Well..sweet Elijah is six and a half months old already! He had his first trip to the emergency room on July 1st. I'm going to write out everything about that day that I can remember, before I forget it (amid all the interruptions and distractions from 9 children around me!)
"What the heck just happened to me??"
It was a normal day. A relaxing day. The kids played outside and I did some school planning and printing from the dining room table. Elijah hasn't had much baby food yet. I introduced rice cereal in his fifth month..he had watermelon once..green beans two times. He had a couple bites of banana two weeks ago...but then came down with the stomach flu (as did the rest of my children) so I held off on solids. So..I decided I'd try some banana again while working at the table. I mashed it well and mixed in a bit of rice cereal. He liked it. He's not real big on solids yet. It took about half an hour and he made a mess, but he ate about 2 oe 3 tablespoons worth..so I gave him a quick bath in the sink before heading outside. He was pretty clingy and woudn't let me set him down.
I sat on our front porch and nursed him at 330. Daddy had just gotten off work. He gave me a call at 4pm and as I was walking up the sidewalk with Elijah in my arms..he puked all over the sidewalk..milk/banana. My husband was like "Oh noo..not again". We had just dealt with the stomach flu two weeks prior.
I took Elijah inside and put him in the jumper in the doorway so I could change. After another 10 mins or so..he started to puke again. By then daddy was home. I pulled him out of the jumper. His face started to turn bright red. I thought he was choking! He struggled to throw up..and then out came yellow bile. Twice. Then he close his eyes and fell into my chest as if he was just tired and went to sleep. My heart was beating so fast..I panicked! Why did he go to SLEEP like that? Even when he's tired he never just goes to sleep like that.
We shooed all our other children outside. Elijah was breathing fine. He must just be tired. ?? So I sat in the rocker with him. A few minutes later his eyes popped open, his face turned red and he struggled to vomit again..bile. This continued every 5-10 mins. I tried calling our Peds office at 5. It was closed. I waited on hold for a nurse for 5 mins..no one answered. I hung up and tried again. Waiting on hold only for another min before I gave up. I couldn't find a number for our ER anywhere.
Elijah kept waking to puke. He was so out of it. My sister in law helped me find a number to St. Marys nurses. I got ahold of one at 520pm. (He first started vomiting at 4pm..so already an hour and a half had passed!) After a dozen questions she advised us to call 911. Gabe was already upstairs changing to leave. He knew they'd say to go in. We decided to drive and left immediately.
We were checked in right away at 6pm. He threw up again while on the baby scales. So far..within 2 hours..from 4-6pm..he had vomited over 20 times. It was spreading apart though near six pm. They checked his glucose and gave him Zofran around 7pm. He did perk up after the Zofran. They said he wasn't dehydrated. I said I was convinced it was the bananas. The Ped on call kind of chuckled at me. He thinks it was just a viral thing. He did order an u/s to check for intussusception before letting us head home. It was clear. We got out of the ER around midnight. Elijah nursed well over night. He woke up with horrible diarrhea first thing in the morning. It continued all day. And part of the next day. Although he seemed much better..happy. I just kept nursing him and skipped feeding him foods.
During the whole ordeal, I posted from Facebook while waiting at the ER. A friend on there said "Ask about FPIES" I didn't bother to with the ER dr on call. But when I came home I Googled it. The symptoms sounded exactly like we had went through!
I kept reading. I talked over the phone with the friend who mentioned it. I emailed my Ped. He said it's very rare, and most likely was just a virus.
I do not feel like we dealt with a viral issue though. Time will tell. I decided to keep a journal of everything that happened, and everything I feed and introduce to Elijah --just in case! Does he have FPIES? I don't know...but I'd rather be armed with information that I never end up needing..than to figure it was just a fluke thing and end up in the ER again and again with nurses and doctors that don't know what is going on! If it happens again I'll be convinced it's FPIES, and insist on seeing an allergist.
So here we go. I'll update if it happens again. We are steering clear of bananas though, and are currently feeding him breastmilk, green beans and rice cereal. We will try applesauce this weekend, when my husband is off work.
