing.

We've been praying so much that she would grow out of her allergies. At this point it looks like she's gone from having a bunch of food allergies to having NONE. We still have to figure out the sugar issue, but Baby E has no food allergies.

Wow. Wow.

We are going to keep an eye on her over the next few days to see how she tolerates it over the long-term, but if that goes well we're going to buy a popcorn popper! And go out to dinner in a real restaurant! And basically eat whatever we want.

It hasn't even really sunk in yet, but wow.

We also got word yesterday that the 4-year-old in Malamute Rescue family had an amazing thing happen this week.

About a year ago he had to have a lump in his neck surgically removed, along with the salivary gland that was causing it.

This year he developed the same kind of problem in another gland, farther down in his neck. The location would be much more difficult and dangerous to operate on, so after verifying the issue the surgeon referred them to another more experienced expert. We all started praying.

About 3 or 4 days ago the Malamute Rescuers noticed that they could no longer see the lump in his neck. Yesterday he had his ultrasound.

There was nothing there. The lump was completely gone.

"I don't know what happened," the renowned surgeon said. "These things don't normally go away on their own. But there's nothing there. Nothing wrong in his neck at all."

We're all praising the Lord for answered prayers. It's almost beyond words at the moment.

Painting

AJ broke her week and a half streak of being meltdown-free in style.

Today's bout of yelling and crying lasted an hour. It went through several changes of location and venue, but sustained the same topic for the entire hour: AJ thought M&M's homeschool co-op classes sounded like more fun than her own. She wanted to be in Mrs. T's class with M&M.

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She howled all the way through gathering our things together, turning in our name tags, making our way through the crowd and out of the building, getting a cup left behind last week and chatting with the other mom who had saved it for us, the ride home, lunch preparations, etc. She refused to eat lunch and finally went up to her room to cry alone, stalking up and down the hallway upstairs shouting her misery and sobbing at the top of her lungs.

I kept timing it, wondering how long she could keep going on the same subject without running out of steam. After I had tried everything I could think of without success, I ended up (as usual) just letting her carry on off in a corner of the house until she wore herself out.

Finally, when she started winding down, I went and asked her if she'd like to paint the way she was feeling. She thought that was a great idea.

I had gone shopping last night, and one of the things I did was replenish our supply of paints. All the kids like painting so much. AJ especially loves painting and all types of artistic creativity, and said that was her favorite part of play therapy. The lack of art in her co-op classes was a big point she was upset about, too.

Since the paints we'd been using lately were normal acrylics, and not the washable kind, I'd been letting the kids paint only under very close supervision and not as often as they'd like. The times we'd painted this week, it was a tad bit stressful trying to make sure any spilled paint got cleaned up right away, etc.

Today I gave each of the three kids their own little box of RoseArt washable watercolors, a paintbrush, a little cup for water, a mixing palate, and a supply of paper. I told the two older girls that these are their paints to use however they choose. As long as they aren't supposed to be doing anything else, they can use these paints any time they want to and in any way they like.

The only rules are that they need to make sure the area is cleared off so there's nothing on the desk or table that might be ruined by a spill, and that they clean up after themselves (probably with some help from me) when they're finished. I'm not worried about either of them trying to paint on anything inappropriate, so I didn't even mention that.

The kids really liked that idea. Their eyes got big as they repeated, "We don't even have to ask first? We can just start painting? Wow!"

All three kids had a wonderful time painting. To my surprise, AJ's painting didn't seem to reflect dark feelings at all. Instead she painted a picture about the puppet show she saw in one of her classes, and then a picture of the world she wished she could live in--a fantasy world full of bright colors, fruit, flowers and sunshine.

Lately she's been enjoying coloring things fanciful colors--today it was a purple tree with a red trunk and "black oranges" under a purple sunshine. I'm no expert, but to me it seems to be a positive thing that she has moved beyond feeling that she needs to make things look the way they are in real life. She's enjoying experimenting with colors and playing with adding twists to make her imaginary world unique. That playful approach to art and newfound freedom to break out of the "shoulds" is a recent development (in the last week or two, I think) that seems very healthy to me.

M&M and Baby E both had a lot of fun experimenting with various colors, textures and brush strokes without trying to draw anything descriptive. The painting session kept all three girls peacefully occupied for quite some time.

Later, when I talked with AJ, she said that painting helped her to feel more calm after her meltdown. I suggested that next time she's feeling really upset about something, maybe she should try painting to see if that helps her to calm herself down. Expressing her feelings in a painting when she is upset or angry might help a lot. She could paint instead of yelling and crying.

She liked that idea and agreed to try it.

Later in the evening Baby E did something (not sharing a toy, I think) that really upset AJ. AJ started to yell and cry, and then abruptly she stopped and said, "Mom, can I paint?"

And she did.

I was so proud of her.


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All three kids have been a bit whiny and short-fused the last few days. I think it's a combination of factors--there's been some extra stress in the last day or two, we're still adjusting to the new schedule and activities, nobody has been sleeping well, etc. Also, DH had a lapse of memory today and packed the two older girls a snack of storebought blueberry muffins--complete with all sorts of sugar, preservatives, and dairy products. We're certainly trying to take note of all the variables.

I'm not sure Baby E's trial of corn derivatives has really been completely successful, either. She has been having a lot more trouble sleeping and staying asleep again for the last week or two, and is a lot moodier again. We're going to try taking her back off the corn derivatives to see if it makes a difference or not.

It will be interesting to see whether dairy products end up being a significant factor for AJ or not. It's obviously not the only factor, as she was struggling a bit more the last couple of days and having a bit of potty anxiety again even before the milk.

But I found it very interesting that she had a fairly significant mood change after eating her snack. She enjoyed the morning classes and even told me, Mrs. T and her friends that Friday school was much better this week and she liked it better this time after the sessions were over for the day. Then, about an hour or two after eating her snack, she had an abrupt and rather sudden transition with no apparent trigger from being fine and in a pretty good mood to complete meltdown mode.

Although, now that I'm writing this, I also realized that I completely forgot to give her warning and time to adjust before leaving. I was letting the kids play while I helped clean up in Mrs. T's classroom, and when we were done I just sort of said, "Okay, kids, let's go. Time to stop coloring and erase the white boards; come on," and walked out, expecting them to follow me. That's when the meltdown about AJ's wanting to be in Mrs. T's class began.

So it could have been the abrupt transition that set her off, or a combination of things. DH said that she was really out-of-sorts this morning after he got her up and started rushing her to get ready while I showered and nursed Baby E. Not enough transition time and being rushed seems to be a big issue for AJ.

Hopefully putting all these clues together will give us the tools we need to help life run more smoothly for everyone.

Good Things

Some really good things have been happening this week with some of our ongoing concerns.

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Baby E really does seem to be growing out of (or being healed from) her food allergies. It's so nice to be able to give her more of the same things the big kids are eating, like the sunflower butter we had tonight (which contained small amounts of a soy derivative).

The really amazing thing is that for the past week we've been feeding Baby E things with tiny amounts of highly-refined corn derivatives in them. Nothing with actual corn protein in it yet, but things like yeast and vitamins grown on corn, or "natural flavors" extracted in corn-derived distilled alcohol. Several of the foods she's been eating are things we've tried previously (some several different times) and she was not able to tolerate them. But so far she's been eating them for a week and seems to be doing fine.

She's had a few things like a little blister on her lip and what looked like it might have been the beginnings of excema on her cheeks, but they seem to have been just random and incidental. We've been keeping a close eye on her, but nothing has worsened or developed into anything significant so far.

Her stools have been perfectly solid for the past week and a half, with the exception of one moderately soft BM after eating apples one day. The diarrhea and mucous are gone.

So far it seems that if we keep the levels of various sugars relatively low, she does fine with things like bananas and even tiny amounts of other sugars. I'm wondering more and more if the sugar issue may actually be secondary to something else, and may be a significant problem only when something else damages her digestive system. We haven't tried anything high in sulfites again yet.

It's very exciting to be adding corn derivatives and not seeing reactions. Wow. We'll give it another few weeks before we really call it a success, but we're really excited about the possibility of being able to stop worrying about non-protein-containing corn derivatives. That would open up a huge world of food options for Baby E even if she never gets to the point where she can actually have corn protein.

But, really, the best news is that AJ has been a lot better the last few days. Monday and Tuesday she had tons of meltdowns and was acting extremely grumpy and depressed, as she has most of the time lately. Tuesday morning through early afternoon was particularly awful--she must have averaged a meltdown per hour, sometimes moving straight from one into the next without even a break between them, just a change of themes. I thought I was going to go crazy right along with her. She did cheer up quite a bit when we went to play with a friend that afternoon, though.

