the gi specialist...

We went in for a follow-up for when William had his stomach bug a few months ago.  We mainly wanted to talk with the doc about his random stomachaches, which often causes loss of appetite and lethargy.  Nothing big, but we are concerned since Bill has major stomach issues.  Doc immediately noticed that his stomach is still very distended and then felt his tummy.  She said she could still feel some stool in him and asked if he was pooping regularly.  I said he was and she said he may not be pooping enough then.  That may be a reason why he has his random stomachaches.  She asked if we had seen the allergist recently.  We told her that he was supposed to get some bloodwork done, but we haven't taken him yet.  The allergist wants to see where his dairy numbers are to see if he can possibly tolerate dairy in baked foods.  Doc said if his dairy allergy is caused by a gi issue, that could aggravate his condition more.

She wanted him to be tested for Celiac Disease as well and wanted to "scope" him.  Because William's stomach always seems to be distended, she suspects additional food allergies.  The upper endoscopy would reveal the presence of certain cells that come to the surface of the gi tract when there are food allergies present.  Since we have eliminated all dairy and nuts from William's diet, it would reveal whether he has additional food allergies.  While we wouldn't know specifically which foods he were allergic to (that would require further testing), it would help to rule out whether his stomach issues are purely gi-related or food-related.  Doc said she could also determine whether he suffers from heartburn or acid reflux.  A lot of times, children have a hard time distinguishing between heartburn or acid reflux and will just say their stomach hurts.  Essentially, the endoscopy would serve to remove a lot of guesswork in treating him.

Although William's stomach issues aren't affecting him a whole lot now, our concern is with the possible long-term effects of it.  It's not a big deal for William to have some random stomachaches, constipation, gas, etc. right now.  But Doc said that if he has something like Celiac Disease or other food allergies that go untreated and continue to aggravate his system, there are significant long-term effects (sorry... I don't remember what she listed.) that wouldn't crop up until he was in his 30s or 40s.  If it's possible to try and pinpoint something definitive, why not try?  Originally, I was very much against pursuing this because William would have to be put to sleep for the procedure.  I did not want any invasive procedures performed on him unless they were absolutely necessary, but seeing the benefits of determining whether his stomach issues are food-related or just gi-related, we are strongly considering it now.  Would love your prayers for wisdom for our little boy.

allergy update...

Well, I got a phone call from the nurse regarding William's bloodwork for his allergies.  There was no change for his milk numbers.  Two years ago, they were 11.9.  This year, they are 11.6.  (Not sure what the numbers represent since the nurse just left a message.  But we do know that his allergy to dairy is the same.)  So we still have to keep him away from dairy.  =(

This was the first year we had him tested for peanut, and the number was 71.2.  (Wow...)  So yeah, he definitely has a severe peanut allergy.

Poor guy.  We were hoping...  =)  But we know that he is fearfully and wonderfully created, allergies and all!  =)

allergy update...

I took William to the allergist for a follow-up appt regarding his outdoor allergies and to have him re-tested for his milk allergy.  He has not had any allergic reactions to anything since his eye swelling in April (from some unknown outdoor allergen).  I told the doc that he's been taking the oral medication (which is a general antihistamine since William tested negative for the common outdoor allergens), but we haven't been doing the nasal spray since he loathes it.  William is always congested and the doc noticed that he's a mouth-breather.  He said the nasal spray would most likely help him breathe better, so we should try the nasal spray again.  It's not as effective if William doesn't inhale during the spray, but doc said some is better than nothing.  So it looks like we'll be trying the nasal spray again.

William was also tested for dairy and came out positive still.  Doc said that William is at the age where he may begin to outgrow the dairy allergy and asked if we'd be interested in challenging his dairy tolerance if the numbers in his bloodwork came back low enough.  We said we definitely were interested, so we're going to have to take William to get his blood drawn... something we definitely are not looking forward to.  He's still scared of band-aids and is very untrusting when I clip his toenails.  Can't imagine how berserk he's going to go when he actually sees a needle stuck in him to take his blood out.  William is definitely our fearful and hesitant little boy.  Would love your prayers for peace, trust, and opportunities for Bill and I to remind him of God's strength and presence with him.

allergy update...

