Birthday Boy!

Subtitled: What was supposed to be his allergy-safe celebration

My little guy recently turned 3! Kid birthdays here always start off with a number shaped pancake, and that's the case allergies or not. I used a modified version of these barley-oat pancakes I posted a while back and I'll repost it soon. :)

He spent the morning playing and then snoozed the afternoon away! We were all waiting for him to wake up so we could have his celebration! 

One of our recent purchases was a cotton candy machine especially to make special treats for our little guy. Not that you *need* cotton candy but with as many things as he can't have, we wanted something really special that he could have, that would always be safe. Instead of using the artificial stuff they give you with the machine, I just put plain organic cane sugar in. One tablespoon of sugar makes a big cloud of fluffy white cotton candy! The plan had been to use the cotton candy machine his birthday afternoon, but he slept all afternoon! I was happy we'd tested it out a few days prior. :)

His favorite tv show right now is Team Umi Zoomi and I found printable party decorations online so that's what we used. I made Chocolate Wacky Cupcakes and dusted them with tapioca starch powdered sugar because he doesn't like icing. 

Blowing out the candles!

He had such a fun time! He ate 3 cupcakes. :) 

That's where the subtitle comes in. :( Later that night his face got a bit rashy. The next day he was sporting quite a pair of allergic shiners along with flaring eczema and the GI issues that go along with any reaction for him. Rotten birthday present.  

He ate the same recipe cupcakes just 1 month earlier, all the same ingredients with no issues. The only thing that I don't use on a nearly daily basis? Guar gum. Guar gum is also an ingredient in the coconut milk and ice cream that he once loved but started refusing in January. Refusal typically indicates the beginnings of an allergy, I just didn't connect it. Guar gum is in the legume family which he has a lot of trouble with already so I'm not terribly surprised, just disappointed and sad. 

Later the same week, he started refusing he favorite soy yogurt, saying it made his belly hurt. He had been eating it daily. He would ask for it, look at the bowl, cry, give it back to me uneaten. On Sunday, after not requesting it for several days he asked for it again so I gave him a really small bowl. He gobbled it up and asked for more. I gave him a little more, he ate it, then asked for more, and I gave him the last little bit. Within an hour he was crying about his belly hurting and later that night the allergic shiners & GI symptoms appeared.

So…instead of outgrowing allergies he's just gaining them.  I never posted an allergist update in Feb but that appointment confirmed a definite allergy to sunflower seeds, still a very strong reaction to dairy (cross contamination was the likely cause for the cracker reaction), and a new mild allergy to carrots and tomatoes. I wish I'd taken in soy and pinto bean samples, I meant to but forgot. I'm sure he would test positive on both of those now. :(

Just this past week he caught a rotten bug from his in-preschool-sister. Between the soy and the virus he lost 2 pounds in under a week that he couldn't afford to lose and surely knocked himself back down to the bottom of the growth chart. He's reacted to strawberry flavoring in Zofran and corn in fever reducers and has been all-around miserable. After C was doing so well I'm now back to working with a nutritionist trying to find a way around spending more than I usually spend on a week's worth of groceries for the family to buy some elemental formula to supplement my little guy ever-shrinking diet. :(