When Max turned 6 months old, we started solid foods. He was eating oatmeal (steel-cut organic oats that I ground myself) and squash for about a week. He LOVED eating food, and gobbled it up quickly (even the first time). After a week, JB and I spent a night away. My mom tried to feed him oatmeal and squash while we were gone, and he made awful faces, gagged, and refused to eat it. This refusal continued, so I gave it a few days without pushing it, and tried again a few times--same response.
Then, Max and I went to Florida with friends. The day we got there, I tried to feed him oatmeal, and he seemed a little better about eating it. He wasn't gagging, but maybe ate 2 tsp. About an hour later, he started vomiting. And he continued to vomit for 6 hours straight. Of course, I called my pediatrician's office, and they told me to give him Pedialyte, and gradually try nursing him. That's what I did, and he stopped vomiting later that night. I didn't try to feed him solids again for a while. We weren't sure whether he got sick from the plane (air pressure), a virus, or the oatmeal. He was healthy (except for a tooth that cut through) for the remainder of the week we were gone.
A week later after we returned, I tried to give him a little bit of oatmeal again. (I kept trying the oatmeal, because at one point he loved it and tolerated it well). Again, he didn't seem to love it, but ate maybe a few teaspoons again. Two hours went by, and he started vomiting again. This time, we went to the doctor, because he continued to vomit. They sent us to the E.R., because he just continued to vomit and was throwing up bile. (Can I just say that there is NOTHING worse than seeing your baby sick? It made me so sad--I was a wreck!) They felt that he needed fluids. When we got to the ER, they ran a bunch of blood tests, gave him fluids, and within a few hours he was feeling much better. The ER Dr. seemed to think it was a virus. The bloodwork came back normal (with slightly elevated white cell count.) **Over the past month, I did try to feed him other food to see if he would take anything (applesauce, bananas, pears, and sweet potatoes, rice cereal)--always waiting a few days in between. He had the same gagging reaction with everything.
It seems really strange to me that he would have two similar episodes of vomiting that was the result of a virus (when he was healthy for an entire week in between. ) Do you think that he's maybe just not ready for food yet? Or that he's allergic to something in the oatmeal? The pediatrician told me to just keep waiting and try again every few days. I'm terrified of "making him sick" by giving him something if that's the problem.
Has your baby ever had an experience like this? Do you know a baby who just wasn't ready for solid foods? Thanks for your help!
2 comments:
Hi there,
Saw your blog by chance and had to respond. My baby Max had very similar experiences with rice and oats. I sent you an email because I couldn't comment at first. Our Max was eventually diagnosed with FPIES. You might want to read about it. Let me know if you have questions. Best of luck.
Post a Comment