Wednesday was the morning we saw the doctor and he told us to take the kids off milk. (I don't think she'd had any dairy products since Monday, but she'd had a lot the few days before.)

That afternoon everyone except AJ fell asleep at nap/quiet time and slept for a long time. AJ ended up spending 3 hours playing by herself in her room. I would have thought she might have woken me up or been frustrated at having such an unusually long quiet time, but not AJ. She was thrilled. She came out of her room so relaxed, happy and affectionate that it made me realize that frequently letting the kids skip quiet time over the last several weeks has probably not been good for her. She really needs that alone time to calm herself and recharge.

Thursday AJ was still quite mopey and grumpy (she didn't even want to help bake an apple pie when Morning came over), but she didn't have any major meltdowns. She even managed to swing on the swingset with M&M without getting upset for the first time in many weeks. She actually had fun swinging and came in happy!

Friday was interesting . . . she was whiny and grumpy in the morning, and still complained a lot, but it was less intense and shorter-lived. At that point I was just waiting for the other shoe to drop, sure she would dissolve into meltdowns and full depression mode again any moment. But by late Friday afternoon (after quiet time) she was much more sunny and cheerful.

One particularly surprising thing was that there was a dramatic improvement in her handwriting, literally overnight. Writing is frustrating and difficult for her--easily the task she hates the most in any given day.

With math she usually has problems writing particular numbers--they take effort and thought, and she usually writes them backwards or in large, jerky, uncertain movements (lately, often complaining all the time). She knows the math and can do it, but really hates the writing part. I've been letting her do a lot of her work orally or skip many of the questions just to cut down on the frustration for her.

But Friday early evening she (voluntarily!) sat down and cheerfully, quickly and easily finished a page of math she had been whining and complaining about and struggling over just the day before. To my amazement she easily, precisely and beautifully made small, controlled numbers--the very numbers that had been large, jerky and difficult for her earlier in the week. I was so flabbergasted that I had to call and tell my mom.

It was such an odd, random thing. Is This Your Child? by Doris Rapp talks about food allergies/intolerances affecting handwriting, and it reminded me a lot of the before and after pictures in that book. Of course, I'm sure that an improvement in mood alone could have the same effect. I hadn't expected to see anything like that, though, and it will be interesting to see if she continues to show such significant improvement this week. I know it sounds crazy, but I showed the page to DH and he could see the difference too.

There were a number of instances over the next few days which definitely would have triggered a meltdown a few days earlier (sometimes even the exact same issues she'd been having regular meltdowns about), but which she was able to take in stride or even laugh about. Her mood gradually continued to improve. She had only one or two episodes of crying loudly about something, which resolved themselves within 5 minutes and didn't come anywhere close to the level of the meltdowns she'd been having over the last few months.

She has continued improving since Friday. She's been so much happier, more interactive, more expressive, and generally more enjoyable to be around. She's taking things in stride or getting over them so much more quickly rather than having huge meltdowns or obsessing over them. It hasn't been a complete change, but she's improved so much.

Tonight the five of us played Apples to Apples Junior and it was a huge giggle-fest. The girls were rolling on the floor laughing hysteically at the cards they and everyone else picked. Even Baby E got in on the action, picking random cards to throw into the mix and giggling along with everyone else.

M&M has been a bit more whiny and grumpy than normal since getting her shots on Wednesday, but that's to be expected as sore as her arms have been. Her arms are finally getting over being sore now, so that should help. I hope to go shopping tomorrow to find her some shoes with better arch support after we meet with the therapist.

She's still generally cheery. Every night as I kiss them goodnight I've been asking the kids what the worst and best thing about their day was. Almost every night M&M's immediate response is, "Everything was best about today, and nothing was worst. I loved today." Then she'll start listing the things she liked best.

Baby E has been mostly sunshiny and healthy this week, but I do think she's cutting some teeth. All of a sudden the last few days everything is going in her mouth. She hasn't put random things in her mouth for ages, so I'm expecting to see some new teeth coming through soon.

I wonder if AJ may be a lot like me. When I don't feel well I really struggle not to "shut down". When I feel really bad I hurt all over and have trouble functioning. Even someone touching or talking to me can be painful or irritating--a shout or an unexpected touch can feel almost like an ambush. My preference during those times would be to avoid nearly all interaction and go into zombie mode or just sleep. I have to work very hard to make myself function, make eye contact with people, interact, smile, and not act too grumpy or weepy. It feels like my brain fogs over. Everything seems overwhelming and I have to work extremely hard to keep from reacting to my emotions going haywire.

I know that for me various things can affect my level of fuctioning--allergies, stress, getting adequate water and good nutrition, the amount of sleep I'm getting, my chronic health issues flaring up--all sorts of things. Even as an adult it's hard enough to control myself and act relatively normal when I feel that way. If she's experiencing anything close to that, it must be even harder for her as a 6-year-old.

Friday at lunch AJ told me that she thought bread was hurting her tummy and she didn't want to eat it any more. I was a bit suprised, but said that was fine if she wanted to try it. I've been making a point to provide gluten-free options for her since then. I neglected to tell DH, though, so he did feed the kids wheat a couple of times this weekend.

The older girls have had quite a few stomachaches and diarrhea this week even since we took them off dairy products, so it will be interesting to see if the GI issues resolve or not with a little more time off dairy and gluten. Since I'll be cooking gluten-free meals for AJ, I'll encourage M&M to try going gluten-free to see if it helps her tummyaches too.

AJ also said that apples made her tummy hurt, so I'm not sure if both bother her or if she's just guessing. It's quite possible that the sugars in the apples may bother her, either on their own or as a secondary issue if something else is upsetting her digestion.

Of course, food is only one of many factors that have changed recently. It may not even be a cause of AJ's improvement.

Here are a few other things that may be helping:


• We've asked a lot of people to pray for our family, and they have. We've been praying a lot ourselves, too. I firmly believe that makes a big difference.



• Over the last few weeks we've gotten the kids into a number of structured, scheduled, predictable social activities, including weekly home group meetings, AWANA, Sunday School (which we were already doing), and the homeschool co-op. We're also going to try to schedule playdates with various friends on a particular afternoon each week (midway between the other activities) to make it more predictable for the kids whenever possible.



• We're being more consistent about quiet time. It had gotten sporadic. I think that was bad--both because of the unpredictability, and just that the kids were often missing the rest and recharging time they needed (it's usually much shorter than 3 hours though!).



• We've moved the kids around so that AJ has a room to herself at night. Everyone seems to be happier and getting better sleep that way. Baby E and M&M are enjoying sharing a room most nights. I'm not sure whether we'll end up having the two younger girls share indefinitely, or switching things around so they each have their own room, which would mean losing a room dedicated to just being a playroom or an office. (Yes, we live in a wonderful big house that my dad built for us.)



• We're making a point to put the kids to bed earlier and start the bedtime routine earlier so we can take longer with it.



• We've revamped bedtime to make the routine more relaxing and predictable for the kids. DH and I have agreed on a routine and a specific set of nurturing/winding down activities that we do the same way every night, and that he and I both do the same way when we switch off so that it's predictable for the kids. That seems to be really helpful for them.



• We usually read part of a chapter book and/or Bible story at bedtime (right now we're reading Little House on Rocky Ridge) and pray with the kids. I was reading to and praying with them in the rocking chair most of the time. DH would often read and pray while they laid in their beds. Sometimes part or all of it would get skipped. Putting all the variables together it was all a bit sporadic.
  
  But recently DH decided to start sitting in the rocking chair with the kids to read the Bible and pray with them every night as part of their bedtime routine. They really enjoy snuggling up together in the rocking chair and having devotional time together, and Baby E and I often join them. If DH isn't home for bedtime, I do it the same way. (I also read a Bible story to the kids in the mornings while they color a related picture as part of school). The chapter book will sometimes get skipped if it's late, but we've agreed not to skip the cuddling up in the chair for Bible reading and prayer even if it's late. Being more consistent with that has been great for all of us.



• I think we've found the right balance between relaxed flexibility and structure with homeschooling. The kids and I are enjoying the program we've picked, and the fact that it includes lots of library books and hands-on activities and very little textbook time.



• We're also giving the kids extra warning and transition time between activities and when changing from one place or activity to another.



• We're continuing to make more progress, as well, with getting the house organized and keeping things consistent and predictable in other areas.



• As always, of course, we're loading the kids up with as much love and attention as we can. We've tried to be especially intentional about this lately.



• We've always made a point to have special times alone with each of the kids, but we've recently increased the frequency and will try to increase the predictability of our "dates" with the girls.



