Ariya was born at 34-36 weeks (depending on which due date you listen to). Regardless, she was born July 8, 2012. She was small, but everything was as it should have been. She weighed 5.5 pounds, and was 17.75 inches long. Her lungs and everything else were good, she came out of the hospital with me two days after she was born.
She was perfectly clear for about three months. Around mid-October or so, I started noticing her cheeks getting red. The pediatrician at the time, back in Virginia, thought it may have been her formula. I really didn't think it was, because she hadn't spit up or anything. I can still probably count on one hand the number of times that she has spit up.
She didn't take so well to the new formula, so I continued giving her the Similac Advance. However, her skin rash just kept progressing. Seemed like nothing that we did was helping her. Occasionally, she would get puss-filled spots on her, that would eventually drain on their own. One weekend, my grandparents were visiting and talked me into taking her to the hospital to get the spots checked (admittedly, I didn't want to). I had taken her to the local ER for one before and they had told me she had gotten bit by something, but it would heal. It did, so I thought the new ones were the same kind of deal. Turns out, they were wrong at the first ER.
This was back in February. We took her to Children's Hospital in Birmingham, where they informed me that the spots were infected eczema. They kept her for three days, doing everything from antibiotics, to tons of Vaseline, to wet wraps. They kept her three days and she was as clear as she could be when we brought her back home.
The eczema still comes and goes. We have appointments with the pediatric dermatologist every six to eight weeks. They started noticing that no matter how much we changed her medicines and/or ointments, it just didn't seem like she would get clear and stay clear. Her dermatologist decided to refer her for allergy testing, because she didn't think it should be that difficult to get her skin clear and keep it clear if it were only eczema.
Back up just a little. I started trying to introduce solids to her around five months. She just was not interested in them. She would purse her lips and wanted absolutely nothing to do with the spoon. All this ties together soon, I promise.
When we went to the allergist, they did a blood test to check for common allergens. Came back and she has food allergies. Her two worst ones are wheat and egg whites, both of which are severe allergies. From the allergist, we were then referred to a GI for possible EoE (Eosinophilic Esophagitis). The GI and the nutritionist both met with us. We're trying to learn how to work around her allergies, and make her some foods without wheat/eggs and slowly introduce them to her, hopefully we will be able to get her to start eating more than just Gerber bananas (this child LOVES Gerber bananas).
The GI also scheduled her to have an endoscopy done to get a better look at her esophagus/stomach/small intestines. This was performed about a week ago now. We got the results back two days ago, and she does indeed have EoE. This could very well be the reason that she really shows no interest in solids. What is EoE? Had you asked me that before all of this, I would have been clueless, as well.
EoE is basically explained as "eczema of the esophagus". Everyone's esophagus has eosinophilic cells, which is a good thing...to an extent. When they did the scope on her, they showed us (my grandparents were with me) some pictures of her esophagus. She had some white spots at the bottom of her esophagus that they took a couple biopsies of. The way that they would be read was explained to me like this:
They would take a microscope and zoom in on each white spot as far as they possibly could. If they saw that the white spots were made up of more than 15 smaller white spots, she would be diagnosed with EoE. The two that they took biopsies of were made up of 85 and 60. :o
They called today and we will be starting her on an oral steroid soon. It's going to be a long journey, and I will try to keep this updated as much as I can. I know there are people who wonder, and there's so much going on with so many different doctors that this will help me keep track, as well. Hopefully, she will get some relief, can get into feeding therapy, and will start eating like a pig! I have faith in her. Shes a 17 pound, 1 year old...going through all of this...and, most of the time, she's happy as she can be. Amazing to me how something so small can be so unbelievably strong. <3
