*Delilahs food issues are still issues* WARNING:graphic poop pictures!!

Since we did allergy testing last March we were told to do some food trials. As of today her "Safe" and "Fail" foods are as follows:
SAFE:
Apples (organic) gala or fuji
Pears
Peaches
Grapes (prefers red over green)
Celery
Strawberries
Blueberries
Raspberries
Pineapple
Apricots
Cucumbers
Rold Gold Pretzels
Healthy Times Apple Puffs
Healthy Times Teething Biscuits
Annie's Organic Honey Grahams
Annie's Organic Strawberry Fruit Snacks
Fruit Leather (organic)
Neocate Nutra (used as her rice cereal)
Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese
Earths Balance Dairy/Soy Free Butter
Trix
Kix
Coconut Oil (used for baking and as a good lotion for her eczema)
Chicken (but she hates it)
Neocate
Apple Juice
Orange Juice





Fails:
Rice Cereal (all brands)
White Rice
White Potatoes
Zucchini
Sweet Potatoes
Potato Flakes (as an ingredient in foods)
Soy (even soy oils)
Dairy (every kind including Whey, Casein, lactulose, etc)
Lactose
Green Beans
Peas
Carrots
Turkey
Bananas
Nutramigen Formula
Enfamil Formula
Butter


Looking at this list it appears there are many more foods she CAN eat as opposed to NOT eat although you have to look closely at what she cannot eat...DAIRY, SOY, BANANAS (including flavorings), POTATOES, etc...those are ingredients that are in most everything in some form. Shopping for her takes me a good hour to get maybe 10 things just because I have to read EVERY SINGLE LABEL! Now I'm used to it and can spot "hidden" ingredients easier like casein for dairy, etc but its taken me months to get to this point. I literally cannot go shopping with her by myself so I usually plan her shopping when I can drop her off at my moms or grandmas or when someone can come with me. I had never shopped at Whole Foods and Good Earth (except for vitamins and supplements) before my little allergy child came along but now I'm getting good at knowing where things are and what she can have from each store :) You never think when you have a child that you may have to deal with this. You think there may be a possibility of a peanut allergy but that's about it. You also never think you will have to deal with blue spells and severe reflux either though! Each month she gets another month older it reminds me of where I was this time last year.....

This time last year we had just gotten her reflux diagnosis but the doctors still didn't believe us that it was truly a big issue. We had also been using the apnea monitor for 2 months now and it was starting to reveal to us that she was allergic to latex and adhesives as she was getting horrible blisters from it.

We were still on the Nestle Good Start Formula and Delilah was still having horrible green mucusy stools that we kept being told are her "normal". But I'm sorry what i saw daily (below) is obviously NOT normal and if your child has stools like this PLEASE CONTACT ME! This is the reason I am posting this...not to gross people out...but to let moms see what a allergic intolerance poop looks like. This poop is from her having normal dairy based formula. Ive talked in my blog before about her poops and how gross they were but I thought it was about time to actually post what they looked like and what they are not supposed to look like!

We were seeing Dr Pieffer who is a pulmonologist and she was on Previcid Solutabs (for reflux), QVAR (for aspiration and lung inf prevention), and Erythromyicin for (Delayed Gastric Emptying, which she didn't have). I was so fed up with all the doctors not listening to me and Scott and my Postpartum Depression was getting worse by the day. Delilah was still sleeping through the night but her apnea monitor would go off about 6 times per night which meant that she stopped breathing for >20 sec per time it went off. I felt as though we would NEVER get any answers and things would never get better. I kept being persistent about looking into other treatments, meds and formulas and by the end of August we finally got her on Neocate and Zegerid which made all the difference. I had a completely different child. I actually enjoyed her and I think she enjoyed life more too.

Just thinking back on all of that brings back so many feelings of hopelessness and feeling lost. I am so thankful that Scott felt that I knew what was best and followed my sometimes strange ideas of treatment. Like putting her on a formula her doctors kept telling me NOT to try and getting on a medication that was NOT labeled for use in pediatric patients. We had to have faith in ourselves that we were making the best decisions for our little girl because at the time we felt the medical community was not making those right decisions.

As of now Delilah is a thriving 17 month old who is still wearing cloth diapers, running around, loves to dance and sing, plays with her 2 dogs all day long and keeps me wondering what she will say and do next. I never wanted to go through what we did but I feel it has made me such a stronger person and the kind of person that will not take NO for an answer. The kind of person that realizes life is precious and can end at any point so the best thing to do is have a strong family bond and know that if you have no one else in the world you have each other. Luckily Soctt, Delilah and I have many family and friends but when it comes right down to it we matter to each other the most. Ive changed the kind of person I am because of my daughter. I guess my priorities just changed...and I think for the better! Does it make me strange that I would rather be home to put Delilah to bed and hold her while she sleeps than go out?! I feel as though I have to make up for lost time when I really didn't enjoy being around her. I want to be with her as much as I can because she just makes me so happy and I feel lucky to be her mom <3