• In the last few weeks we've had an unusually high number of significant conversations with the kids, that have seemed to really mean a lot to them.

The conversations we've been having lately have been especially good.

For example, one day AJ asked me who I loved the most in our family. I said that I didn't love anyone more or less than anyone else, but I loved each person in a unique way because they were all special in different ways. Then we spent a long time talking about a number of things that were special about each person. DH and I both told the kids several things that we thought were special about each of them, and then we encouraged them to share what they thought was special about each other. The kids, of course, totally soaked that up. That conversation has continued off and on in different ways over the last week or two.

The kids never get tired of hearing us tell them things that we think are special about them, and it seems that every few months they go through periods of needing to hear it an extra lot.

Another day I was telling the kids that they shouldn't sit at or take things off each others' desks without asking.

AJ said, "I shouldn't have taken Baby E's crayons and used them without asking. That was a bad thing I did. Does that mean God is mad at me and won't love me any more or let me into Heaven, and I'll have to go to Hell?"

"No! Even when you do things you shouldn't, God will never ever stop loving you, just like Mommy and Daddy never stop loving you no matter what you do. We all sin, and we don't deserve to go to Heaven, because of course nothing bad can be in Heaven. Hell is being separated from God, you know, because our sin separates us from God. We don't want to be separated from God forever, do we? No.

But that's why God sent Jesus--to pay for our sins and take the punishment for us. That way our sin doesn't have to separate us from God.

Remember the verse we learned from John 3:16, 'For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life'? Yeah, that was your AWANA verse too. Romans 10:9 also says, 'If you will confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord, and if you will believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead, than you shall be saved.'

Remember when you told God that you believed in Jesus and wanted him to take charge of your life and forgive your sins? He did!

That means that Jesus has already paid the price for everything bad you've ever done or will do. He already took care of it! So the best part is that when God looks at you, he doesn't even see your sin--He only sees that Jesus's blood has washed you clean and taken your sins away. He doesn't look at you and see the bad things you do--He only sees good, because Jesus has taken care of it. He sees Jesus's goodness and sinlessness when He looks at you. Isn't that great?

We choose to obey God and do the right things because we love Him and we want to please Him, but once we believe in Him and accept His payment for our sin then we don't ever have to worry about being separated from God in Hell. He's already forgiven our sins."

She was very interested in that, and asked a lot of questions. The conversation really seemed to ease her mind and encourage her.

M&M got really excited, too, and said that she wanted to talk to God and tell Him that she believed God and wanted Jesus to take away her sins and be Lord of her life, too, like AJ did a year or two ago.

That is exciting for us. I know not all of my readers share our faith (and you may not have even gotten this far in this post :)), but for us this is a huge deal, and we believe it's the foundation for deep peace and joy throughout life. So we're thrilled that our kids are embracing the Lord. It's the very best thing we could ever wish for them.

Corn-derived vitamins

Apparently we made an accidental decision about trialing corn derivatives. This morning I asked DH what he gave Baby E for breakfast and he said, "Half a banana, and some of her special bread, and that Perky's O's cereal.

I said, "You're kidding, right?"

He said, "No. Why, wasn't I supposed to give her that? I thought you bought it for her."

"Noooo . . . I bought it for the older kids, remember? We talked about that. That's why it was on the top shelf instead of down with Baby E's cereals."

"I'm sorry. I thought you said you bought it for E. Should I take it away from her?"

"She's already eaten some of it now. I guess this will be our trial of corn derivatives. At least we know that some of the vitamins are corn-derived, so it won't be just a guess."

It will be interesting to see what happens. She didn't eat much of it, but seemed to enjoy what she had.

I forgot to say last night . . .

. . . that when I talked to the GI specialist's nurse, she told me that they weren't the right people to call when a quick response was needed. She said that if I was worried about Baby E or something seemed serious, like her severe mucousy diarrhea this week, that I should call the primary care physician or take her to the emergency room. I shouldn't leave a message with the GI specialist and expect them to call me back right away.

So now I know. (They are the specialists, after all--I guess maybe they don't really deal with day-to-day issues, but more the big picture?)

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It just seemed that the gastroenterology people would be the logical doctors to call, since they are the ones dealing with Baby E's GI issues and who had given me the advice to cut out fruits, sugars and dairy. It was their advised dietary change that seemed to provoke this issue. If I went about it wrong or fed her the wrong things in attempting to follow their advice, they're the ones who would need to tell me. What is the pediatrician supposed to do--tell me how to implement the GI specialist's advice, or advise me to stop doing what the GI specialist said to do?

Of course, if it was actually a virus (which it could be) the pediatrician would be the logical person to call.

I guess I should have called the pediatrician to see what to do about the diarrhea, and then the GI specialist to give them an FYI about the results of my attempt at following their advice? But then, when I've called the pediatrician's office in the past about GI issues and asking advice about what to feed her during severe diarrhea (even from a virus), they've told me to call the GI specialist.

This would be so much easier if we just had one doctor taking care of everything. Sometimes it feels like seeing specialists mainly results in being shuffled back and forth from one doctor to another while they all say it's not their area of expertise and I should talk to someone else about it.

Baby E does have diarrhea this morning, but it is much better than it was.

Better

Baby E's diahhrea has been getting better since this morning. It was just such a very large quantity of diarrhea, and the unusually large quantity of mucous last night and this morning scared me a bit.

Mucous in her stools is not unheard of for Baby E, though, and the GI specialist and pediatrician both know that it happens sometimes and don't seem too concerned about it. It just rattles me--especially the way it was last night and this morning.

I left another message for the GI specialist this morning, telling her about this episode of severe mucousy/watery diarrhea, but didn't get a return call.

Baby E's diarrhea is improving . . . becoming less frequent and more solid as the day goes on. She is urinating normally, ate a huge quantity of hamburger and brown rice for lunch, has seemed quite energetic all day, and took a nap in her "big girl" toddler bed. I'm still not sure if has a virus, or if something she ate is causing problems. It's so hard to tell with her. Nobody here has a fever or anything.

The older girls are still a bit grumpy and are complaining of being tired (which they tend to do when they don't want to do something, which at the moment is practicing handwriting), but otherwise they seem fine. Neither of them has had diarrhea at all recently, as far as I know (and upon questioning, they say they haven't).

I did want to clarify, for those who may be wondering, that we haven't been particularly limiting the older girls' diets. Usually they pretty much eat whatever they want, except that we don't allow crumbly corn foods like corn chips in the house (they can eat them elsewhere). Of course, they are somewhat limited by what we buy and cook, but we do fix foods for them that Baby E and I don't eat, and we try to accommodate special requests.

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For Baby E, we had gotten to the point where the only thing we were really limiting was corn and corn derivatives, plus a few foods that the allergist basically recommends every young allergy-prone child avoid, like nuts/peanuts and fish/shellfish. But since something (seemingly fruits) was still causing stomachaches and diarrhea, I called both the pediatrician and the GI specialist to ask what I should do.

The pediatrician (through a nurse) told me to figure it out by trial and error and limit any food that causes problems.

The GI specialist's nurse said to try cutting out all sugars for a month and then try adding things back in one at a time. She had also told me (when she told me to avoid dairy products because of the positive reducing substances test) that "sugar is sugar" and that fruit and fruit juices count as sugar, too.

Basically the GI specialist has advised us to take Baby E off dairy (with the exception of breastmilk), fruit and "all sugars" for the time being. I really didn't want to do something that restrictive if it wasn't really necessary, so I've been trying to get an answer about exactly how restrictive she wants us to be with that. I haven't gotten an answer yet.

Avoiding dairy didn't seem to make a difference, so we had added it back into E's diet until this week. I haven't given her any for the last few days. For the last few weeks, Baby E and I have been essentially rotating fruits, trying to see if one kind or another made a difference. We don't use a whole lot of added sugar in our diet anyway, for basic health reasons, so it wasn't hard to try adding sucrose (cane sugar) to a few meals to see if it made a difference.

I called the pediatrician again this week, too. He said again that we should just remove any food that causes a problem, but added that if we end up removing all fruits we will need to supplement with Vitamin C.

I'm not ready to permanently remove any food at this point. Even corn we are hoping to trial soon, to see if she's developed a tolerance for it yet.

My hope is that we can get Baby E stabilized so she's not constantly fluctuating between constipation and diarrhea, and is feeling relatively well. We need to find a baseline. Then hopefully we can start adding things from that point.

We're also looking into the possibility of getting some enzyme supplements to help Baby E to be able to digest some of the foods her body seems to have difficulty with. I'd much rather try to improve her digestion than just remove foods. Something like that may turn out to be helpful to others in the family, too.

