Sunday, March 4, 2012

Hooray for being average!

We're celebrating at the moment - just did a measure and weigh and our son is officially in the 40th percentile for height and also in the 40th percentile in weight... that means he's totally average in build! Hip Hip Hooray!

Before we knew about our son's multiple food allergies, we already had to go for monthly weigh-ins with the nurse because our little tacker just wasn't putting on weight. Once we found out about his anaphylaxis, our whole approach changed, but he was already in the 3rd percentile for weight, while being 40th percentile in height. That meant he was super super skinny. Everything thing our son ate was carefully considered - not just from an allergy sense, but based on calories, digestability, fibre, glucose/fructose levels... ugh... I still think about that stuff, but there's now a lot more freedom and a lot less pressure. If you're interested in how we managed to finally stack on the weight, check out Weight Gain 2010.

Our son has just turned 3, and after being anaphylactic to eight of the nine most common food allergies, he is now only anaphylactic to three. In real terms, that meant that he was actually allergic to all sorts of foods like tomatoes, peas, onions, oranges, stone fruit, just to name a few. And that didn't even include all the basics of egg, milk, wheat, oat, shellfish, peanuts, tree nuts and sesame. But I'm now trying to readjust my way of thinking based on his anaphylaxis to just three of those foods. I've realised that I probably don't need to worry so much if he touches a shell at the beach now, and he can probably finally dip his hands into those touch and feel ponds at aquariums that can have prawns swimming in there. All these little things that others would take for granted have been up till now a cause of panic and prohibition. Now, I'd probably be very watchful, make sure I have my antihistimine medication ready and just clean his hands soon after. Haha, for non-allergy mums, you probably think I'm still being neurotic, but such is the life of an allergy mum.

I have gained confidence though - our son can now officially and safely eat fresh peaches, nectarines, plums, and even lychees after our food trials in the first couple of months of 2012. That is quite an accomplishment, not to mention the excitement for our not so little guy. But, as with all things, we have also recently had a setback. A couple of days of barramundi (a white flesh fish) have apparently led to about a week of very messy, very smelly, digestive problems. ie. diarrhea. Yuck! I'm just glad he's still in a toddler bed so that the sheets are smaller to wash.

Oh dear, that's not a very nice note to end on... My next post will be all about birthday parties and the like, and there's a lot of good progress on that front too! So, if your child has life-threatening food allergies, take heart, things change over time, and if not, then we change - hopefully for the better, for the stronger, and for the bigger where our children are concerned :-)

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