First of all I want to say Thank you to the countless number of responses I got on the Facebook page about the pictures of my son’s rash I posted. I know a few people questioned why I would be sitting on Facebook asking a bunch of strangers what they thought was wrong with my child instead of rushing him to the hospital so I figured I’d take a moment to clear some things up.
As you can see from the picture above, which breaks my heart every time I see it, my sweet boy has been to the hospital and to several doctors as well.
This all started (minus the teething) when I first introduced Aidan to food. It was suggested at around 4-5 months. I read that breastfed babies can start off eating sweeter foods, like bananas because breast milk is naturally sweet. Also, bananas are a low allergy risk. Because my oldest son had a hard time with rice cereal and serious constipation when he was a baby I thought it would be ok to go ahead and start Aidan out on baby oatmeal and bananas. I mixed a bit of the two and gave it to him. I had actually tried to start feeding him sooner but he wasn’t interested in eating so he ended up trying this stuff at around 5 months.
Banana Allergy?
What followed that evening was a serious sort of rash. I get hives myself so it didn’t look like the hives I had. My 3 yr old also had a case of big time hives when he was about 2. Those hives were HUGE. This “rash” didn’t look like hives it looked more like patches of almost lightly burned skin. Sort of like Eczema, all over his arms, legs, behind his legs but not on his face or belly. After this came severe projectile vomiting on and off for over 8 hours. I was a wreck when that started. I started thinking about what could have caused it and feeling extremely guilty. I thought maybe I had given him too much food. He really loved it and kept eating it so I kept going. Stupid me. My poor baby was so sick. I didn’t get any sleep that night and I was so scared. I sat up on the couch in the dark while my baby slept in my arms so I could watch him. My Dr’s office obviously wasn’t open and so I called the hospital, who in turn called my Dr’s office and got a hold of the nurse on call. I talked to her and she told me not to nurse him much and to just try to let it run it’s course. It was probably just “tummy upsets”. That I could let him sleep sitting up in his car seat.
Waiting To Start First Foods Until 6 Months
After that incident as you can imagine I was very leery of feeding Aidan solids. I actually didn’t try again for a while. I read up on it as much as possible and decided I should go ahead and wait until 6 months. At around 6 months we went ahead and tried again but this time I tried the rice cereal because I really thought it was the oats that had bothered him. Of course he got constipated. Pretty badly. I think he went 4 days without pooping. I ended up going back to the oats with no problems. As it turns out I think his body just needed to learn how to digest the food you know.. he would have gotten constipated regardless.
So one day I decide to give him a banana again. I was being much more careful now. He had banana and later on another rash, more vomiting. Here we go again. I still hadn’t put two and two together because he was teething at this time and I really thought that was the problem.
This is where things get blurry for me because I started over completely with the foods. One at a time. No mixing oatmeal or rice cereal in it. Just one food each 5 or 6 days. There was another incident with the rash and not feeling well but it wasn’t as major and on that day he hadn’t had any banana, just toast and his regular foods.
6 Hour Hospital Visit
In April my 3 year old came down with the flu and as always happens, it made it’s way to me and then to the baby. He wasn’t feeling well at all but it wasn’t too bad. In fact my 3 yr old was better in 2 days. At this time I was eating toast one day and I gave some to Aidan. Well later that night he became really ill. The projectile vomiting started up, the rash, a fever. At first I thought it was just the flu but I really had this feeling the toast had something to do with it. This was the 2nd time he got sick after eating toast.
The rash started to subside but I ended up having to take him to the hospital after he became listless. He was totally going limp and was so lethargic he could barely hold his head up. I called a friend and she met me there. I was going to go to the after hours clinic but they told me they wanted him to go to the E.R. I thought that was great news because he would be seen quicker. I was really scared. Instead, we sat there for hours! We finally went back and they put us in an observation room. Then, they did nothing! for a really long time. I watched as the nurse or whoever she was sat at her station and ate and looked around stupidly like she had nothing better to do. I started getting really ticked off because I was sick myself with the flu at the time. I was tired. I was scared. My baby was falling asleep on the bed which was just weird because he never fell asleep like that.. and where the hell was this goddamn pill they told me they were going to bring him to keep him from vomiting? It’s not like I could get up to go to the bathroom, get a drink of water, or even find a nurse (once she got off her butt and left) because my baby was on the bed and I couldn’t just let him roll off or roll between the bars if he woke up, so I was stuck!