Until the last few days, Baby E was getting tapioca-thickened water mixed with orange juice several times a day. She was also getting several servings of fruit/and/or vegetables every day.

Since rotating fruits, keeping the amounts of fruits small, and avoiding added sugars wasn't helping, I decided that maybe we should try at least a few days of avoiding fruits altogether for E and see if it made a difference. That way I could at least leave a message for the GI specialist that I'd followed her recommendation and what the results were.

Yesterday was the first day for Baby E and I of having completely no fruit--except that's not really true, because I did use a bit of lemon juice in the tapioca bread I made. (I was trying to duplicate the Chebe bread that everyone in the family loves and E eats better than any other bread-type thing, but which is rather expensive.) Honestly, we probably wouldn't have made it the whole two days with so little fruit if we hadn't been out of Baby E's orange juice--I actually went to the refrigerator to get her some yesterday morning because she was begging for it so, but it was all gone.

It was primarily the tapioca flour and the hash-brown potatoes we ate that were probably high in sulfites. E normally has tapioca flour to thicken her beverages several times a day and eats lots of potato chips, so I really didn't expect that to be a problem. I still have no idea whether the sulfites were a problem, or if her symptoms were caused by something else.

In the last couple of days I have tried to limit the older girls on added sugars (cane sugar, maple syrup, etc.), but I haven't limited them on fruit or anything else beyond my usual attempts at offering a variety of healthy foods for them to choose from. We did have a couple of days in a row where the kids happened to not eat any wheat for breakfast or lunch, so I made rice or a starchy vegetable for the grain at dinner to make it a full day of gluten-free eating. I'm not planning to continue limiting gluten at this point.

AJ is choosing to limit herself on milk for a day or two to see if it helps her feel better (she felt bad after eating dairy products a few days in a row), and M&M is currently such a picky eater/nibbler that she doesn't eat half of what she's offered anyway (we have a one-bite rule for most things, so she does at least taste them).

AJ and M&M were given candy at an event they went to tonight, so the sugar-free trial lasted all of two days--par for the course. :)

I keep thinking about doing something like the elimination diet in Is This Your Child for the whole family, but I haven't actually tried anything like that. We've had a few two- or three-day spurts of trying to remove one food, such as sugar or wheat, but it's never lasted. I think we'd need to be more motivated and organized (and probably would need a doctor advising us to make the attempt, and helping us plan it out) in order to really make any kind of elimination diet work with the rest of the family.

Water

We finally figured out a way for Baby E to drink unthickened water without choking. Apparently her swallowing abilities have improved enough that if she drinks from a sippy cup with small enough holes, she does okay with it.

It's impossible to tell for sure whether she's aspirating trace amounts or not, but she's not doing a lot of choking and coughing with this method, so that's encouraging. It's much better than last time we tried these cups with her.

So, she's off the juice. She's just had water and for the last day and a half (in addition to nursing, of course). That seems to be going well so far. That's an answer to prayer that seemed nearly impossible not long ago.

We were going to try to not give her any fruit at all today, but she did get hold of M&M's half of an organic banana this morning. Her diet today contained no grains, and was very low in fructose but a bit higher in sucrose (only what was naturally occurring in things like the banana, carrots and turnips).

She was fussy and clingy today, refused to nap, wanted to nurse constantly, complained of stomach pain, and had diarrhea twice. We'll try again tomorrow.

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I would really like to get to a base level where she's going at least a few days (preferably weeks) at a time without bouts of diarrhea and stomach pain. Then we could start trying to add things one at a time and see what happens. With no dependable baseline to start from, it's very difficult to tell which foods are affecting her in what ways, or if it's something non-food-related altogether.

I've been leaving messages for the GI specialist trying to ask about the possibility of a fructose or sucrose intolerance for almost two months now, I think. I hope we get a call from someone soon who is able to either answer some questions or just tell us we need an appointment.

It's hard not to get impatient or frustrated when it takes several weeks or more to get a return call, and then it seems they haven't looked at her chart or the information got garbled somewhere in the communication line. I know it must be difficult for the medical personnel trying to interpret questions and relay information third-and fourth-hand. But it does make things frustrating on this end to wait so long for a return call that--when it finally comes--doesn't actually answer the question asked. Meanwhile, we're going on waiting and trying to figure it out for ourselves month after month.

AJ and M&M weren't feeling well today, either. I really hope that if we can figure out what's going on with Baby E, it will help all of us.

I think soon I'll probably try putting everyone in the house (or at least myself and the kids) on a gluten-, sulfite- and dairy-free diet with no added sugars for a few days to see what happens. It would be lots of vegetables and meat, but even that (depending on the vegetables) would still contain significant amounts of fructose, sucrose and starch, which may or may not be a problem. I haven't decided yet whether I'll try to temporarily cut out fruits for everyone or just Baby E and myself.

Baby E and I have very little sugar or gluten in our diets already, but the older girls get a bit more sugar (usually small amounts in things like jam or a bit of maple syrup added to porridge or plain yogurt) and quite a bit more fruit and gluten.

I think we're probably getting quite a few sulfites in our diet because I use tapioca starch and potato starch in baking (in addition to the tapioca starch we've been using in Baby E's drinks). I've been making quite a few grain-free "breads" out of things like tapioca flour, and we eat a lot of potato chips.

I'm really not exactly sure what to do or try next.

Mainly I'm just praying a lot for patience, strength, wisdom, perspective and a good attitude. That's what I really need right now, and what I'm struggling with the most.

Too Hasty

It looks like I spoke too soon about Baby E tolerating apple juice. She's not too miserable, but she definitely has diarrhea and is complaining of pain.

Updates on school and health

• We finally picked out and purchased a curriculum for school: Galloping the Globe. It's pretty close to exactly the type of thing I was looking for. We'll be doing a basic overview of geography and reading about various countries around the world.
  
  All the other options I'd been looking at seemed to be either below the kids' academic levels, or a bit too old in the maturity of themes, etc. for them. This one should be perfect--it's geared toward K-4th grade, and we can use any books we want on the topics.
  
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  For each country we'll learn a bit about the country, culture and people, read some books set in or written by people who live there, touch on some major historical figures, learn about and pray for the needs there, and learn about the area's animals and any interesting features of the environment, geology, etc. We'll also read missionary biographies.
  
  I think GtG will be a lot of fun. It's a very flexible program and will be easy to tweak or add to as we go along.
  
  The books look like a lot of fun. Children Just Like Me, a colorful book that shows children from around the world with information about their homes, language, religion, dress, etc. is one of my favorites. There are lots of projects to choose from, from doing crafts to cooking meals or planning celebrations that relate to each country. I did purchase a few core books to use with the curriculum, but we'll be using the library a lot.
  
  The kids will also be involved in AWANA and in Friday School (a homeschool co-op where they will take classes on--you guessed it--Fridays).
  
  We'll continue doing Singapore math, and will supplement with some classic books for read-alouds. I plan to let the kids pick out books at their reading level to practice reading, and we'll do some sort of phonics practice as well. I picked up some Sonlight Teacher's manuals second-hand, and I'll be able to use those as a resource for ideas. We're using the Sonlight-recommended Egermeier Bible Story Book for some extra Bible reading.



• Right now we're still finishing up the three-week Egypt study from Tapestry of Grace. We've enjoyed that a lot. Currently, our tentative plan is to do a year or two of Galloping the Globe, then a year of something else (perhaps Cantering the Country, the US History version of GtG), and then move into curriculum desiged for a wider range of grade levels, such as WinterPromise and/or ToG.



• We saw our naturopath this week. She was fascinated with the printouts I brought in about various forms of sugar intolerance.
  
  She said, "Wow! I wonder how many people who have been diagnosed with Candida really have this instead of or along with the yeast issue? Especially the ones that never get to the point where they can tolerate fruit."
  
  She said that it seems likely that Candida overgrowth could be secondary to a difficulty digesting sugars, and thought the sugar intolerance angle was especially interesting given that she's had several patients diagnosed with Candida who didn't improve with treatment until they began taking enzymes to assist with digestion, and then improved dramatically.
  
  She's going to research the various forms of sugar intolerance and find out all she can. The best part is that she's going to try to find some enzymes that would help Baby E and the rest of us digest sugars, starches and other foods better. The next step would be to try to support the health of the pancreas and other organs that produce digestive enzymes.
  
  I did find information this week suggesting that sugar malabsorption issues can be caused by a number of other conditions besides the three forms of sugar intolerance I've been looking into. Information on them is much less readily-available, but it seems one factor can be an under-production of enzymes rather than a complete lack of them. This would seem a possibility, given the mildness of most of Baby E's symptoms and the dose-related nature of them. Also, it seems that anything that affects the health of the digestive system--allergies, illness, etc--can affect the body's ability to break down and process sugars and other elements of foods.