We finally were able to get in to see the allergist who tested Josiah for the regular food allergies:  dairy, wheat, soy, egg, fish, and peanuts.  Josiah came out negative for all of them.  The doc seemed to notice that Josiah was getting new hives mostly near/around where he was being touched.  So he did a pen test to see if he had something called Dermatographism.  The area where the doc used the pen to scratch his skin was raised in a few minutes.  In neuro-typical people, the skin would just turn red, but would not raise itself into a welt.  Doc's theory seemed plausible, but we are not convinced that this is what caused Josiah's hives.

Bill did look into it a little more on Wikipedia and found that heat can sometimes cause hives, which makes a little more sense b/c Josiah often gets heat rashes.  Of course, we're just totally speculating here, so I guess only time will tell if we can try and find a correlation if/when he breaks out the next time.  We are grateful though that it would seem he doesn't have any food allergies at this point.  =)

allergies...

Josiah broke out into hives today.  He had a cluster of them on his wrist yesterday, but we thought they were just bites of some kind.  We were able to see his pediatrician later this afternoon and told her we had already scheduled an allergist appt.  Doc said to hold off as long as we could from giving Josiah Benadryl so we could make the appt, but if it got worse, then to just give him Benadryl and cancel the appt (and re-schedule for another time).  (When being tested for allergies, they can't have any anti-histamines in their system.)  And if he goes into any respiratory distress, to call 911.  Otherwise, if he just seems uncomfortable, an oatmeal bath should help.

Have been praying that the Lord would protect our baby from his hives until we can get him checked out at the allergist's.  The good thing is that he didn't really have any hives on his face.

allergy update...

So last weekend, William's left eye swelled up for a couple of days. It looked like someone had punched him only he didn't have a bruise. We were wondering if we needed to take him to the hospital, but decided against it since he didn't have any other symptoms other than being congested. He hadn't eaten anything new, so Bill and I suspected an outdoor allergy, especially since he had been outside playing a lot. His eye got better after a couple of days, but then swelled earlier in the week, again, taking a couple of days to go down.

We finally were able to take him to the allergist and William was tested for several things, but nothing came of it. The doc examined his nose and mouth and did find that they were swollen. He said one possibility is that the allergy is so newly developed that it isn't showing up on the skin test (which makes no sense to me). But the inflammation in his sinus and throat are indicative of an outdoor allergy, most likely pollen. So we got some medication for William to use that will hopefully alleviate his congestion and inflammation. Our poor boy... so many allergies, but there is always grace for it... and grace for him. So grateful for that!

allergy update...

We took William to his allergist as a follow-up from his visit to the hospital way back in October. (Initially, we were just going to take him to his regular appt in April, but his pediatrician said we really should go see the allergist b/c of what happened.)

Obviously, we know that he has a peanut allergy. But the allergist wanted to test him for other nuts and shellfish. We did a skin test and he had a huge welt about 2 inches long for peanuts. Oddly enough, he didn't react to any of the other nuts. The allergist said that usually when people have that strong of an allergy to peanuts, they're allergic to other nuts, as well. (The allergist did ask us to stay away from all nuts anyway until he's 4 or 5.) William also wasn't allergic to shellfish, but the allergist asked us to hold off on that until he's 4 also. But we could slowly begin introducing it if we felt really strongly about it. So no, we can definitely wait until he's 4. And the allergist didn't do a skin test for milk b/c we already know he's allergic. He would rather we just get some bloodwork done so that he can keep track of the number of antibodies. (That'll be a hoot.)