When he finally woke up a bit I talked to a nurse and I informed her that my 3 year old was in the waiting room and he needed to eat and asked how long this was going to take.. and what was going on.. what were they going to do for him. She tells me “Oh, we’ll give him the pill, and we’ll wait for an hour or two and if he doesn’t vomit again you can go". I was flabbergasted. A Doctor hadn’t even checked him out. They didn’t even take his temperature people!! Then she proceeds to tell me that they don’t do much for babies at this stage, just keep them hydrated and let it run its course. What a joke. So she gave him the pill and then gave us some pedialyte and told me to wait and see.
The nurse finally took some sandwiches and pudding out to my 3 year old and my friend but they told me he wasn’t allowed back in the room.. which is just absurd because if it hadn’t been for my friend he would have HAD to come back there with me since we were alone.
Not long after this the original nurse came back in (the one who’d been hanging out and eating) and when she was asking me questions and I told her he had been vomiting she said “You didn’t tell me that when I first talked to you”. YEAH RIGHT LADY. I brought my baby to the hospital and forgot to tell you the most important reason we were there? *rolls eyes*. I got a little annoyed and bitchy with her after that and said “Is a Doctor going to be seeing my baby today?? I am confused.”.
More “Stomach Problems”
Not long after that a Doctor came in looking a little apprehensive and actually listened to his breathing and all this. Looked in his ears.. and basically did.. nothing. Told me it was probably just stomach problems and that “sometimes when children get sick like this they have stomach problems as well, just give him the pedialyte and watch him real well”. No one wanted to hear about the bananas or the toast. no one.
Always Read The Ingredients!
After that whole fiasco you can imagine how I felt. Like maybe *I* was the one who over-reacted and maybe he really was just sick and maybe my mind is playing tricks on me. Until! a few weeks ago I went to the laundry mat and my husband stayed home with the baby. He gave him some new, made for toddlers tropical yogurt melts. Well apparently he only gave him one. He immediately developed the weird rash and my husband sent me a picture of it. I asked him if he gave him the yogurt bites I had just bought and to go look on them because they are tropical flavored. Sure enough they contained banana. Of course then I berated him just a little because HELLO it says “toddlers” and it says “tropical” with a picture of bananas! This is the very reason Moms go crazy always trying to control stuff because of serious oversights like this lol. At least in my opinion 
Oooh I’m starting to feel like this is the longest story in the world. It’s taken my two days to type.. but, it’s serving more than one purpose. This way I have it all written down now and of course so I can tell the story to you, my readers.
“Sorry We No Longer Accept Your Insurance”
Anyway, let’s wrap it up shall we. It’s June 7th right now and on June 2nd I gave my baby white bread toast again. June 3rd he woke up and was ok. I fed him 1 small jar of baby food (something we’ve deemed as safe already) and about 2 hours later he was sick and vomiting all over. He started getting a temperature. I called the Dr’s office and eventually I found out they were not accepting our insurance anymore. Great. Perfect timing. I ranted and raved a bit on facebook and then I proceeded to find him a new Doctor and took him over there.
Finally A Referral To An Allergist
The new Doctors office had been informed what the problem was and yet when the new Doctor seen him she was just as dense as some of the other Doctors I’ve met! I had just finally gotten used to his Doctor at the other place and really liked her and now I had to deal with a new person again.. this totally sucked. I explained to her everything and she seemed to think we were there because of the supposed eczema! When I said “yes but what about the vomiting” she said “Oh this was today?”. OH MY GOD! I feel like a broken record. So eventually she came to the conclusion she didn’t know what was wrong and that I should consult an allergist. She gave me some numbers.