• To further throw a loop in things, DH decided to trial Baby E on apple juice this weekend. (I said it was fine with me as long as he was willing to deal with her if she became miserable, since I wasn't feeling up to dealing with it.) She had a very small amount ~1 oz at first and several ounces later. So far she seems fine. That certainly brings into question any possibility of fructose intolerance. Apple juice is very high in fructose, but low in sucrose. In fact, it fits the standard for a "low sucrose" food--less than 2g sucrose per 100g.
  
  Also, it's extremely crazy-making, since each time we've trialed her on applesauce she didn't do well with it. It did seem to accumulate over several doses, though. We thought she was tolerating it well at first and then she deteriorated over a day or two. So at this point I'm not sure whether to keep giving her apple juice over the next few days, or just assume she can handle small amounts occasionally but not give it to her too much or too often.
  
  Now it's got me wondering if she just has an extra-sensitive digestive tract. Maybe there's not going to be any real underlying thing we can figure out to tweak and control her symptoms. Baby E is doing so much better now than she was a year ago that it almost seems pointless to keep worrying about the much milder symptoms she has now. Her issues are certainly no worse than M&M's now.
  
  At what point do we just quit trying to figure it out and accept that we just have kids who get a lot of stomachaches and mild diarrhea? But I don't want to just watch the kids feeling unwell so much of the time and not keep trying to figure it out. I hate not knowing what's causing their discomfort and not knowing how to fix or avoid it.



• I'm still not feeling any better, myself. My energy levels are very low and I'm in a lot of discomfort. I don't seem to have any specific illness, just "the usual" flare-ups--allergy symptoms, GI symptoms, general pain, severe fatigue, weight loss, etc. It's hard not to get discouraged sometimes, but I keep reminding myself that God has always sustained me, and we've had so many answered prayers that have brought us this far.
  
  A lot of things are sliding, but we're managing. Each day, it seems, I'm given the strength to do exactly what I have to do, if no more. I'm thankful for that.

Sugar

Well, the GI specialist's nurse finally returned my call after I left several messages over the course of the last 3 weeks.

At first she thought I was asking about allergy issues, which frustrated me because I had already clarified several times that the issues E is having with fruits do NOT seem to be allergy-related and that the allergist can't help us with them. She said that if we suspected a problem with a sugar other than lactose, we should take Baby E off all sugars for a month and then gradually add them back in one at a time to see what she can tolerate. She started listing off things like corn syrup, table sugar, etc. that I needed to remove from E's diet.

I told the nurse that Baby E has been off of all that stuff (especially the corn syrup) already, and that it's pretty obvious that the amount of sugar in fruits, vegetables and probably whole wheat is enough to give her problems. This is a kid who gets sweet-smelling diarrhea from 4 blackberries, not a kid who is having problems from being fed sugar-laced drinks or sweet breakfast cereal. I really wish these people would listen and pay attention to what I've been trying to tell them all these months.

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I asked if we needed to take E completely off all sugars for a month. Fruits, vegetables and starches all contain sugars of some sort. I told the nurse that if we're really going to take her off ALL fructose, sucrose and maltose, including fruits/vegetables/grains, I need someone to give me a list of what we CAN feed E. I'm not about to try to do that with no guidance.

The nurse said she didn't know, and she'd make a note that I had more questions and would have the GI specialist call me. That was several days ago, and I haven't heard back yet.

I'd hate to just indiscrinimately remove all fruits, vegetables and starches from Baby E's diet for that long. Taking something like corn out of her diet isn't going to nutritionally compromise her, but taking out everything with any kind of sucrose or fructose in it certainly will. I think she would essentially be left with nothing but meat and dairy products to eat--not a complete diet by any means, especially considering that breastmilk, butter and yogurt are the only dairy products she really eats.

A number of people have suggested to me that we take E off refined sugars, which is rather humorous because she's really never been on refined sugars in the first place.

Baby E has had very little refined sugar in her lifetime. Mostly it's been lots of whole grains (mainly brown rice), fresh fruits and vegetables, and local additive-free meats. Because of the corn issue she can't have pretty much anything bleached, enriched or refined.

Also, she just has never really liked most sweet things. She'll eat fruit, but anything like cookies or cakes that I've made--even corn-free--she's mostly taken one nibble and refused to eat any more. For the most part she wouldn't touch anything with maple syrup, agave nectar or stevia in it. Anything sweetened (mostly baked goods for special occasions) was made with honey or brown rice syrup. I'd very occasionally make something with a little brown sugar in it, but E usually wouldn't eat it.

She greatly prefers most food unadulterated with sweeteners or other flavorings. She eats things like pancakes, waffles and muffins made with no sweetener and eaten plain with maybe a little butter.

Her "treats" were almost always plain whole fruit. That usually ended up with her being uncomfortable afterwards. So now we usually give her things like potato chips or rice crackers when we want to give her a special treat.

We used to occasionally give her a piece or two of Panda Licorice (made of whole wheat and molasses--about 1 gram of sugar per piece), but we were mostly using that as an incentive to get her to take her medicine when she was taking the Omeprazole months ago. I can't remember the last time we gave her licorice.

We have very occasionally given her one Yummy Earth lollipop (organic, made with unrefined sugar and no artificial colors or flavors--less than 6 grams of sugar) on special occasions. These are usually situations where she is watching other kids eat a lot of special treats that she can't have. I haven't given her any lollipops for a while because she complains of tummyaches after eating them.

Other than that, any sugar in her diet has been mostly in the form of organic fruits and vegetables.

I have given her small amounts of sugar 4 or 5 times in the last month or two, trying to test whether sucrose bothers her or if it's just fructose.

Cake made with whole wheat and brown sugar gave her problems, but I don't know if that was from the wheat, the sugar or both. So I've resorted to feeding her sugar cubes made of pure cane sugar in a brand I know to be corn-free. It feels so strange giving my baby sugar cubes. It's the kind of thing I wouldn't normally do. But it's the only way I know to reliably test whether she can handle sucrose or not.

Sucrose tolerance seems to be the key to differentiating between ordinary fructose malabsorption and the more serious hereditary forms of sugar intolerance. People with fructose malabsorption supposedly should be able to tolerate moderate amounts of sucrose, while people with the other conditions cannot.

I've discovered that 4 grams (1 teaspoon) of sucrose doesn't give her any noticeable symptoms but may make her a bit grumpy, 6-8 grams (1.5 to 2 teaspoons) gives her a tummy ache, and 12 grams (3 teaspoons) is enough to give her mild diarrhea.

When we are trialing sugar, E gets no fruit other than the few tablespoons of additive-free orange juice we use to flavor her thickened water and the teaspoon of black cherry juice she gets with her medicine. We haven't yet figured out how to get her to drink those things without adding juice. This week she's not getting the medicine because we're getting ready to do the corn challenge with the allergist, so it's just the tiny amount of orange juice. I've been trying to get her to drink just plain thickened water, but so far that isn't working very well. Maybe I should try pumping some milk to mix with it instead of the juice.

We also have her off wheat and any vegetables that are high in fructans or other sugars. At the moment she gets no fruit except the juice flavoring her thickened water, and whatever we're trialing that day.

That means that Baby E is basically eating meat, eggs, plain yogurt, rice (cereal/crackers/cooked rice), seaweed (I even found seaweed nodles that don't taste like seaweed), 100% rye sourdough bread (though she doesn't eat much of that), tapioca (as bread and to thicken her beverages), small amounts of rice or soy milk (in cooking or on her rice cereal), potatoes and low-sugar vegetables (no tomatoes, onions, etc). She's still nursing a lot, too.

If she's not already having GI symptoms that day and has fully recovered from the last trial, she also gets a small amount of whatever we're trialing--which might be a carefully measured amount of a particular fruit, or something like that.

Her symptoms usually begin within a few minutes or an hour of consuming the food, so I don't think we're looking at delayed allergies. She doesn't seem to have other symptoms or a clinical picture pointing to candida either (although she certainly could end up with a Candida overgrowth as a secondary issue, I'm guessing, since she doesn't seem to digest sugars).

We have to remember that she has had stool tests positive for reducing substances. I'm no expert, but my understanding is that the positive reducing substances test means that she is not digesting a sugar. I don't think that test result could be caused by allergies or candida--I think it has to be a sugar malabsorption issue.

Some type of sugar malabsorption certainly seems to be the best fit for the data so far.

Trialing Soy

Since Baby E tested negative to everything on the last couple of rounds of allergy testing, we've been gradually trialing all the foods she had tested allergic to. So far any adverse effects have seemed related to her sugar/fructose malabsorption issue rather than to an actual allergy, and have been limited to mild GI symptoms.

