Health issues, time, stress and babies.

Between allergies, eczema, head issues, growth issues, ankle issues, eating issues, sensory issues, low iron and vitamin D, reflux and now a heart issue, a pead, a monthly health nurse, a dietitian, an allergy specialist, physio therapist, occupational therapist, blood tests and a speech pathologist, sometimes I feel like life is a bit hectic and overwhelming! How can I deal with all this if we have another baby? Where will the baby fit in? What if the next baby has health issues too?! I already feel so run off my feet sometimes trying to keep up with everything, and already had to put of studying uni as we have so many appointments. I just didn't have the time to keep up with uni and I would have had to take too many classes off for his appointments.

So here we were again, at another appointment, hearing the words 'I'm just a bit concerned about...' this time they needed to call the head pediatrician after the register had a listen to his heart. They found a murmur in his heart. We have another appointment in a few weeks time to see about it again and an ultrasound.

I know everything is mild, and nothing is life threatening or anything, we are so incredibly blessed about that. That's what I hold on to all time, there is always someone more worse off, right? But I think the hardest thing is the unknown of the future,.... I think? And the unknown in general. I don't know all this doctor words, I don't know how to deal with all these sensory issues.. like seriously, how do I deal with a child having a melt down in the car because he wants his top off? With him deciding to stop talking and sleeping because we were packing up the house?

And his head, stressing about all the shrinking going up on there, seriously?! A shrinking head?? Only my son! Goodness me.

Intolerance's and allergies, wow, that's a bit of a list too!
His rolled in ankle.
His hips.
His knees.
His weight loss.
His lack of eating.
And now his heart?

Where was the warning that my sons whole body would seem like a pin cushion? That for his first birthday he would have 6 tests on his poor body. That every few months we have to hold him tight while he screams for a blood test? That people won't understand why he can be upset by the way something feels or I'm that mean mummy who won't let my child eat someones birthday cake. That every time he stops talking you're worried that his skull has pressure on his brain. Ugh! It can be SO hard.

Those that have a child with a few health issues, how do you have time for number 2? How would I cope if I had two children with health issues?

Party prepping for a child with allergies.

My son has a lot of friends around his age which for the lucky little man mean a fair few birthday parties! He just attended his sixth birthday party for this year already! With all his intolerance's and his allergy that was tested last week, birthday parties can be fairly tricky! And my poor son has to of course miss out on the birthday cake, and sometimes he can't have any snacks to. So the last two parties I decided that after asking the host's, we will bring some party snacks ourselves for Jydan and a little cupcake or something when everyone is having cake. I have the most delicious allergy free cake recipe I will share.

Gluten, Dairy & Egg free chocolate covered biscuits, banana chips & Dairy & Gluten free Fairy bread.


But what I didn't think about is the party bags! Full of egg lollies, left him with a couple of jelly lollies and a balloon. Not that we make a habit of giving him lollies anyway, but it just made me realise that I have to organise some lolly bag treats to swap over!

How egg aware are you? Did you know all these, but the oreo's that he couldn't have anyway, contain egg?

Next one of Jydan's friends parties, I will have a little goodie bag of allergy friendly treats.

Here are some ideas of what you can put in your allergy child's take with you goodie bag;
-Organic Popcorn.
-Banana Chips.
-Allergy Friendly Cookies.
-Organic Honey Lollipops.
-Allergy Free Muesli Bars
-Allergy Free Truffles.
-Rice Cakes.
-Balloons.
-Play-Doh.
-Stickers.
-Crayons.

Do you have anymore ideas on what we can add?

Research is finding too, those with dairy intolerance's are often intolerant to glucose as well, something to look out for!

Jydan - 18 Months.

Age: 18Months

Weight: 10.22 Kilos (22.5 pounds)

Height: 80.5 cm

Learning:

 -Body parts

-New words and having conversations.
 -To climb (but not a climber)

-To use a fork

-Learning animals & animal sounds (favourite is 'quack quack', loves a rawing lion, an elephant, fffffffish, snakes & butterflies )
-Nursery Rhymes. (Row Row, Humpty Dumpty, Little Teapot & I'm trying to teach him Heads & Shoulders)

-Learning to share.

-To climb.

Milestones: 

-Some three word sentence (Gonna call mum, there you go, Dad's at work, no not gonna, I want more, thank you mum, no don't want, I love you)

-New words all the time.

-Body parts (Head, hair, nose, teeth, tongue, hands, belly button, feet)
 -Eating much better.

-Become more playful/ using imagination. 

-Recognising animals.

-Getting better with sharing.