What A Perfect Time For Teething
The day after on June 4th a temperature started and then voila the new tooth he was getting popped out all the way and another one started emerging. So.. was this a teething thing? All the things we read say that teething does not create a fever and that’s just what started happening. He had a fever all night long almost. He was also still vomiting during the day. I laid him in his crib and not 2 minutes after he started up. I got so scared that he might aspirate that he’s been sleeping with me in the bed ever since.
The next day his fever eventually got all the way up to 102.7. which is scary high. You’re supposed to take them to emergency at 103 if they’re 8 months like my son is. So I held off and gave him generic baby tylenol and I gave him a cool bath and it brought it down. We just chilled out all day and night and took it easy, drinking pedialyte and just staying in. Unfortunately diarrhea started up.
It’s now June 7th and my baby boy is feeling better. No fever, no moaning.. but he still has the diarrhea. Every single diaper, several times a day. I am keeping him hydrated but come on! I’m thinking the diarrhea is from the teething and that the other stuff has cleared up now.
Time To Find An Allergist For Real
Anyway.. I’m in the process of finding an allergist. It’s somewhat difficult to find allergists that work with small children and since our health insurance is for the state of Ohio but we live in Michigan it makes it even harder. I mostly spent the past few days nursing my baby and just chilling out with my kids. I had blog reviews I promised people but my family always comes first. It was not even something I felt bad about because that’s the way it should be for all Moms.
As I said before I had a great response from all the Moms on Facebook and I really want to thank the ones who took the time to read everything and respond. I know a few people didn’t’ do that and then they got confused. They thought the pictures of the rash I posted had happened THAT day, even though they could have read the comments to see it hadn’t. They thought I was sitting on Facebook instead of taking my baby to the hospital or the Doctor. For shame! I would never do such a thing. However, I would and will always ask the advice of my fellow Moms. If you’ve read most of this story you can see that Doctors don’t know what they’re doing sometimes. They don’t have all the answers and sometimes it’s up to us to help figure it out. We’re like detectives. And if you need examples of Doctors being wrong, ooooh I have plenty however, what I don’t have.. is plenty of time! It’s bedtime around here and this Mom has to go sing my babies to sleep.
Thank you Thank You Thank You
Thanks everyone! and I will keep you up to date on what’s going on! In the meantime please feel free to share your thoughts or even incidents you’ve had. Some people have made some great suggestions to me and I love reading your stories. It helps to know I’m not alone with this mystery. Even if you don’t feel your story will contribute, you never know who else might be reading it and it will help!
I’m so sorry that you are going through this! When my daughter was <6 months she started having "shakes"- something I still believe to be seizures. Her doctor completely blew me off and reluctantly gave me a number for a pediatric neurologist. I fired him that day and started taking her to my Dr, who is in family practice and actually took the time to listen to my concerns and watch the video I had taken.
I feel like it's a similar story every time with Drs. They write everyone off as a hypochondriac and don't actually give them the care they need.
I know I've mentioned to you before about my gluten/egg/milk intolerance that randomly started in high school. It took Drs over a year to figure out what was wrong, why I was getting hives and fat lips EVERY DAY. They just pushed anti-histamines at me, but my body would become immune to them within a week. The last straw for my mom was when I was on 4 different allergy pills a day and STILL breaking out.
We have to be the detectives. Keep a journal of what he eats, when he has a reaction, how long after eating, what else was going on that day, how he reacted, and any other details. Then try to connect the dots. It could be an allergy or intolerance to just bananas, or it could be more.
Take ingredients out of his diet that you think may be causing a reaction, if it's more than 1, take them all out. When he is hive/rash free you can try to add them back one-by-one to determine what the real culprits are, or you can just leave them all out.
I hope that you find out what is causing these episodes.