We tried a tiny amount of Soy Dream soy milk last night.

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That was a bit nerve-racking since soy was the first food we knew she had problems with. Next to corn, soy had given her the most severe symptoms in the past. We discovered the soy issue when Baby E was only a few weeks old. Thankfully, I didn't eat it very often and it was pretty obvious that her most extreme screaming spells were linked to my consumption of soy while breastfeeding.

I still remember clearly the time I made soy ice cream and ate it several times a day for a couple of days. Baby E screamed and screamed and flailed and was absolutely miserable and inconsolable for hours on end. She had diarrhea, too. Then she was abruptly fine when we switched to giving her milk I'd previously pumped and frozen.

The few times she's been directly exposed to soy, she got a rash and severe immediate diarrhea, but in all those cases there was also corn in the item she got crumbs of, so we never knew whether soy caused a rash, etc. or not.

Because soy is one of the Top 8 allergens and is usually clearly labeled (with the exception of things like Vitamin E, mixed tocopherols, and lecithin which we know to avoid), it's been pretty easy to completely avoid it.

Last night I rubbed a bit of soy milk on the inside of her elbow and waited about 15-20 minutes. She had no observable reaction, so I put one drop of it in her mouth. She smiled, smacked her lips, and said "Milk!" She liked it.

By 30 minutes or an hour later, she was still showing no sign of symptoms. So I offered her a spoonful of soy milk. This time she strongly repulsed it. Even though it hadn't touched her tongue yet, she made motions of raking at her tongue and facial expressions of extreme disgust. I asked what was wrong and if her tongue felt funny or her tummy hurt, and she said her tummy hurt. I didn't make her eat the soy. A while later she told me her tummy hurt without prompting.

Now, she says her tummy hurts fairly frequently, so that's not particularly all that unusual. It was hard to tell whether the soy was actually bothering her in some way or if she just didn't like the taste. So I mixed a small amount into her thickened orange juice. She didn't seem to notice, and drank it just fine.

She didn't have any obvious symptoms. There were no rashes, no itching, no more complaints of tummy ache. She woke up around 6am thirsty. She nursed a bit and then asked for juice instead, so DH gave her more of the soy-spiked juice. She went right back to sleep after that and seemed to sleep well.

This morning she's in a great mood and seems well-rested. No sign of diarrhea so far.

We're going to continue giving her soy over the next few days, watching for signs of eczema or other delayed reactions. It's remotely possible that, after avoiding soy for 2 years, it might take a few exposures to "prime" her immune system before she reacts. But it's more likely that she has grown out of the soy issue, just like M&M did around this age.

Now all we really have left to test (allergy-wise, anyway) is corn.

Very exciting developments around here.

Confusing

Just to put another twist in things: We found some organic bananas that have not been treated with any pesticides or fertilizers and, most importantly, have not been fumigated with corn-derived gasses.

Baby E seems to be able to tolerate them just fine. She had half a banana twice yesterday, and it certainly didn't give her diarrhea.

She's also been eating pears bars fairly frequently with no obvious problems.

I'm actually wondering if, as can happen with lactose intolerance, her tolerance to fruit fluctuates with the state of her digestive system. It seems that when she's had a recent reaction, is fighting a virus, etc. she can tolerate almost no fruit at all. But when she's doing well she can digest fruit much better.

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I've been keeping really detailed records of her eating and her symptoms again for about a week now. The biggest thing I've realized is that she nurses a lot. She's still nursing at least 5 to 8 times per day, usually every 2-3 hours during the day. She does sleep through the night most nights, but otherwise she nurses almost as much as an infant does. With a few exceptions (meat, potato chips, occasional fruit, kohlrabi, yogurt and scrambled eggs) she eats only a few nibbles of whatever solid food she is offered (even if she hasn't nursed recently). She almost never eats more than a nibble of anything containing a grain--even rice, lately. Some days she doesn't eat much at all of any solid food, even her favorites. [Edit: Of course, I keep thinking that eating little nibbles of this and that is pretty typical for a 2-year-old. I may be making myself crazy trying to find patterns where none exist. :)]

She's also learned this past week how to say "My tummy hurts" (sounds more like "My ummy uhts"). It's a huge milestone for her to be able to communicate this in words reliably and on her own initiative. She says it fairly frequently--and often it's times when there's little or no other indication that she's uncomfortable. She might be a bit quieter than normal, or she may be pulling at her shirt a bit or chewing on her hand, but she's not being fussy or having diarrhea. The times she complains of her tummy hurting correlate well with the times she doesn't want to eat much of anything.

I'm glad she's becoming more able to communicate such things.

M&M complains often of her tummy hurting, too, and gets some of the same symptoms. So I wonder if part of this is some issue they share. We haven't been able to pinpoint a clear pattern for either of them, yet. I want to keep detailed records for M&M, too, but it's much more difficult for an older child who can help herself to food at family gatherings and who takes herself to the potty without help. Even though I ask her to tell me when she has diarrhea, etc. or when her tummy hurts, she doesn't necessarily remember to do so. I'm not really sure how to make the record-keeping work well for her.

AJ, we've recently realized, seems to have hypoglycemic tendencies. Her most severe emotional meltdowns almost always coincide with being hungry, and are quickly mitigated by a healthy snack.

I hope we can figure out how to best feed our kids soon.

Home from the Allergist

Well, we saw the allergist. Baby E had skin-prick testing done for all the foods she previously tested positive for, plus coconut and chocolate.

All the tests were negative. The only one that was bigger than the negative at all was coconut, and it was a difference of 1mm--not enough to be considered a positive by any standard.

As the nurse said, "Maybe avoiding those foods for all this time has given her a chance to grow out of the allergies." As the doctor said, "It does seem pretty clear that at least some of her symptoms were food-related, but probably not all of them were. Some of those foods may never have been true allergies in the first place. Others, she's probably growing out of."

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It certainly seems to me, and the allergist agreed, that E's issues with apples, bananas and a number of other fruits seem to be more related to whatever sugar she's malabsorbing, than to allergy.

Since her reaction to bananas consisted of only one especially soft stool, with no other real symptoms, we've been continuing to give her banana in small amounts. Each time she has an unusually soft BM shortly after (usually within an hour or two), and possibly some mild stomach discomfort, but nothing severe.

The allergist thought our plan was sensible: basically, we're going to continue to limit fruits (at least the ones that seem to bother her) and try not to overdose on them, but we're not going to avoid them completely. We'll allow E to have moderate amounts while trying to keep from letting her eat enough to make her miserable. I also plan to check in with the GI specialist on that issue, and see what she says.

As for the other foods, we're going to continue introducing one per week, more or less. The allergist said that we may or may not find that she can tolerate them all now, so if she has problems with one just remove it from her diet again and try again in 3 months or so.

At first, it felt like the allergist was assuming that I was overreacting and planning to withhold foods for the rest of Baby E's life if she looked a bit off after eating it once. But I was able to explain that I don't really consider it a conclusive reaction to a specific food unless essentially the same thing happens after eating the same food on about three different occasions, and that I don't consider it a significant reaction unless there are multiple symptoms (i.e. I don't consider it a big deal if she gets just red cheeks or just diarrhea). We've tried most things at least 3 or 4 times before deciding that the symptoms we were seeing could fairly conclusively be attributed to that particular trigger. And then like to test it again after a period of time avoiding the food.

I try to keep detailed records of what she's eaten and what's going on surrounding Baby E's rashes or bad spells, but I do try to not assume causality unless it's warranted.

When he finally understood the approach we were taking, the allergist visibly relaxed. He said that seemed very sensible.

Regarding corn, at first he suggested that we start with trialing some of the more refined corn derivatives. But I asked about doing an in-office challenge. Corn is the only food I'm really worried about the possibility of a severe reaction, and that was part of the reason. But if she really could tolerate corn, I'd like to know. Also, if she did have a reaction to whole corn, it would be extremely helpful to know the severity of the reaction in a controlled environment.

After we discussed it a bit, the allergist said he thought it seemed quite reasonable to do an in-office challenge for corn. He suggested that we trial all the other foods first, since corn is the most severe. Then, in a month or so, we'll schedule a full morning to go in and do the challenge.

He said he'd never done an in-office challenge for corn before, but he'll use the same procedure he generally uses for challenging peanut.

We'll bring in corn in several different forms--fresh corn, corn chips, and something like cornbread or polenta. They'll start by rubbing it on her arm, then her cheek. Then they'll have her take some in her mouth and spit it out, or just lick it. Then we'll start giving her tiny amounts, gradually increasing the amounts over the course of several hours until either she has a reaction or she reaches a normal serving size without reaction. The whole time, they'll be monitoring her blood pressure, pulse, breathing, skin, etc.