The allergist told us that 80% of children outgrow milk allergies. So we're still hopeful for that. However, only 20% of children outgrow peanut allergies, and that's only if they don't have a strong reaction to it. Since William had such a strong reaction from a small bite of peanut butter, he most likely will have peanuts as a life-long allergy. So no peanut butter or Reese's peanut butter cups forever. But I think we can live with that. =) We're not big peanut-ty people anyway. It's the milk that we're hoping that he'll outgrow.

William in the ER. Take 2.

Yesterday we decided to let William try one small bite of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich at around 4:30. Our pediatrician said it would be ok to try him on peanuts now. We knew he had a dairy allergy, but thought that was it (or so we hoped). Turns out he is highly allergic to peanuts as well. A few minutes after he ate it he started coughing and wheezing badly. We gave him some Benadryl and were hoping that would take care of it. He seemed ok after that for a little while.

Maybe 15-20 minutes later he started coughing more and started getting really itchy. We grabbed the Epipen and called our pediatrician. She said to bring him to the ER and give him the injection if he couldn’t breathe or couldn’t swallow his own saliva.

We rushed him over to Shady Grove and they started an Albuterol nebulizer right away. And by this point he had hives concentrated on his upper body, and there was even more swelling around his eyes. He was also having a lot of trouble breathing and his pulse-ox was dropping. They gave him an injection of epinephrine and put in an IV for some other meds as well.

He responded well and his breathing was getting back to normal within the hour. They kept him for observation for the next 5 hours and we finally got out at around 10:45. He did so well through it all. There was much grace. The medical staff was fantastic. We actually saw a doctor almost immediately (pretty rare). The two nurses and the resident were are also very helpful and kind. The last nurse was a little kooky, but in a good way. She told us a lot of helpful stuff that we really hadn't heard before, like if we give him an EpiPen injection, we need to call 911 because he has got to come in and get monitored ("That's the stuff they give to people when they go into asystolic cardiac arrest! It's serious - we need to keep an eye on you!") Also she echoed everyone else at the ER's stance that if there is ANY respiratory distress we need to give him the shot. "Benadryl ain't gonna do nothing! You need to give 'em that injection and call 911!"

As far as the treatment went, the nebulizer, even though he had one last November with the milk reaction, really freaked him out. That started a series of things that were rough on him. The Epi injection was the worst of it. It's a fairly sizable needle that had to go into his thigh. It was hard having to hold him down and watch him go through that. The IV wasn't much better... we had to keep him very still since obviously they were going into a little vein, not a big muscle like with the epi. It was a struggle to not burst out crying watching him go through that and seeing Amy's eyes begin to tear up as she held his other arm.

He handled it all so well. He said so many cute things throughout the whole ordeal... it is hard to remember them all. A couple that stuck out were:

- William, on the way to the hospital: (wheez) (wheez) Metro Bus..... (wheez) (wheez) Another (wheez) Metro Bus... (wheez) (wheez) (wheez) School Bus... (wheez) Two school bus... (wheez)

- Me at around 9:00pm : it's been a rough day, huh, William?
- William: yeah. it was very sad.

- Me: we need to change your diaper.
- William: yeah. there's no changing table in here. maybe dada-win'hum go home and 'change you' and come back to doctor's. (like most kids, he often speaks of himself in the second or third person)


The three of us got to spend some 'quality' time in the ER watching what seemed like never-ending Thomas the Train DVDs. (Literally, that was by far the most TV William has ever watched in his life.)


Thanks for praying for our little man and we'd appreciate continued prayer that the reaction doesn’t reoccur (as it can in some cases). He will be on steroids for four more days.

extraordinary mercy

Last Saturday, Bill and I had to call 911 because William's little face had blown up like a balloon, he had broken out into hives, and had a hard time breathing. He seemed to be having an allergic reaction, but to what, we didn't know. Bill went with William in the ambulance and I drove our car and met them at the hospital. It wasn't until I was in transit that I realized, with a horrible sinking feeling, that I had probaby given him regular milk instead of his soymilk. When I saw them take my little boy out of the ambulance, I prayed that God would have mercy on him despite my incredibly stupid mistake. I was relieved to see that he was just staring in amazement at everything and just wondering what was going on. After a couple of shots to clear his airway and bring down the swelling... and being observed for a while, we were finally able to leave the hospital with a tired and hungry little boy (he had missed his lunch & nap), but also with such grateful hearts. (The pic above was when we were on our way home from the hospital.  You can see that William's eyes and lips are still extremely swollen.)

