On the Eve of our Appointment

Just posting to say that our day is here! Tomorrow AM we drive to Boston for our big appointment at Children's Hospital. We will meet with the members of the EGID team and hopefully start our journey to some clarity and getting a better handle on dealing with FPIES day to day. I am currently finalizing my questions list before heading off to bed. I will post later on this week the details of our appointment!!! Wish us luck!

New Pediatrician!

So we are still a little under a week away from our first appointment at Childrens Hospital of Boston, but I ended up having to find a local ped for B so she could be checked for thrush, since now MY doc thinks I have thrush instead of mastitis (could they PLEASE pick one?! This has been going on since May!!!!). Well, B came back in the clear-- no signs of anything but a crazy active little toddler. Yay! So who knows what I have. . . Anyways, we got new growth stats!!! A little bit of weight gain and for us, still not great but it is the first time we have gained in months, and a good amount of height!!! B came in at 23 lbs even and 31.75 inches tall! She will be 17 months old at the beginning of next week, on my bday!!! Her weight percentiles are still low compared to what they used to be-- she never really rebounded after her avocado reaction, pesky old food!-- but she is moving in the right direction. We really liked the doc and the office is going to be fairly close to where we will be living (closing on the house in a few weeks!!!!!!!!!!!) Definitely beats our hour drive to the old doc in Japan!!!

Also, we are still in the midst of our spinach trial and nearing the end. Tomorrow I increase the amount to the full 2oz and the trial is over on Tuesday. So far, we are still seeing the bumpy red rash whenever she has a poo diaper and it is still very green, with what appears to be most of the spinach she ingested coming back out in the diaper. A little acidic, but it doesn't appear to be worsening. No rash on the couple of days we did not give her the spinach and no green diapers. There have been minor increases in reflux and sleep disturbances, but she is teething and we are still living in a hotel, so her environment isn't the most stable right now. We will continue to wait and see!

Here is a note for fun: Thankfully, B appears to have no issues relating to dyes. We had to dye her pears (pureed) blue last night to get her to eat them. We have to hide the spinach under the pears in the AM and call it "plankton" (B LOVES whales in a big way!) Ahh, dealing with the picky toddler! Never a dull moment!

Corn Pasta Recall!!!!

Just a quick note: there has been a corn pasta recall for one of the brands B's eats. Apparently, some pasta from the alphabet wheat pasta accidentally got into the tubettini corn pasta boxes in a certain lot. More info here: http://www.examiner.com/x-31031-Providence-Headlines-Examiner~y2010m7d23-Gluten-free-pasta-recall-Recalled-DeBoles-Tubettini-Corn-Pasta-may-contain-whole-wheat-alphabets

By the way, we absolutely HEART this pasta-- mostly because I don't have to run it through the baby food grinder in order to get B to eat it! Ahhh, the texture battle!!! I hope the recall is resolved very quickly!

Five days in, who will win? Place your wager!

Five days into our spinach trial and well, it is a mixed result. Increased hiccuping (our big reflux sign. She cries with them and they seem to hurt!), evidence that the spinach is going straight through her (which I am hoping is normal. Anyone?), more restless nights (which could be attributed to our moving, in all fairness), and some questionable diapers.
Nothing major so far, but enough to make me a little more watchful. I really would like a pass! I thought waiting so long since our last trial and her age (16 1/2 months!!!) would help us stand a better chance of passing. Please cross all of your fingers for us-- even though we are ready for our 8-10 appointment, I would really like to be able to report a new safe food rather than a new fail to the new doctor!

A side note. . .

I am currently opposed to straight corn flour. Masa is so much tastier!!!! After using it in all of her recipes, I have deduced that we are happily returning to Masa full time and I am using the remaining straight corn flour for playdoh. Also, Masa is a lot more flour-y in texture. So everyone out there--- use Masa! Not regular corn flour!!!

More baking fun!

Ok, so still in the hotel-- bleh!!!--- but my loving husband bought me a sweet toaster oven and now I can bake again!!!! The microwave was a short lived experiment. However, it did bake the muffins. And now I will tell you how!
First, I bought dishwasher safe stoneware from the Stop and Shop (the little ramekin size). Then I mixed up the Merry Muffins and spooned enough muffin mix into each (greased with canola) ramekin to fill it 3/4 full. I microwaved it at a casserole setting for 3 minutes initially. This turned out badly. If I had enemies, the muffins could have been excellent amo. However, not wanting to harm anyone, this batch went in the trash. I tried the casserole setting again for roughly two minutes, checked the muffin with a fork (which came out clean!), and it was done! The taste was relatively the same and they stayed moist even after stored in the refrigerator in a ziploc bag. The downside-- you have to cook one ramekin muffin AT A TIME. Not very realistic for the mama of a toddler.
The toaster oven is fabulous. I have my silicone baking cups (heart shaped!!!) and I can fit twelve on the little baking sheet. It also can bake a 12" pizza, if B were actually able to eat one. It is a black and decker brand and I found it at Target, one of my fav stores. SO happy to be back in the states for my Target!!!

FPIES Microwave Cooking

Since my B cannot apparently live without muffins, (she keeps signing "muffin" and exclaiming "muf-FAN!!!! PEEEAAASE!!!!!") I am embarking on microwave baking experiments. (No oven in our hotel). Wish me luck! I will report the results here. . .