I tried to maintain a very calm, factual, professional demeanor during the visit, and I think that helped a lot. He seems to be finally getting past his initial perception of me as a somewhat hysterical, paranoid, overreacting mom. Never, never cry during a doctor's appointment. I'm just saying. It could take the doctor a long time to start taking you seriously again once you start bawling.

He did suggest again that I consider weaning--well, more like encouraged me that I've "already nursed longer than most women ever would" and that it's okay if I feel like I want to wean Baby E. That she'd be fine if I weaned her, and it's a lot for me to manage, trying to nurse her and avoid allergens for her sake, and, and . . .

I just smiled and told him that if I felt I needed or wanted to wean her, or she wanted to wean herself, I would feel free to do so.

In compiling records in preparation for the allergist visit, I was struck with how often on this roller coaster there hasn't been any clear cause for Baby E's difficult spells, or even her rashes. I always rack my brain trying to make connections or guess what caused it, but much of the time there is just no answer. With some foods the reaction has seemed consistent and clear, but other reactions seem to have no easily-discernable trigger. Of course, even when it's clear that a certain food is triggering a symptom, we could be seeing a sugar malabsorption issue rather than an allergy issue. Or a certain food might exacerbate her reflux.

But I'm increasingly aware that--even when the timing seems to suggest it--things often may not be food-related at all. Sometimes it could be that she's ill or teething. Or it could be that her reflux is acting up, which could be food-related or not. Or she could be hungry, tired or frustrated. Some of the rashes, too, could be caused by a variety of triggers--illness, contact with an irritant, etc.

The allergist did point out today that eczema tends to be worse in the winter than in the summer, so the fact that it's so much better now could have as much to do with changes in the weather as with dietary changes. Whatever the cause, Baby E hasn't had a rash since March. Almost all the symptoms we've seen in the last 6 months could be attributed to anything from reflux to illness, with the combination of just being a toddler. Most importantly, the symptoms are much milder and less frequent now than they were before. Baby E is happy and healthy most of the time. She's thriving.

She's definitely doing ever so much better. Is it because she's growing out of many of her issues? Is it that we've gotten good treatment for her reflux and aspiration issues? Has her body been able to heal itself on a diet of safe, healthy food? Is she just doing better because we've gotten so good at avoiding the things that trigger her symptoms? Or is she doing better for some other reason?

Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing how the upcoming food trials go. We'll be introducing mushrooms, kidney beans and other types of legumes (she already seems to do fine with green beans and lentils), soy, coconut and then the in-office challenge for corn. The allergist recommends that we avoid nuts/peanuts and fish/shellfish for another year.

Our list of foods to avoid is getting shorter and shorter!

End of July

Our county fair starts this weekend, and they're accepting entries over the next few days. AJ and M&M have been working hard drawing pictures to enter in the fair. It will be their first year making entries, and I'm excited for them.

Baby E will be two on Friday. It's hard to believe, isn't it?

Everyone seems to be quite healthy at the moment. And, we have exciting news on the food front!

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Last week we reintroduced the Trader Joe's brand plain yogurt, which is made from grass-fed cow's milk with no additives other than the yogurt cultures. She had seemed to tolerate it before, but after the GI specialist decided she was lactose intolerant, she advised that we not give E dairy products.

Then I started doing some reading on lactose intolerance, and discovered that if E was truly lactose intolerant, she wouldn't be able to tolerate breastmilk. Uh, yeah. Not only can she tolerate it, but the tests showed that breastmilk was not causing her to have sugars in her stools. So I decided there was no reason to withold the yogurt she loves so much if she can tolerate it fine.

E has been eating increasing quantities of yogurt for the past week with no issues whatsoever.

Yesterday, we trialed her on oats. I came up with a recipe using soaked oats and sourdough starter, which the kids loved. Baby E ate several pancakes and had no reaction whatsoever. Eating a muffin made from the same batter today had no ill effects, either.

For lunch today, she had half a banana. She was so excited and wanted more, We're wanting to trial her on as many things as possible before her allergist appointment later this week, so we're moving more quickly than usual with adding things. I'm going to retry the yogurt made with milk from corn-fed goats in a couple of days if all goes well.

I'm so thrilled that all of this is going so well. I suspect that the bananas may give her issues (even if not an allergic-type reaction) just because she tends to have issues with most fruits.

****Update: she had diarrhea within 20 minutes of eating half a banana, after having beautifully normal BMs yesterday and this morning. It's a more severe and immediate reaction than she normally gets from similar quantities of other fruits, but no rash or anything so far, so who knows? We'll see what the allergist says.****

A doctor friend told me that, despite the GI specialist's assertions, the reducing substances test is not specific for lactose--it could also be positive because of fructose or some other sugars.

Since the test was positive when Baby E was eating fruit and negative when she was completely off all sugars, then positive again when we started giving her fruit and unrefined sugars again, it could certainly be a sugar in fruits that is causing her issues. I really doubt that the few spoonfuls of yogurt she had a day or three before the third test would be enough to create a positive result when large quantities of breastmilk didn't.

Most fruits do seem to go right through her and give her abnormal, sweet-smelling stools. That, of course, would be an intolerance rather than an allergy--probably her body just doesn't produce enough of the enzyme that breaks down fructose.

I've been doing quite a bit of reading about lactose intolerance vs. milk allergy.

I'm thinking that what I have is lactose intolerance rather than a milk protein allergy, because of the symptoms and patterns of my symptoms. I'm guessing that because I went completely off dairy products for so long, my body stopped producing what little lactase enzyme it was making. It was to the point where even one tablespoon of kefir gave me uncomfortable intestinal symtpoms.

I recently read a study that found that people with lactose intolerance could gradually increase their lactase production (and tolerance of dairy products) by starting with very small amounts of dairy and eating it regularly, gradually increasing the amount. I've been trying that approach for about a week now. I started with just a very tiny amount of Baby E's yogurt and worked my way up to a teaspoon a day. Yogurt is very low in lactose, but even that small amount was enough to give me mild to moderate discomfort. I kept doing that until I stopped getting intestinal discomfort from a teaspoon of yogurt, then gradually increased the amount. I'm up to a tablespoon or two of yogurt per day without significant discomfort now. That's encouraging.

We're still making progress on the house, and on decisions regarding curriculum and meat purchases. The garden is producing enough now that we need only buy a few things here and there at the store (potatoes, onions, etc.) and are getting most of our veggies from our own back yard.

Overall, life is pretty good.

Fine

Baby E's virus or whatever it was turned out to be no big deal. She had frequent, severe watery diarrhea for just over 24 hours and then she was fine.

I'm still having to limit the amount of fiber, fruit, etc. she's getting, and make sure she's getting a little extra salt, but other than things being a little soft she's pretty much back to normal.

It makes me feel really good that her immune system is strong enough to take a bug that was lasting a week or two for other kids and make it a non-issue within a day, as long as we fed her sensibly.

She has had a few reactions from accidental exposure to citric acid the last week or two, but they were limited to GI discomfort, behavioral and sleep issues--no rashes or potentially dangerous symptoms. We are using renewed caution about exposure.

Baby E has an appointment with the allergist in a couple of weeks. I asked about using the actual foods to do a prick-to-prick tesst instead of using commercial extracts, and was told that was fine--just to bring the foods along to the test. I also found out that an in-office challenge is definitely a possibility with this allergist, so I feel good about that.

She has to be off the reflux medicine (ranitidine--generic compounded version of Zant@c) for at least 5 days before the appointment, so it will be interesting to see how she does with that.

Virus?

Baby E apparently has a virus. Her symptoms are mostly severe watery diarrhea and general miserableness; no fever, rash or vomiting. She was up most of the night, being really uncomfortable.

At first I thought it was just a reaction to something she or I ate. It's really hard to tell the difference between an illness and an adverse food reaction. But this is too severe and lasting too long to be a reaction to something consumed one time, so unless she's suddenly developed an allergy to something like chicken or rice, I think it's a virus.

Especially considering that another child she's been in close contact with has had exactly the same symptoms for a week or more. Her doctor told her mother that the severe diarrhea from this particular bug is lasting up to 2 weeks.

So, no biggie. Just a virus. Keep her hydrated and feed her the BRAT diet, and she'll be fine. Right?

Except that she can't have any of the things that are normally recommended for toddlers with diarrhea.

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I called the pediatrician's nurse, who went through the list of things they usually recommend. There were two things on the list she could have. Two. Potatoes, which she won't eat, and rice, which we only have in the whole-grain version (not recommended).