Teeth: 
Jydan has 16 teeth!! He got 5 teeth in the last month. Just his two year old molars left!

Favourite Word/Sentences: 

-More. -Ta. -Chun in ton (chugginton) - varrhhuum (Vacuum)

Favourite Book: 

Any animal book at the moment, he is loving learning about animals. And photo albums, pointing out all the people he knows.

Favourite Toy:

Anything chuggington!! Especially the DVD's. The vacuum is still a favourite toy too.

Favourite Food: 

Jydan is really love banana chips at the moment! Loves his nana chippies!!

Best Memory Of This Month:

Easter!! We had such a fun filled day, you can see my post here. Also Mothers Day was such an amazing day!! I felt so blessed.

Child Health Nurse Appointment:

The child health nurse is really impressed with the way Jydan listens and follows instructions. I asked him to put the toys in the box and then get in the pram, and he did exactly as follow. He also understood what was going on and when I said 'come look here Jydan, I found a lion'. I am pretty impressed myself!

Jydan has only gained 100grams in the last 6 weeks, but he did have a pretty bad bout of gastro, so we didn't expect him to gain much though. Hopefully he makes it up soon.

Doctors Appointment:
We had his immunisations at the doctors, because of his allergies we now have to get them done with the doctor if he has a reaction with some vaccines that egg may be present with. Jydan went really well with his immunisations, he just had a little jump as they went in, didn't even have a grizzle. He has a very high pain threshold!! 
We now have to see an allergy specialist doctor monthly too. Jydan had an allergy test this week and it showed up he is definitely allergic to egg. However we need to find exactly what he is intolerant too as he has always had bowel, tummy and eczema issues.  

Paediatrician Appointment:
 At the start of next month.

Dietitian Appointment:
Will find out if Jydan needs to continue seeing a dietitian at his peeds appointment since he is actually eating well now.

Speech Therapy Appointment:
Missed a call that I need to follow up.

Occupational Therapy Appointment:
 Waiting for an appointment.

Phyio Therapy: 

Wasn't able to make this months appointment, as they wanted the session to be without Jydan!! I can't get him looked after through the day. 

Home Physio: 

Continuing to help Jydan sit correctly, I have just bought him some boots to wear to try and help correct his ankles.

Jydan is using his imagination so much now, it's absolutely adorable, giving me pretend things, pretending to vacuum, pretending to eat. He is really starting to want to play 'games' too, handing me a ball or something he wants to play with as a game. He has also started to climb and try to climb, it's all fun and games everywhere right now.

After not sleeping through the night for a couple of months now he has gone back to sleep through... well 2 out of 3 nights he will. After getting five teeth though without many dramas, I don't blame him at all!!

I always hoped for an affectionate child that loves to cuddle.. and that's definitely Jydan!! He loves to cuddle & kiss. He snuggles after his nap and cuddles and kiss whenever he can. I love how he loves. His heart is full of love. It definitely makes up for all his tantrums of late (hehe). I have never seen a child that's so affectionate. Oh how I adore it!!

The poor little man and a bout of gastro this month which meant we went backwards in toilet training and I haven't had the chance to try again. It's on the agenda to get back into it soon though! I'm sure being the clever little man he is, he will pick it up again.

I think he is at THE best age right now! He is so fun at the moment, makes my life really really fun! It's actually, aside from the tantrums and trying to balance my business and attention for him, life with him is actually pretty easy at the moment. He can be such a calmer in my life (most of the time). 

Allergies - 18 Months.

I am mainly writing this post so I have a record of how all his allergy and intolerance's are going.

I have been needing to get Jydan allergy tested for a while now, but for a few reasons I have put it off. . His age & I was also hoping that I was just being an over cautious Mum, and he wasn't really allergic to anything. After reacting three times to egg in the last year we cut it completely out of his diet & the house anyway.

Today was testing day, and my little man did extremely well. He coped with it all fabulously, besides wanting to scratch his arm so badly and being there for two hours!! Besides, he loved being the center of the nurse's attention.

They placed a stamp on his arm so they can record what he was allergic to, tested him with eleven allergens and against histamine. They did a little prick on each allergen so they went into his skin and we waited 15 minutes to see what came up. Within a minute you could tell he was allergic to egg and within 4 minutes where they tested for egg was red with hives. Luckily though it wasn't a severe reaction and he doesn't need an epi-pen. We have to go back in six month to retest eggs & see how it goes again.

He only reacted to egg, and not dairy, berries and wheat, which means dairy, berries & wheat are just an intolerance, which is great! But he still can't have them. Especially dairy (we are finding he has mostly grown out of the berry intolerance and is growing out of the wheat intolerance. Dairy seems just as bad, if not worse).