Later that evening, Bill and I were recounting how God had shown us so much grace and mercy throughout the ordeal. The ambulance had arrived in about 5 minutes and the paramedics were able to assess the situation quickly (even though we didn't know at the time why William was seemingly having an allergic reaction) and administer the correct medicine to help him breathe better. They were also extremely kind and friendly, not just caring for William, but also making sure that I was ok with everything that was going on. When we took William outside to the ambulance, he was excited to see it and the fire truck parked right out in front of our house. (Just a cute sidenote: William always likes to go outside when he hears the garbage truck come. He'll just watch and point to the truck, saying "Ka ka, ka ka" over and over again. And after it circles around our court, he waves as it goes by. And usually, the garbage men will honk the horn when they see him.) He kept pointing to the ambulance and fire truck and saying, "Ka ka, ka ka!" (That means car/truck/etc. He doesn't know how to say truck or ambulance yet.) Bill said that the only time he cried was when the paramedics gave him a nebulizer and a shot. Otherwise, he was content riding in the ambulance, listening to the siren, and looking at all the stuff in the ambulance that the paramedics were kindly showing him. Bill asked him where he was and William said, "Ka ka" and made siren noises. At the hospital, we were able to tell the doc that he was having an allergic reaction to milk. So they gave him another shot to reduce the swelling. After observing him for a while, his swelling had gone down, and we were able to take him home with instructions on how to care for him at home.

That evening, as I prayed over William while he slept, all I could do was thank God for being so merciful despite my stupid mistake. I felt so guilty that I had made my little boy walk through something life-threatening because I hadn't been more careful. It was all very humbling. I always thought it would be someone else who would end up giving him milk by accident, but no, it was me. All I could think of was Lamentations 3:22-23...

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;

his mercies never come to an end;

they are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.

I am just ever so grateful that there is Someone else in control, handling everything even when we make stupid mistakes and do things we didn't mean to... able to make right any situation we may have messed up on or wish we had done differently. I could not thank God enough that my mistake did not cost William his life. And yet, in that instant, I thought about Luke 12:4-5...

“I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!"

At that moment, I realized that though God had saved William's physical life, his little soul was not yet saved. And I just thanked God for allowing him to live, not just for the sake of living, but to have an opportunity to someday trust in the saving work of Jesus Christ for his sins. I thanked God that it was not yet William's time to leave this world and that God has a sovereign plan for William... that if William will someday put his faith in Christ for the forgiveness of his sins, God has a sovereign plan that will prosper William and give him a hope and a future. He will withhold no good thing from William. And nothing can thwart this sovereign plan, not even big, stupid mistakes I make or the little ones. The Lord will be faithful to William in spite of the mistakes that I make with him. Not that this releases me from my responsibility in how I train, raise, and care for William. I will someday be accountable for all those things. But we all know as parents, that though we do the best we can, it still is not enough. We will make mistakes and sin against our children even with our best of intentions. We ourselves are still only sinners after all. And we can only be imperfect reflections of the gospel to our children. But thank God for His amazing grace... that despite our shabby reflections of the gospel, He somehow chooses to use those seeds of faithfulness to make the seeds we plant grow. And as we strive to be faithful, God will show Himself faithful to our children.

I was debating whether to share this publicly, partly because I struggled with embarrassment and shame from what I had done. But then I asked myself why I was focusing so much on me, as I am so prone to do? Why not give glory where glory is due? Instead of giving in to fear of man and self-pity, I thought it crucial and necessary to highlight God's awesome faithfulness, kindness, and mercy to our family. How grateful Bill and I are that our God is a God who is sovereign over ALL circumstances in life.

“Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit,

‘Why did the Gentiles rage,

and the peoples plot in vain?

The kings of the earth set themselves,

and the rulers were gathered together,
against the Lord and against his Anointed’ —

for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

Acts 4:24-30

random update

Here are some random updates that I've neglected to share about our monkey...

We took William to the allergist a couple months ago to get a skin test for his milk allergy... just to see if it had intensified or minimized at all. His skin definitely puffed up right away. So he definitely still is allergic to milk. To find out more definitively how severe his milk allergy is, we took him to get some bloodwork done last week. We just found out that that his allergy is registering at 11 point something. Last year, it was 15 point something. So it has gone down slightly, but it's still considered very high. At least we know our baby boy is still highly allergic to milk. However, it's definitely a possibility that he still can grow out of it. Only time will tell.

Speaking of docs... About a month ago, we took William to see the opthamologist. The pediatrician recommended getting his eyes checked out since there's a family history of strabismus. Fortunately, his eyes look fine, but the doc said he may need to get glasses at an early age. She said that most babies are born far-sighted (didn't know that!). Slowly, as children age, their vision balances out before it tips over to become near-sighted. So for William, the doc said that it seems that his vision is already close to being balanced and that it won't be long before it tips over into near-sightedness. How she figured this all out just by dilating and shining a light into his eyes, I will never know. But I guess that's why she gets paid the big bucks instead of me. Anyway, so it's a good possibility that he will need glasses at an early age, but it's still hard to tell. So she wants to see William when he's 3 to examine his eyes again. I just had this funny thought of William wearing those glasses when he's around 4 or 5 that make his eyes look really big. Not ideal of course, but cute. We're just thankful that his issue can be easily corrected with glasses and that nothing major was going on. We can handle glasses. =)

William has a molar coming in on the top right side. That makes 9 teeth now!

Last Sunday was the last time he took the bottle. He was only getting it first thing in the morning, but I was holding on to that for as long as I could. He uses sippy cups now for all his liquids. Bill had to feed him that morning, for some reason, and just decided to make the switch, much to my dismay. =( So all things baby are now officially gone, except for the diapers and his crib. I'm definitely not holding on to the diapers... but I'm also not looking forward to potty training. Fortunately, getting rid of either one is still a while away.

Last Sunday was also the first time William stayed in Discovery Land (our church's children's ministry) the whole time. We were told that he had to sit on someone's lap for pretty much the entire time, but other than that, he was fine. So at least he's improving. This has been our 3rd try putting him in there so that Bill and I can start attending church again together. We had issues before with trying to work around his nap and meal schedules. Hopefully, this will work and he will learn to enjoy his time in the classroom with the other children.

Time sure is whizzing by!

one-year update

We took William for his 12-month check-up with the pediatrician. He is 21 lbs (25th percentile) and 30 inches in length (75th percentile). Yea for his height! That's half my height already! =) The doc said he is hitting all his developmental milestones and is the picture of health. I was a bit concerned about his weight since he's in the lower percentile, but she said he was perfectly fine and that his weight gain was in accordance with how he has been growing since birth. She said he was just slim and that that was good. He's at an age where he will eat what he needs, no more and no less. Bill had asked about him being a slow eater, and the doc said at this age, children like to dine, not eat. I thought that was funny. She said we should start switching to soy milk and get rid of his bottles. So pretty much all things baby will soon be gone. =(

She gave us some encouraging news about William's milk allergy. She didn't fully buy the fact that he's allergic to milk. She said when it comes to allergies, there are a lot of false positives and false negatives. It was odd that since William has such a severe allergy (according to his bloodwork) that he didn't show signs of it until he was 8 months old (when he broke out into hives). So she said we should just continue to follow-up with the allergist, but that we could also just try challenging his body by giving him some milk to see how he does... and have some Benadryl on hand in case he has an allergic reaction. Sounds a little scary... so I don't know if we'll be trying that. We'll probably just take him to the allergist and dialogue with him about what the pediatrician said, as well as get bloodwork done again this summer. We'll see...

