CLICK HERE FOR THOUSANDS OF FREE BLOGGER TEMPLATES »

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Update on Lucy

Thank you all so much who have commented with advice or just well wishes. We really appreciate it.

We went to the doctor yesterday. Other than a really crusty nose, Lucy was feeling much better and we could tell immediately when she woke up in the morning as her normal happy self. We were going to the doctor anyway. He said that he could for sure rule out any of the scary things, like whooping cough or pneumonia. He said that the fact that she was sick and then totally well in between the episodes was not consistent with a soy allergy. I am still not 100% convinced, but do understand what he was saying. He said that it is bizarre that she would get three colds in such a short period of time, but that it was certainly not impossible. He also said that coughing until vomitting is a symptom that they see in young children with colds all of the time. What I wanted him to say was, here is what is wrong and here is how to fix it. Then we could be done with this. Here is my question for anyone who has had experience or knowledge with a soy or milk allergy, were the symptoms present 100% of the time?

Just a little background, when we got Lucy in Vietnam and for her first few weeks at home, she was on milk based formula. It did not seem to bother her other than the fact that her dirty diapers were always really loose. The ped said to try soy and see what happened. Well, it fixed that problem and she seemed to be fine with it, until the colds started. I know that it has been cold season and so I am hoping that the doctor is right and that the poor thing just kept getting colds. Now that it is getting warmer, hopefully we will be done with this for a while, or forever! I am going to end up being one of those moms who freaks out about germs because when she gets sick it is so awful.

Today she feels really great. She slept in until 8:45 this morning. Yeah for baby and mom and dad. She woke up smiling and ready to go. She is eating pretty well again. Every time after one of these sicknesses, she sleeps so much. I feel like her poor little body is catching up. She is napping right now.

In really really good news, her bloodwork came back normal!!!! I breathed a huge sigh of relief when we got that news. I was tired of worrying about it.

And as far as growing and learning goes, she is still hard at it. She now wants to pull up on everything in sight. She usually only gets to her knees, but sometimes she gets all the way to her feet. She is still really unsteady on her feet for the moment, so I have to be really close to her all of the time so that she doesn't fall and bust her noggin. However, yesterday when she was supposed to be napping, she was in her crib just singing herself some songs. I went to peak and see what she was doing, and low and behold, she was standing up in her crib! When she saw me she grinned the biggest smile. You could just tell how unbelievably proud she was of herself. She then lost her balance, plopped back without hitting anything, and laughed about it. As far as my reaction, I thought oh great, what has she started now. She could really hit her head hard, so she is going to have to be watched until she can easily get up AND down without hurting herself. It gets a little crazier around here with each passing week.

7 comments:

Sherri said...

I am so glad that Lucy is ok!! I predict lots of bumps and bruises in her future. We are just getting started! By the way, Grace got a tooth!!

Anonymous said...

Hi Kelly, this is Teresa at Robstown Hardware. I have been following you on line and thru Andy. I love your pictures, you have a beautiful little girl. You are so very blessed.
My son was getting sick a whole lot when he was little like that and he ended up being diagnosed with Asthma, once I switched pediatricians and we got him on breathing treatments and got him cleared up, our lives started getting a little easier. Does she have alot of stuffed animals in the room, are the dogs in the house, do you have carpet or tile? The weather changing from cold to hot can trigger an attack. It is not like an attack where suddenly he could not breath it sounded more like bronchitis or pneumnia but they x rayed his lungs and said all of that was clear he had asthma.
They would give him an oral steroid for five days and he would get a breathing treatment every 4 hours.
If you have any questions please call. I am not saying that is the answer but it is something to consider.
Teresa Benderman

stollmyheart said...

Glad Lucy is feeling better! What a way to spend the winter...bummer! I hope she rests up and gets back to herself in no time at all!

Anonymous said...

Allergies are a funny thing. The thing is, a mild allergy can really run a kid down trying to deal with it day in and day out. Maybe that's why she's getting so many colds (aside from the obvious: being in a new country with all new germs). Maybe her little body is so tired from trying to cope with an allergen that she is easily susceptible to germs that ordinarily she would fight off? I had a kid who was litearlly sick with a cold for 2.5 years straight until I put him on allergy meds and he has almost literally never had even a cold since (and that was 7 years ago!). The crazy thing is that he only needed the allergy meds for a short period of time - 4 months. But it was enough for his body to rebound and rebuild his immune system.

It might also be that her mucous is thicker than she can handle which could be related to an allergy, too. When my allergy kids get sick, they frequently have more mucous in general and a harder time coping with it.

So my long answer is that, yes, depending on the allergy and the kid, symptoms can "seem" to come and go. There is probably a symptom present all the time but other symptoms can come and go when her immune system is stronger or weaker.

Here's another thing I wanted to say....trust your gut. I had an inkling that Addison had allergies to something and not just "adjustment time" when we got to the States. And now that we've moved down here, she is a totally different kid. Her skin has cleared up, her nose which was always dry and boggery, is almost entirely "normal" now. Sometimes you just don't know how a kid is affected until you get rid of the allergen.

Does your doctor have an issue with you doing a trial off the soy? It couldn't hurt right?

Ann said...

I'm glad that she's feeling better. And although it's hard not to have a definitive answer from the docs, at least it's nothing serious. Yah for normal bloodwork

Sara said...

Glad to hear she is better! All part of a normal babyhood. I got so nostaligic when I read what you wrote about discovering her standing up in her crib. It feels like yesterday that I made the same discovery with my Lucy...she was so proud! Don't worry too much about her banging her head. She will do it many, many times now that she is pulling up. Just babyproof for sharp corners and don't worry about the rest!
I owe you an e-mail and will try to get it together to write one soon!
Sara

Anonymous said...

Kelly-Glad to hear Lucy is doing well! I will be interested to see what pans out with all of it (soy or not)...Best. Lee