When Food Is Your Foe

Everyone is familiar with the food pyramid. Children begin to learn about the food groups at an early age. You learn about the good foods and the not so healthy foods. You learn about the foods that give you energy, help you grow, and give you strong bones and teeth. When you take your child to the doctor, you are always asked, "How is your child's diet? Do they eat healthy? Are they picky eaters?".  So you can imagine how frustrated a parent might be when their child is faced with the fact that FOOD is their enemy. In our house, food is a FOUR LETTER WORD. While food was meant to nourish you, some foods cause the opposite to happen. What happens when food is your enemy? A mother's natural, instinctive bent is to feed and nourish her child. Stop the train.........

For several of my children, food is their enemy. Instead of food being a good thing, food is problematic and even DANGEROUS. I was completely overwhelmed when my now twelve year old daughter was a baby. She was on a specialized formula, and yet she still puked on EVERYTHING. She dealt with food intolerances, severe eczema that was food driven, GI complications, and eventually FTT, FPIES, and other health issues. She eventually became g-tube fed and TPN dependent. For my daughter, food is her foe. Take for instance corn. For my daughter, corn causes: diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramping, eczema, lethargy, body pain, and GERD. She currently has only a handful of safe foods: white potato, apple, and lemon. We are currently trialing banana. She tolerated ONE elemental formula for awhile and has now failed them all. Even though elemental formula is void of intact protein, her body says, "NO WAY!!" Can I just be the first to say that CORN IS EVIL!!!!!

I was terrified and OVERWHELMED when my now nine year old daughter was diagnosed with Anaphylactic Food Allergies and Celiac Disease.

Then the word overwhelmed took on a new level. My now seven year old was diagnosed with FPIES before her first birthday. No, FPIES has nothing to do with pies. Rather, it stands for Food Protein Induced Enterocolitis Syndrome. I breastfed my daughter on an elimination diet. When solids were introduced, my world spun out of control. My happy baby was MISERABLE. She had horrible diarrhea, bleeding/burned butt, vomiting, lethargy, fitful sleep, GERD, congestion, and screaming when she ate. Today my daughter has ZERO safe foods. She lives off of Elemental Formula and TPN.

Thirteen years ago Eosinophilic Disorders, FPIES, GI Dysmotility, feeding tubes, and TPN were not even in my vocabulary. Today, I can talk circles around all of them.

My plan is to continue adding to "When Food Is Your Foe" in future posts as my crazy life allows.