Jenny, I found it such a relief to talk to a doctor who is on the same page re food intolerances.
She didn't get a chance to look at his tongue as he was asleep - we didn't want to wake him, however we will get the other paed to do so in 3 weeks. She said that if is tongue can reach the front of his teeth, he won't have speech problems, if it can reach outer edge of his lip he will able to do everything, lick an ice-cream etc. She said to tap the top of his tongue it should stick out. So far, we think it can only reach the inner edge of his mouth.
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We will keep trying though. She said a speech pathologist would help us make the decision on whether to snip, and assess it, and a paediatric surgeon would need to snip under general anesthetic.
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Sounds a bit drastic! If he doesn't have the 'full range' we are keen to snip before he is 1.
She said one of of other options for his refluxing was gaviscon before every feed, but I feel the thickener is doing the job well. (Besides we have got so many things going on, I don't want to add another to the mix!).
She was really keen for me to do the food challengesfor sanities sake and kept emphasising that it's the only way to determine how sensitive Kai is, how much of the problem is pure reflux, how much of it is true food intolerance. She said that as time goes on each child builds up a tolerance, even the most sensitive kids can be exposed to small quanitities of the intolerant food so that over time they build up a tolerance.
My long term bf'ing goal will rely on me sticking to some sort of restrictive diet, these challenges will show how restricted that it will need to be. She said every family is different, some want a child with no symptoms, some choose to medicate heavily and eat unrestriced, some go to formula, some find a happy medium. I am thinking that if I can get a bit more range in my foods I could do it till he is a year old, without having to supplement. I am happy if he stays as is now. She said it would be good to get him on the bottle and used to the tast of the formula, so if I can't stand the diet anymore, I have a fall back, however I just can't get my head around it! I feel that he will become radically less sensitive to foods and relfux better with age, hindsight with Ds1 is helping alot here.
As far as the challenges go, (with the dietician) its a set program - one size fits all type thing. We discussed dairy and she said the only reason to do it is if you really are missing the dairy and want to prove to yourself that he is intolerant. However I just know in my bones he is and I don't want to put him through anything unecessarily.
If he starts failing challenge after challenge, then he will be one unsettled guy, so I won't do gluten again. However if we are going well, then I will do it again to re-confirm, she said the reaction to gluten usually happens very quickly i.e. Day 1 or 2 anyway.
The only one I think he will pass 100% is the additive group - synthetic antioxidants - you eat 1 serve of McDonalds (maccas) large chips 3 days in a row. I have been eating these over the last 6 weeks, no problem!! I am pretty keen to get all the preservatives and additives out of the way, as that is annoying me.
The food colour challenge is fun - eat a hundreds and thousands sandwich every day for 3 days - 2 teaspoons on bread.
Anyway, thanks for listening!
Will get back once I start the first food challenge next week! BTW I am thinking of doing amines or sals.