If you ever need to talk, or bounce ideas off someone, don't hesitate to contact me!
Thanks Heather for taking a moment to respond. That is crazy. Did you ever find out what was going on with your daughter or did it just stop? I have had plenty of wrong answers from doctors now in my lifetime but it’s amazing how many of them I’ve already gotten in regards to my kids and my oldest is only 3! I had his first Dr. tell me he had ringworm because I put a band aid on this spot on his body (Im sorry I cannot remember the name of it right now) and this spot reacted and caused a little rash in the shape of the band aid, which was round. I mean how do you just misdiagnose ringworm when you’ve been a Dr. for like 40 years? I had other Dr’s tell me “oh it looks like a birth mark”. One thing we all know is that birthmarks don’t change color or shape when you touch them! It turned out to be this thing that could have been cancerous had he had more than 1 on his body. It’s like really rare to be cancerous if there is only 1.. but I had a biopsy done anyway from a competent dermatologist.
Anyway! that is just one example of why I do play detective myself. Like you said, we have to. It’s funny you mention pushing off antihistamines on you because that is exactly what they’ve been doing about my son’s problems. This last time she prescribed him zyrtec. I haven’t given him any. I don’t want to give this to him daily for something that’s only happening occasionally.. I want an answer, not a quick solution.
I guess I should have kept a better journal.. I’m going to start doing that. I am still introducing most foods one at a time although a couple times I have given him adult food, like the toast, and spaghetti (which had very few ingredients in the sauce) and like with the spaghetti he had NO reactions so it’s really dumbfounding. Thank you for all the suggestions though and keeping on me. I am definitely going to do the journal thing instead of just writing it on the calendar.. be a little more thorough and get this case solved for the sake of my baby and my peace of mind.
What was your solution to your intolerance’s? Do you just avoid those things now and did they ever tell you how this could just develop out of the blue? That kind of stuff is what makes me wonder sometimes about things like growth hormones and pesticides etc. Kind of scary!
Sorry to hear about this & all the pain your going through with this. I feel so bad for him poor baby. I couldn’t imagine going through this & not having the help from a doctor someone you should be able to rely on. I will be praying for him.
I’ve also experienced some doctors that are koo-koo! When my daughter was around one or younger she was very sick. She couldn’t keep anything down her & running a fever all day. She was starting to look as pale as a ghost. She hadn’t had a dirty diaper in about 8 hours which was crazy. I already knew what our emergency room was like so I decided to call her pediatrition(sp) up. He checked her ears, throat, eyes, belly, etc. He said it was a bug going around. I told him she hadn’t had a dirty diaper in 8 hours & couldn’t keep anything down her. What does he do? I get to the pharmacy to find out he prescribed her cough syrup medicine! Didn’t I just say she can’t keep anything down her? He said she would be just fine. I tried giving her the syrup even though I pretty much knew it wouldn’t work but it was worth a shot to get my baby girl better. Of course she couldn’t keep it down her. I was really ticked off, angry, tired and just felt helpless. My baby wasn’t getting any better and was really quite. It was a very eerie uneasy feeling. I decided to take her to our local band-aide station (ER). I was surprised they took us right back & actually came to our service. They knew something was wrong right off (shocked me) & I told them the story all over again. They told me they were going to have to put an I.V. in her. I literally was going to break down. My baby getting an i.v. in her. This is going to be awful I can’t watch. They said my baby was dehydrated (since she couldn’t keep anything down her) but yet this STUPID, IGNORANT, peditriation told me it was a bug. Needless to say they couldn’t get an i.v. in her vein after at least 10 times of trying. It was awful & I was crying. They had my baby balling her eyes out for nothing!! They couldn’t even get a freaking i.v. in her arm? What kind of town am I living in? They decided to bring in reinforcement & sent us to a hospital about 45 mins away. My baby was so bad off my hubby, his mom, my dad, & other family members were all at the hospital (ER) & but they decided not to come to the second hospital 45 mins away. My hubby had to go to work & couldn’t take off or they would fire him. I had to ride with my baby in the back