We spoke to the specialist doctor afterwards and got the low-down on egg allergies and reassured again that he doesn't have a severe allergy, however, he does have an egg allergy. He has an action plan for us to keep and give to those who look after him. She also wants to see him back in a month to see how his eczema & bowels are going. She isn't happy with how either are going.

I am so grateful that it isn't epi-pen seriousness and that the other things he has trouble with are just intolerance's, but sad that he has this allergy! We are hopeful that he will grow out of it.

Eczema & Hazelwood.

I have been struggling with my son's eczema for a year now. Sometimes it's excruciating for him, other times it's mild. But It's always there. Usually our routine is putting a steroid or charcoal cream on his eczema three times a day. When it's really bad, our list of things we put on him and bathe him in is endless! He is on a special diet to try and stop his eczema from flaring up. No wheat, grains or berries. He can't have dairy & egg due to allergies anyway. Food is pretty boring for this little guy (it's amazing what's out there though!).


I was at my WITS end! We had tried everything! Every product available! From the chemist, supermarket.. you name it, we've tried it!

I was looking into laser for his eczema, which seems really effective and great! But only wanted to do that as a last resort..
So I thought why not give a hazelwood necklace a go? After paying for it & postage it was about $30AUS but I figured I spend more then that a fortnight on eczema products anyway, so why not? If it doesn't work on him, it's super cute!
When Jydan was very first diagnosed with eczema someone suggested the hazelwood to me... I thought 'oh yeah.. right. As if that would work!' .. and never looked into it again. But I had tried EVERY.THING!

The necklace arrived a few days after I ordered it & I thought it was way adorable. I got to choose what style I wanted ect & it was exactly what I had chosen. The research I had done said it takes about two weeks of wearing for their to be any noticeable difference.
The first few days we still had to use all his creams. He only had mild eczema but it was on his belly and legs, we still mainly kept wheat out of his diet, except half a slice of toast in the mornings. I wasn't overly strict about him wearing the necklace 24/7. Somedays I forgot to put it on him, others he kicked it off at night (we wrap it around his ankle at night).

First day wearing the necklace, some eczema on his belly, back and legs, very dry skin, but clothes are covering.
 

Fifth day of wearing the necklace, mild spots on face, skin alot healthier though. Sporting a purple ribbon for crainio awareness.

All of a sudden, after about a week he didn't have ANY eczema! None! Without using creams. He ALWAYS has some, even if it's mild. He was completely clear and it had only been a week.
We stopped putting his creams on him and just moisturised him with sorbolene cream (even with the sorbolene cream, we've been able to be more slack with). He hasn't been itchy, he hasn't scratched, he hasn't been irritated, he is even sleeping through the day sooo much better!
I thought, well, why not introduce more wheat into his diet? It's not like he's intolerant to wheat, grains & berries.. it's just flares up his eczema. He has NO reactions with wheat anymore.. no matter how much he eats! Before, half a slice of toast was his limit, even that, was probably too much.. now his body can handle it all.

Less then two weeks... completely clear!!

Happy little man!

Yes it's still early days, so I'll continue to keep you updated on how it continues to go, but for my little man to be able to handle all sorts of wheat with no need to use any creams is pretty great!

So, a little bit about how the hazelwood works.
Hazelwood is classed as medical therapeutic jewelry, as well as Amber.
The ends of twigs from a particular plant, an alkaline, are harvested which alow the plant to completely grow back, it's also untreated, which makes hazelwood jewellery 100% natural.
One thing I was also unsure about it is getting it wet. However, because hazelwood is from an absorbing plant, getting it wet actually helps it absorb better. It's good to get it wet often! But not in chlorine.
Hazelwood draws excess acid from the skin and neutralises the body's acidity in the body and skin. Because my son had/has reflux also, I knew that having too much acid in his body would highly be possible.  Too much acid can stop the body absorbing other minerals, which is interesting since my son also has lacked in iron & vitamin D.
Hazelwood jewellery is known to work for approximately 6-12months , depending on how much acid is in the skin. You will be able to tell if the jewellery needs replacing as the ends that are cream, will turn brown. Eczema symptoms will also return (or reflux symptoms, or whatever else you choose to use the hazelwood for). Progressive jewellery should last longer and longer.

Hazelwood can be used for so many more things, and it will be our first point of call from now on.
We buy our hazelwood from www.allaboutamber.com.au ... take a look!!

Food is a scary thought!

