Bugg's Allergy Journey Part 1

(originally published October 2017)

Today is the day that we internationally recognize as Food Protein-induced Enterocolitis Syndrome Day. It's a day designed to shed light on the battle Bugg fights every day. 

In honour of today I thought it would be a good time to start telling her story. 

Bugg's birth was natural and powerful and both unbelievably drawn out and over in an instant. 

She was more or less your average newborn for the first few weeks of her life and actually started sleeping through the night at around 3 weeks old. 

By 6 weeks she was covered in what we were assured was normal baby acne. 

Her excessive spitting up was blamed on me over feeding her and that was that. 

Over the next few months her rashes would wax and wane but were always around. 

Her brother was a rashy kid too and grew out of most of his issues so it was easy to dismiss as being normal and something that would simply pass.

In the mean time I tried cream after cream, prescriptions, otc ointments, shea butter straight from a family kitchen in Africa, yeast creams and oils.

I started to keep socks on her hands to minimize the damage she would do when scratching and had to be swaddled constantly when asleep or she would scratch herself awake.

She wasn't allowed to be naked, or even wear a tshirt and diaper because even with the mittens she would scratch her skin raw.

Secondary to her skin issue were her terrible diapers. Breastfed babies should have mustard yellow poops, sometimes with a seedy texture, and occasionally described as smelling like buttered popcorn.

Bugg started her life with giant yellow poops that smelled like a movie theatre, but as the weeks progressed they became slimy and mucousy, and evolved from French's yellow mustard to hotdog relish. 

They smelled like vinegar and never went away. 

This brings us to about Bugg's half birthday. 

After 6 months of being told her skin issues were normal and her diapers were fine I had finally had enough. I took matters into my own hands and started eliminating foods from my diet. First to go was dairy. I replaced my dairy heavy breakfast wth peanut butter toast and eggs. That afternoon she was a rashy mess. So I quickly decided that eggs and peanuts were cut out too. 

Fast forward a few weeks and I made her brother a PB sandwich, washed my hands and picked her up. He quickly ate the sandwich I had served him and asked for another piece. I handed it to him still holding his sister and didn't wash my hands. She began chewing on my knuckle and broke out in hives within minutes. 

We called the paediatrician and had an allergist appointment a few weeks later. 

She ran an isolated skin test for peanuts, peas, dust mites, cats and dogs. Bugg is allergic to everything but the peas.

I described her skin conditions and her diapers and was told that babies reacting through breastmilk were very rare. She suggested I eliminate soy from my diet as well but to gradually cycle in and trial the eliminated foods (minus peanut) and journal the results. She would wait to do a larger skin test when she was older and less likely to react with false positives. 

She assured me her diapers were normal, scheduled a follow up and told to come back if anything changed for the worse.