Apr

April Hasn’t Been a Good Month For Simone

April hasn’t been the best month so far for Simmi. First she falls out of her crib and hits her head on the concrete, and a few days ago something else happened. Its all my fault of course, and I feel horrible about it.

Knowing how careful we have to be about introducing her to new foods, the one thing I didn’t do before introducing beef for the first time was to check if the company uses any type of fillers or dyes in their meat. There are a lot of companies out there that wouldn’t hesitate to put a little dye into their products to make them look more vibrant in color, or even add some sort of flavor enhancer to make the meat taste better. Some poultry companies have been known to inject their poultry with soy or wheat.

I would recommend that if anyone is going to introduce a food allergic child to a new meat, that they start with an organic product FIRST. Check with the company to make sure that they do not use any type of filler or dye. I didn’t do that with Simone, and a few days ago, I gave her beef for the first time. I didn’t even THINK to do it first. I made sure the chicken that I gave her was free of those types of additives, but it totally slipped my mind to check the beef.

When we gave her the beef, she liked it at first, but within three minutes she had red welts all over her face and they started spreading. Is she allergic to beef? Hmm??? Its hard to say. I don’t know what is in the beef because I had already thrown out the package. It is possible that she is allergic to beef, but it is also possible that there are additives in the beef that she was reacting to. Soy could be one of them. She is anaphylaxic to milk products, so it is possible that she was reacting to the beef. At this point, I can “try” again in a few weeks to give her some organic beef that I know doesn’t have any additives what so ever, but I run the risk of her having an even worse reaction if I introduce beef again. I don’t know if its a chance I’m willing to take.

I gave her a massive dose of Benadryl, but something else happened on that same day. My kids have wanted me to get some nice smelling plugins for a while, so I went and got them and plugged them in. Simone started sneezing and a coughing, and my first thought was that she was coming down with a cold. Just a few days prior we had been at the WIC office and she was in contact with other children. I never thought it was the plugins I purchased. So now she is sneezing, has a goopy runny nose, and a hacking cough. We unplug the plugins and those symptoms subside…not completely, but she was much better after we opened all the windows and got rid of the plugin smell.

As the night progressed after eating the beef and the plugin debacle, she developed horrible reflux. I think that the beef she ingested did a number on her little system, because her reflux is as bad as it was last year. She may have to go back on a reflux medication. Whenever she drinks a bottle now, she starts to cough heavily and sometimes throws up the formula.

Her constipation has worsened again, and she is just all out of sorts. I feel horrible about all of it, and I hope that she continues to recover.

On a good note, she can say “bye bye” now on her own appropriately. We were so happy to hear her say it. She has been saying “bye bye” and waving off and on over the last week and a half. It seems to be sticking! Sometimes she will say a word and then it disappears for a long time and may pop back for a moment. Simmi has said a few other things also:

Pee Pee
Pretty (pri-ee)
Wow
Oh
Baby
Hi

While she doesn’t say these things frequently, they are words that we have heard her say once or twice. Its a good start. She is also starting to give the sign for “more” and when she does the sign for “more” she purses her lips and says “oh-ooo-ooo”. Although she knows how to make the sound “mmmmaaa” she does not use “m” for “more” when she is speaking. She just uses vowels.

This Friday she will be evaluated by the developmental team to see where she is at and if she will need any further therapy. I think she is coming along very nicely and I hope that she continues to improve in her development.

Simmi’s great-grandma sent her an outfit and bunny and she just adores the bunny! The outfit, although it is 24 months, is a bit too short. Simmi is quite tall for her age, so the outfit looked a little to small length wise. Her waist, however, is so tiny that the shorts that came with it kept falling off.