We can't give her Pedialyte or anything like that, of course, because they're all corn-based. Can't even do plain water, because of the aspiration issue. It's a real challenge trying to get her to drink thickened water with no flavoring even when she's feeling well, and the juice we usually add in small amounts will, the Dr. said, make the diarrhea worse.

Finally, the ped's nurse said she didn't know what to recommend. She suggested we call the GI specialist or the dietician.

I left messages for both.

A few minutes ago the GI specialist on-call phoned us. He said to continue giving her small amounts of whatever is the most bland and low in sugar/fat that she normally eats, and as much breastmilk as she wants (although he said breastmilk wouldn't be enough to keep her from getting dehydrated). He said not to give her plain water or any juice at all, since that can worsen the situation.

He said, "Since she can't have Pedialyte, you'll almost certainly have to take her in to the ER for IV fluids."

At first he was leaning toward having me take her in right now, as a preventative measure. But since she's not presently showing signs of dehydration he asked several questions about how quickly we could get to an ER if we needed to, and what the care is like at our nearest hospital. The fact that we live near the newest hospital in the area with an excellent dedicated pediatrics ER helps.

So he said to keep a very close eye on her for signs of dehydration, and not to hesitate at all if we saw any, even if it didn't seem bad. He seemed to think she was likely to go downhill very fast if she started getting dehydrated at all, given her symptoms and situation.

I really hope that won't happen. If it does, we may be in for a challenge just trying to get corn-free IV fluids for her. I do have some recipes for homemade electrolyte replacement drinks that I could try (made of things like sugar, molasses, or orange juice combined with salt and/or baking soda). But since E doesn't tolerate sugars particularly well even when she doesn't have a virus, I don't know how that will go.

Meanwhile, AJ and M&M have their concert for the end of VBS (Vacation Bible School) this evening, and I really don't want to miss it. Also, our friend Dr. A was supposed to come over for dinner and then join us for the kids' performance. We have three different events we're supposed to attend tomorrow, church on Sunday, and another big family gathering on Monday.

Baby E is napping now. I'm still hoping it will turn out to be an allergic reaction and she'll wake up feeling fine, but I think the chances are pretty slim at this point.

Mainly, I'm just praying she won't get dehydrated. We've never had to deal with this particular issue before, so it's a new situation for us to learn how to manage.

Oh, just as I was about to hit post the nutritionist called. She was much more enouraging than the GI specialist was, and didn't seem nearly as worried. She said we may not even need to use a Pedialyte substitute, but gave me the electrolyte replacement drink recipe she recommends, and said we could even mix that in with Baby E's normal juice.

Otherwise, she said to pretty much give her whatever we can get her to eat and drink (within reason, of course), and try to get something with some sodium content into her along with the breastmilk and (watered-down thickened) juice she normally drinks to balance out the electrolytes. E has been asking for potato chips, so that shouldn't be too difficult. :)

Good Things

M&M turned 5 yesterday. We had a nice day, including a trip to the dollar store where she got to pick out some things. More on her birthday later.

At the store Baby E got hold of something sticky and sweet, got it on her hands and licked her hands. I'm sure there had to be corn syrup in it. Amazingly enough, she had NO reaction whatsoever.

The only kind of reaction at all that she's had in the last few months was waking up uncomfortable and having trouble sleeping the night after the wedding last weekend, and being fussy for a day or two after that. Not even a rash. Other than that, she's been perfectly normal. Wow! I can't even put into words how exciting that is.

Today we had a family gathering with some of DH's family who are in town, and tomorrow is M&M's birthday party (in the afternoon after church and a family lunch).

Raising Dust

Yesterday SIL The Mentor came over to help me start sorting through the clutter in my house. Before she got here I fixed breakfast, fed the kids and animals, did a load of dishes, watered the garden and did several loads of laundry, sorting out some things to give away and sell and helping the kids put their clothes away.

When SIL arrived we were just finishing lunch. I'd made a smoothie out of frozen berries, orange juice, rice milk, calcium/magnesium powder and acidophilus, with a handful of fresh greens. Even with 2 or 3 turnip leaves, a leaf each of kholrabi, collard, lettuce and cabbage, and a few Swiss chard leaves blended in, the smoothie was quite sweet and delicious. I was surprised at how good it was. What an easy way to get the kids to eat raw leafy green vegetables! Most of the greens were straight from the garden--young, fresh and sweet. I think I'll try that again today.

After I got the cauliflower soup simmering for dinner (with a few collard leaves added this time), SIL and I got to work.

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First we loaded all our old rickety chairs into her van. I'd bought a set of 6 wooden chairs in good condition for $4 each at a garage sale last week, so for the first time since we got married DH and I actually own a matching set of dining chairs. It's so nice to have a set of chairs that look decent, and none of them are wobbly or falling apart. At $24 for the set, it was an affordable luxury.

SIL and I attacked the office next. We sorted things into piles to throw away, give away and sell. She filled her van with items to donate and took them to drop off for me on her way home.

It was so wonderful to have the help and moral support from SIL. We made good progress, although it will take weeks or months of hard work to get the house decluttered and organized. SIL is going to help me come up with storage solutions so that I have a place to put away all the craft supplies and other things I'm choosing to keep.

This morning I filled several more bags and put them out for the ARC pickup. We still have a long way to go, but you can actually see a fair amount of carpet in the office now. The whole room was piled high with clutter--mostly bags of clothing I'd bought years ago to sell on eBay, before Baby E was born.

The clothes I'm not donating, I'm going to take to a couple of local consignment shops. DH and I also decided that it's not worth the space to store most of the baby things. With a few exceptions, they would be easy and fairly inexpensive to replace if we had another baby.

So we donated several large items (like the exersaucer) to our church MOMS group garage sale fundraiser. I'm setting aside a few items to sell, and more to give away. We'll donate many of the necessities like car seats to a ministry that provides a home, help and support to young mothers in difficult situations who are choosing to keep their babies. It's a good cause. I'm glad to be able to help in a small way.

After SIL left last night, I fed the kids dinner and talked to a reporter from the New York Times, who had called to interview me about something I wrote months ago on my blog. That was kind of exciting.

Just as I was finishing with that, Malamute Rescue Guy arrived with his three kids. Since his wife is on a business trip, I volunteered to watch all 6 kids so the two guys could go to a meeting for the worship teams at our church.

Baby H, who is several months younger than Baby E, missed her mommy and daddy, but her 7-year-old sister A was a big help in distracting and cuddling her. Mr. M, the 3-year-old boy, did great. My kids, of course, were thrilled to have playmates.

All 6 kids played on the swingset for a while. It was so cute seeing Baby E trying to guide Baby H around the yard and coax her to go down the slide. She led Baby H by the hand to the small slide, got her to climb up, and then ran around to the bottom of the slide.

E held out her hands to Baby H, saying, "'Mon, H. Side. I tatch oo. Side; 'mon. Ooo do it. Tatch oo."

Baby H wouldn't slide, so Baby E went around to the steps, climbed up next to her, and showed her how to go down. Just then H realized afresh that her Daddy was gone and started crying, so I picked her up and tried to comfort her. She did enjoy the baby swing, though, and was happy as long as she was being pushed in that. E enjoyed helping "push" her.

After a while we came in and I let the kids help me make a special treat. They peeled zucchini, measured, sifted and stirred while we made a chocolate-zucchini cake. Made with 2 cups of zucchini, mixed with whole-wheat flour and sweetened with honey, it made a relatively healthy treat that was a big hit. While it baked, I helped the kids get their pajamas on and then we read stories.

By the time the extra kids were gone and our kids were in bed, I was completely exhausted. My allergies were acting up from all the cleaning even though I'd worn a dust mask much of the time. There were no sheets or blankets on the bed, but I ended up falling asleep next to a pile of laundry I'd been sorting and some other things piled there to put away, fully clothed, with my cell phone and keys still in the pockets of my jeans.

Unfortunately, sleeping on just the dust mite cover over the mattress wasn't helpful. By the time I woke up this morning my allergies were even more in full bloom and the fibromyalgia/chronic fatigue symptoms were flaring up on top of the congestion, coughing, itching, watery eyes and runny nose. A dose of Zyrtec is at least helping me to be functional. I think I'll vaccuuum the mattress cover before putting on fresh bedding. Hopefully that will help.

Baby E is napping early today, so I think I'll have the older kids take quiet time early so I can shower and nap (or at least rest a bit) too. Then we'll take a load of things to the consignment store.

I'm really excited to be getting so much of this junk out of our house. It will make our home so much more pleasant and usable, and I hope it will help with the allergies too.