I can't help but be incredibly scared when we try new foods, lucky most of the time food that don't agree with Jydan just cause a rash, but still, you don't want you little bub filled with an itchy rash.
I wasn't one of those mums that were orginally scared of feeding their baby, and I wasn't one of those mums that camped outside a hospital when they introduced new foods to their child encase of a reaction.. I really had no worries about food... until I realised how food effects my little boy!

My son has quite a few food intolerance and allergies which is something I didn't really think about when having a child. I know lactose intolerance may be a possibly but not his handful of other ones. Lactose intolerance runs in my family, so we figured it may get passed down from me.

At six weeks old, when we went for Jydan's six week check at the doctors, the doctors thought he was lactose intolerant, by his symptoms, his poos ect. She couldn't actually say yes or no without us getting him tested but it definitely seemed that way. Cutting out dairy from my own diet (I was breastfeeding and still am) confirmed that he was lactose intolerant. There's still a huge variety of foods he can have and alot of cheese's don't contain lactose. We have just started supplementing some breastfeeds with soy formula and will move on to goats milk when the time comes.
He seems fine on the soy formula, which is heaps different when I tried him on formula, that wasn't dairy free, when he was a few weeks old. He ended up vomiting non stop for hours with about 5 runny poops. All I wanted was him to sleep for a little bit - that was a complete fail!! Poor thing, I know now I was poisoning his little system.
I won't introduce lactose to him for a while yet, I can tell from when I do eat dairy and his stomach gurgling, that it does still react with him.

I also have horribly sensitive skin and eczema so we made allowances if our son was to have sensitive skin too and started with sensitive products and used essential oils instead of wash's ect. However, his skin is worse then we ever imagined! Plants, grass, soap, wipes, oils, shampoo's, creams, sticky tape, wool.. Eggs, wheat, grains, dairy, berries.. it's really insane.
I've wrote about baby eczema a few months ago that you can read here. what were using to help prevent and get rid of the eczema on extremely sensitive skin.
With alot of creams and washes and wheat, grains and berries they can really play up Jydan's eczema. That's why we avoid them. We were told to avoid quite a list full of foods but decided to try them out anyway.  Gluten and berries do in fact make him break out. Wheat rusks tend to be the worst. Rice is fine. Although, now my son is 13 months we are able to give him some wheat without a reaction, more then a slice of bread a day or so does still cause an eczema reaction. This tells us that he should grow out of it by two - yeey!! Berries we have not tried to reintroduce yet.

Jydan's eczema also started before he was even having solids so we knew that it was environmental as well. The washes we were using, although sensitive, still contained ingredient that his skin didn't like. and the avocado, apricot, coconut and jajoba oil we were using on his skin and hair contained plants and such that his skin also didn't like.
It took AGES to find a moisturiser and wash that works for him.

His first egg reaction - note the red swollen face.

My son also has low iron and vitamin D so at about 8 months we thought it was a fantastic to help boost some iron with egg! Well that was a miserable scary fail and he's allergic to egg! (face swelling and red!).. We've tried it a couple of times since accidentally and yep, definitely allergic! I had a croissant the other day and didn't even think it may contain egg.. until about ten minutes later his face went red and swelled! So definitely no egg to up his iron! I think egg is the worst of his allergies, and each reaction seemed to have got worse. We supplement egg by using rice flour and golden syrup, or olive oil. Which made such a delicious birthday cake!!

WATERMELON!

After battling with foods we also battle with eating in general. It seems to Jydan that food is a scary thought for him too! Jydan doesn't like food. It's not really his thing apparently! We are lucky if he eats two meals a day, and thats breakfast and dinner. If he doesn't want to eat he will more or less just play with the food. He is really fussy about foods and will only eat foods he can feed himself aswell.He also hates the spoon, which we've found out is because of an association to reflux. If he was given grapes, watermelon and bananas all day though he would eat!! But considering he has lost weight about 4 months in a row, about 100 grams (about 0.22 pounds) a month, he needs to have something a bit more fatty then watered fruits!
We now go to see a speech pathologist to help with his eating. We've seen them once and they were really really helpful! I was blown away, and are going back probably monthly to keep an eye on his eating progress. They just gave us a few tips on how to encourage him eating, and to not stress about food because then it makes food stressful. We want food to be fun and enjoyable so he will eat. He just doesn't seem to have an appetite at all!
We also see a dietitian that we talk to about the weight side of things, how to increase fat contents and that sort of thing. So hopefully with the help of encouraging him to eat and increasing fats we will have a baby that will start to put on weight!!

It seems like it's all a never ending cycle!! Here's to the end of allergies and the start of eating! I think with our next child I will be much more cautious about food, knowing that it runs in our little family now. I'll definitely be a bit more wearier about introducing foods, thats for sure!