O-Boy(s)!: Sharing Milestones

Friday, August 6, 2010

Sharing Milestones

It is one of life's greatest pleasures to have dear friends with whom to share it all. This summer both Michael and Samantha get baptized. Jodi and I enjoy remembering when we had little one year olds in Boston - taking them to library time each week in Winchester, and then walking by the duck ponds. It was so much fun, and the beginning of many years together. Now our oldest are 8 year-olds, and the time has flown by. Samantha was baptized earlier this summer, and Jodi just sent me some photos. I cried thru her whole service - she seems more like a niece to me I suppose. Mostly I am just grateful to have friends with whom we are all doing this together. This, being: life. Teaching children, loving children, loving spouses, solving problems, serving in church callings, running lots of miles, adding new babies to our families and figuring out how to thrive being ourselves in the mix of it all. It is one big adventure.

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What is FPIES?

I have 2 children that are recently healed from FPIES - Food Protein Induced Enterocolitis Syndrome. Scotty is 5 years old - and fought this disorder for about 3.5 hard years. Colin is a 20 month old baby - and had a quick recovery. He is recently cleared of all of his symptoms, calling him FPIES free!

FPIES is a severe delayed food allergy of the gut, it is understood to be a T-cell mediated response in which food is considered a foreign invader and the body “fights” it until it can violently expel it; although the exact mechanisms are still not well understood.

Symptoms include: profound vomiting (often to bile), diarrhea and/or constipation. These can lead to: lethargy, low body temp or fever, hypotension, and in severe cases, sepsis and shock. Reactions to food are often delayed - a couple hours or even days.

Many children also experience a combination of discomforting symptoms while the body "fights" this reaction and these can include: extreme stomach pains, gas, runny stools with or without mucous or blood, persistent hiccups, acid reflux, rashes, sleep disturbance, and agitation. Other atypical symptoms I see in my own children are persistent runny noses and ear infections. Sypmtoms can last a couple hours or even weeks after the initial ingestion of a trigger food.

FPIES is a clinical diagnosis (based on symptoms), there is currently no test for it.

FPIES common trigger foods as listed in the literature include, but are certainly not limited to: Dairy, Soy, Rice, Oats, Barley, Green Beans, Sweet Potatoes, Squash, Chicken, Turkey, Corn, Eggs.

Safe foods for these children to eat are determined by food challenges either at home or the doctor's office, as directed by the child's physician.

Children diagnosed with FPIES are treated in part with a strict elimination diet - keeping all trigger foods 100% out of their bodies. It is hoped that this will give their gut time to "heal".

Read and learn more in Joy's collection of articles:
FPIES File Cabinet

Also see her great collection of articles at The FPIES Foundation:
Medical Resource Articles

Check out this new great website with tons of FPIES info:
International Association for Food Protein Enterocolitis