of the ambulence. I was so scared! The ambulence guy was super nice though & tried to take my mind off things by making me guess ringtones on his phone. But who am I kidding? I couldn’t take my eyes off my now sleeping baby in a car seat. We finally got the hospital & they automatically took us to a room where a professional anthologist? put the i.v. in her arm on the 1st try. Thank God!! He then started questioning me about who the pediatrition was. He told me that he shouldn’t have sent her home. Then began to tell me if I had waited a couple hours later she would have been dead. Oh my gosh my heart just fell to the floor & talking about one of the worse feelings in the world. He said he was going to report him. I prayed this pediatrition would lose his license. He didn’t care enough about my child so who’s to say he cares about any child. Sad to say this sorry sob is still a doc. I can’t stand that %$@*($)* !!! My baby about lost her life because of him! Luckily that mom instinct kicked in & I knew something was wrong even though the so-called *doc* said she would be ok. All you moms out there always go with your gut feeling even if a professional tells you something else. Always get 20 opinions if you have too. It’s your babies life not theirs!! It’s just another day, another dollar, another patient to most of them. This hospital was amazing. They let me pick a hand made Christmas ornament off of the tree for my daughter that I still have. Which was an angel because a guardian angel (my mom) was watching over my baby that day. They also put her into like a cage (that way she didn’t fall out) & gave her a stuff animal, & pacifier. We had to spend the night which her daddy finally got there to see her all better. I thank God everyday that she’s alive because she was so close to death from a stupid *doc* mistake! There has been alot more cases with pregnant women having still born babies because of doc malpractice around here. One of them being my friend & it’s such a sad story really is. Sorry this was so long but I just wanted to share.
Oh yeah I wanted to add that I never went back to a pediatrition after this. Call me a bad parent or call me a scared one. I call myself a smart one!! I’m still scared of docs for my daughter until this day. I try to be a doc at home for the most part which works 90% of the time. My mother was the same way. I also wanted to say I have a weird allergy that no specialist has ever been able to find out. They sent me to an allergen specialist who put literally 100 shots in my arm to find out what was causing my eyes to swell shut, my nose to swell, my lips to swell the size of a golf ball (no joke) & still don’t know. I still have triggers off & on. I’ve done some research of my own & have found it to be “Angioedema” so I’m a doc without even going to school for it. I always thought my allergies came from a certain type of cheese also. But if you read on angiodema alot of things can set the trigger off. It’s a very serious condition only because you never know where the swelling is going to happen such as your throat swelling shut cutting your breathing off. I’m suppose to keep a kit beside me. That way if they have to cut a whole in my neck to get me back breathing if this was to occur. I also wanted to add that I’ve had similiar rashes like your son when I was younger in my teens when my swelling started. One time it looked like hives another time it was just a flat rash that burned really bad all over my leg. I would definitely say he probably has a food allergen. I just pray it gets better for the little fella.
Hey Charlotte, Thank you for your comment. I can’t believe I just seen it now! If you’ve already left a comment on my blog at some other time (for a contest or something) it never tells me when you leave a new comment.. it just automatically approves. Anyway, your story brought a tear to my eye. How scary! I did find a new pediatrician but you know, I’m not happy about it. I want the one we had just started to become comfortable with. You know how there are usually many in each office.. we finally had found a younger Dr. who seemed a lot more interested and willing to listen to everything.. the only problem with her is that she didn’t have kids of her own yet.. which I feel that sometimes if you don’t have your own you just can’t understand. It’s funny because I was just sitting here (while my kids napped) thinking about what I’m going to do.. should I find a new Dr. or should I go back to this place and ask to see a different person and just hope it goes better. *sigh* It really is so hard to find a Doctor you like. There should be some kind of meet and greet where you don’t have to go in and meet for the first time when someone is sick. I want to go there and ask the Dr. questions!