I also asked the pediatrician if I could start using the same laundry detergent for his clothing now. She asked if I had been using a different detergent for him all year. I said yes, and she called me a sucker. =) I thought that was funny, too. She said there's no reason to use a different detergent for him unless he is clearly showing a reaction to it. It's more of a marketing scheme to dupe naive mothers. Doh! In my defense, I said it's because I'm a first-time mom. So enough said... =)

allergy update #3

The nurse from William's allergist called to give us the results from his bloodwork. Apparently, his allergy to milk is quite severe. =( The bloodwork indicated that he is 15.9 positive for a milk allergy, and the nurse said that anything over a 5 usually indicates a life-long allergy. However, it's still possible that he may grow out of it. So he'll be re-tested in a year. In the meantime, the nurse stressed, obviously, that we should make sure he doesn't get any milk in his diet.

My mind automatically thought about all the things he wouldn't be able to eat... like ice cream, chocolate, cake, frosting, cream cheese, pudding, etc. And it made me so sad to think that he may never experience these things! But then the Holy Spirit, thankfully, pulled me back to reality and truth: that there will be grace for this. And God will give William grace for this. Whatever changes we will need to make in our family, God will provide the means and resources. He doesn't call us to walk through things that He doesn't provide grace for. So we are walking in faith for our little guy that God has His best planned for him.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Jeremiah 29:11

May William (and his parents!) put his hope in the Lord and not in anything this world may have to offer.

allergy update #2

Bill and I took William to the allergist this morning. We both really liked him a lot. The doc tested him for food allergies since that's most commonly what babies have issues with. William was tested for soy, wheat, milk, and egg. It was the neatest thing! We thought he'd have to get shots, but all they did was dab his back with different liquids. Depending on the liquid his skin reacted to, it would indicate an allergy. Needless to say, we were thankful that the process was so painless! But we discovered that he has a mild milk allergy. So the doc wants to send us to get some bloodwork done to see how severe the allergy is. In the meantime, we have to cut all milk out of his diet, as well as change him onto a soy or hypoallergenic formula. =( We're going to try the soy first since the hypoallergenic formula is so expensive. It's not a big deal now since he's still on baby foods, but he'll have to do this eventually when he moves on to table foods... probably for the first few years of his life. The doc said not to worry as 80%-90% of babies outgrow their food allergies after they're a few years old. But for now, William will have to do without milk for the interim. That means no ice cream for a long while... =(

pre-vacation scare

William broke out into hives as we were getting ready to leave for a long weekend in Ocean City with Bill's family. Perfect timing! =) Of course, we freaked out and called the doc right away. We spoke to an awesome nurse there named Janice and she said to give him Benadryl right away and he should be ok. It would also be all right for us to continue on our trip (since it's only for the long weekend), but that it was important we schedule an appointment with an allergist asap. The nurse said that because his eye and other parts of his face swelled up, it was a pretty severe allergic reaction to something. Nothing new, as far as we know, has been introduced to William, so she said it was important to find out soon what caused the allergic reaction, as the next one could be more serious. We have an appointment this Tuesday morning, but William has to be antihistimine-free for 3 days prior... I guess so they can do testing on him. Any prayer you would offer up for him and us would be so appreciated. We will keep you updated as things progress.

happy 7 months, flyboy!

Wow... William gets to spend his 7-month birthday on the west coast! He did an absolutely extraordinary job on the plane!!! Or rather, God did an amazing work in him on the plane. =) He konked out as the plane took off for about 45 minutes. Then fell asleep right before we landed for 30 mintues. But he was up the rest of the 5 hours and did wonderfully. He was just content to babble and play with his toys while sitting on Bill's lap. He got a little fussy both times before he fell asleep, but it didn't last long. A couple of people commented about how well he was doing on the plane, as well. So we are very proud of our little boy and God's amazing grace and mercy that was evidently at work in him. =) We are totally in shock over how well the plane trip went.

Other William news: Not much new, but William is sitting up more on his own and talking more. It brightens my day whenever I hear his voice. =) Now that he has been rolling over, he has discovered that he likes to sleep on his side. Often, we will find him sleeping on his side or stomach now. He is also developing tastes for certain foods and dislikes, as well. =) We still haven't introduced new foods to him yet because of the allergy issue, which btw, is no longer an issue anymore. The designer formula wasn't making much of a difference and his skin is clearing right up... for the most part. The doc gave us some prescription-strength medicine to deal with his eczema. So it would seem that everything is ok with him. =) (Thank you to all who had been remembering him in prayer regarding his possible allergies.) We'll be introducing new foods soon since he's lagging behind in that area. =) But his favorite food now is green beans and least liked food is carrots. He also doesn't really like the prunes as much as he used to, but that's the only food I force him to eat since it helps so much with his constipation. The only other thing to report is that he's been starting to wake up in the middle of the night for about a week now. He may be teething of going through a growth spurt. Who knows? Babies are always changing and going through something different. As my friend Esther says, it keeps you on your toes and makes you trust in God more. =)

allergy update

Well, William's eczema has gotten better, but we wouldn't say it's been a significant change. It still flares up regularly, and we have to use hydrocortisone. However, there is a marked improvement in his constipation. =) But we're not sure if it's because of the prunes or the hypoallergenic formula.

It was time to call his pediatrician and I spoke to the nurse this morning. She wasn't very helpful, but said we could put him back on the original formula and see if his complexion stays the same and to see if his poop is still going strong. If there's little to no change, then he probably doesn't have a food allergy, and we may have to see the dermatologist for his eczema. If everything gets worse again, then I guess we know more definitively that it's a food allergy and we'll have to start over and try him on different formulas.

So for now, we're back on the original formula and waiting a couple more weeks to see what happens.

allergies?

William went to see the pediatrician for his 6-month check-up. He had his shots and started crying as soon as he saw the nurse (poor baby)... then went hysterical when she had to do the deeds (he had to have multiple shots and an oral vaccine). He's starting to become afraid of strangers, so that didn't help matters either.

Praise-God news: William is now 16 pounds 8 ounces (25-50 percentile) and 26.25 inches long (50 percentile). The doc said he's gaining weight and growing beautifully. That's all we wanted to hear! =)

Need-prayer news: We talked to the doc about William's constipation. After she examined him, she said that he had a moderate case of eczema. She went on to explain that the eczema coupled with the constipation could be a possible indication of some kind of food allergy(s). She said his body may be having difficulty breaking down certain proteins/amino acids. In order to figure that out for sure, we'll have to change him to a "designer" (hypoallergenic) formula for a few weeks and have him eat prunes (to help with the constipation). (It's called a designer formula because it's ridiculously expensive.) Anyway, with the exception of the prunes, there will be no more introductions to new foods. So much for the fruits... prunes will have to do for now. =) I'll also have to stop eating dairy products until he's fully weaned. The doc said to watch his skin complexion and poo. If there is little to no change, then he probably doesn't have any allergies, and the eczema and constipation can be treated as separate conditions. But if there is a marked improvement in his skin complexion and poo consistency, then there probably is an allergy(s) present, and we'll have to go back to the beginning and start with different kinds of formula to try and figure out exactly what he's allergic to. Hopefully, it won't go so far as having him go in for allergy testing. Doc said all the needles are sometimes painful.

We are trusting in how God created William, as well as His will for William. The Lord already has ordained the all the days of his life and what he will walk through. Of course, we're hoping that these are just separate cases of eczema and constipation to work through, but if our baby does indeed have allergies, pray that we will find out what they are quickly so that we know how we can best care for him, as well as help him to walk through what God has for him... knowing that this is all for his good, to the glory of God.