As far as my sons allergies.. so far we’ve learned it IS bananas and it is something in the margarine we were eating, more than likely palm kernel oil.. however he didnt’ test for that and I don’t know why.. I am going for my own allergy testing next weekend and I am going to ask a ton of questions regarding bananas and latex allergy (which are connected). Right now I’m still trying to figure this all out and come to grips with it. If he has an allergy to palm kernel oil that makes him THAT sick (enough to go to the hospital) then that means he can’t have A LOT of things and I have to check every single label.. I mean no fries, no fried anything.. nothing with vegetable oil which is pretty much everything known to man, unless you cook it at home. I mean how do you make a cake without vegetable oil?
Ugh I hate thinking about this.
Btw, if you never went back to a pediatrician then where did you/do you go when your kids are sick?
I know you mentioned latex allergies for your son,… as I was reading your blog all along that is what I was thinking it probably was…especially since you first said allergic to bannanas. Did you realize that your Pediatrician can do a simple blood test to see what your child(ren) are allergic to? All four of mine (ages 17, almost 16, almost 12 and almost 14) have recently been food and latex tested and it was a simple blood test. If you get tested for latex you need to specify to your doc that you want it done as it’s not usually a routine thing like the food is. Usually you can tell a latex allergy (as you mentioned once) where if they wear a band aid it leaves the imprint on the skin when it’s taken off. Also especially for girls, LOTS of panties have latex elastic so they break out around their private areas and legs or around their arms if their bathing suits have the latex. THEN as they get older and start periods they will stay very uncomfortable with pads as almost all of them have latex in them unless you purchase them at a health food store or online etc. And don’t think just because you test when children are bbies they will always be that way… my second daughter was the only one of mine that could drink milk base formula and nothing upset her stomach etc. But the last few years (when she hit about 13 ish or so) we starting figuring out things messed her up… so we had her tested almsot a year ago and she’s now allergic to milk, wheat, fish, avacado, egg and latex! My youngest son wasn’t allergic when he was littler, but now he’s allergic to all of what she is PLUS nuts, corn, and pork. BUT on the flip side of that my 3rd child was allergic to lots of things but now he has no food allergies! So just watch your children, if they get upset stomaches OR if their face breaks out A LOT don’t just excuse it as bad acnie! It’s food allergies! my daughter’s face was always broken out but now has cleared up and we can tell when she’s eaten something she’s allergic to! Food allergies are horrible to have, and are really hard to find foods for everyone. And yes, you made a good point. We were told that the children do get their alleries from the parents and so now it makes since to me that I (was told by my mom) I never could wear throw away diapers without haveing bad diaper rash, and as an adult my periods would leave me sore for weeks after due to the reaction to the pads but because I wasn’t aware of latex allergies I just thought it was “normal”. So knowing what your children are allergic to you can generally figure out between your spouse and you who is allergic to what… good luck with little Aiden. AND finding a good Pediatrician! We absolutly love ours she and her nurse are our friends. My youngest children have unknown degenerative neuromuscular disease so having a doc we can talk with and rely upon is a MUST! But even if they didn’t have the health issues, being able to go to someone that “may have answer” is so important. Someone that isn’t going to point fingers and blame esepcailly for a first time parent! And first time parent doesn’t just mean first time no children then have some, but also could mean having 2 daughters then a son! totally different world but some doc’s don’t understand that. They think once a parent then always a parent but there are different things that need attention to different sexed babies so we all need help and advice along the way! :0)
And there are usually health food stores out there or online where you can purchase foods that don’t ahve the things your children are allergic in them. Often having to spend a little more but if it helps in the long run then it’s benifical to spend the little extra. But it’s just a BIG pain finding those foods. ESPECIALLY since labels don’t always put “milk” or “egg” they use the scientific names or something like that. But generally in the bold Allergy box they will say “MILK” etc. So just pay attention to that. Some things you can substitue like soy milk for reg, and veggie oil instead of corn or peanut oil, but for others there is no substitue… again good luck…
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