Been dealing with vomiting since birth...need help! \-Kinda long

[southernmama47]

DD will be 1 next month. She was EBF until around 7-8 months, when I began feeding her squash, sweet potatoes, etc. Around 9-10ish months I began giving her eggs, yogurt, and some cheese.

When she was an infant, she would spit up a TON. More than just spit up, actually emptying her stomach. I talked to the pedi about it and she always called her a happy spitter. Her growth and development are fine, so no worries there. She was colic-y and cried a lot. She slept terribly, and still isn't that great. I began taking her for chiro adjustments and her symptoms let up a bit. She is still a very clingy baby but I attribute it partly to her personality. She still gets adjusted once every 3-4 months. Something that has kind of worried me is the fact that she seems to choke and gag on her food a LOT. Like almost all solids. I started with purees and transitioned her to BWL around 9 months, but I think it's gone beyond the normal BWL gagging. It's just constant, with every bite of food practically. When she was a little baby, she would not take a paci, partially I think because she would gag even with the infant size.

Around 7 months, I began giving her mashed bananas...after a few I realized that she must be allergic to them because she would throw it up within 15-30 minutes of eating it. A couple months later, we all got sick with the flu and all threw up, so I attributed that vomiting episode to sickness. She now has continued to randomly throw up her stomach contents within 15-30 minutes of eating. I have tried to figure out the trigger but it seems very random. She spent last Friday throwing up for a couple hours, so Saturday I decided not to give her any solids and only BF. She threw up the bm too :(

After that weekend, I took her to the pedi who sent her for an allergy test. She tested negative for everything but eggs. I'm not convinced that eggs are the only issue because she was throwing up before eggs were introduced and on days that she hadn't eaten any. The pedi told me to avoid eggs and see if she throws up again. She hasn't (its only been since Monday), but her vomiting has been so random. Some weeks with no episodes, and some weeks where she throws up 4 times. I always know that she is about to throw up because she thrashes around in bed, can't get settled, refuses to nurse, and then throws up promptly. She seems fine afterwards, but I know her tummy hurts. She also struggles with not-quite-hard poos but not loose either. She's had a few episodes where she cried out in pain while pooping.

I know that I will probably need to eliminate something from my diet, but I'm not sure what. I have an undiagnosed dairy allergy myself, so I don't eat much at all, and I don't eat many eggs either, only a couple fried eggs a month maybe.

I don't know what to do! Help!

[KempsMama]

I was going to say FPIES, because that would cause the vomitting without an allergic reaction, but that typically takes longer from ingesting the food (like two hours).  I would try and get a referral to gastro doc. 

[changingseasons]

Did you do skin testing or blood testing? Neither are very accurate at that age, but skin testing might give you better answers than blood tests. We didn't even start getting positive results until DD was around 18 months, and even then we got a lot of false negatives.

I would keep a really detailed food journal so that you can start looking for patterns of what you both are eating and when the vomiting occurs.

Eosinophilic esophagitis can also cause symptoms like vomiting and trouble swallowing. Those are actually huge flags for EE. I would see if you can get a referral to a pediatric GI. eta: APFED has some good information about EE: http://www.apfed.org/
Edited by changingseasons - 3/18/11 at 9:28pm

[scsigrl]

Originally Posted by KempsMama 

I was going to say FPIES, because that would cause the vomitting without an allergic reaction, but that typically takes longer from ingesting the food (like two hours).  I would try and get a referral to gastro doc. 

That's not always true.  FPIES reactions can happen as soon as 15 minutes after ingestion but yes, it's typically 2-4 hours after.  
Is the baby tired after she gets sick?  I know with us, that's how FPIES plays out.

Edited by scsigrl - 3/19/11 at 7:06am

[WhiteHorse]

My son had very similar symptoms at that age. He has a severe dairy allergy and asthma. He stopped gaining weight at 16 months because he just would not eat. Finally at age 2, we had him evaluated by a gastroenterologist who suggested it might be reflux and coupled with the allergies this is called esinophil esophagitis. Basically the allergies aggravate the immune system and cause inflammation and reflux. My son is taking Prilosec every day and it helps tremedously. He no longer throws up and can experiment with new foods. He still not quite caught up with his weight and we struggle with his very low appetite, but at least what he does eat stays down. You might consider seeing a gi doctor just to see what they say, you don't want to wait as long as I did with my son whose habits are already formed and he refuses to eat.

[southernmama47]

Well its almost been two weeks since she's thrown up any. She had one episode of dry heaving but she was SUPER congested that night and I wonder if that had something to do with it. We are doing mostly purees, and that seems to help a lot too. She just really struggles with food in a more solid form. Perhaps she just wasn't ready for solids beyond purees? I'm not sure, but we are going to continue with purees and avoid common allergenic foods for awhile to see if it helps. She does enjoy food and is gaining weight well, even slightly chunky for her age. If she has another vomiting episode, we will evaluate what to do next.

I forgot toask the Dr, but if she has an egg allergy, does that mean that I need to avoid eating them as well?

[WhiteHorse]

The reason I suggested the reflux is because in your OP you said she threw up as an infant and also seemed colicky and had trouble sleeping. As a baby, my son would not sleep well laying down, he had to be upright and slightly leaning head forward to sleep comfortably. This meant either my shoulder or sometimes in the swing. As for solids, we introduced them slowly around 5 months, but he did not like purees - just spit them out. Later on, he did well on small bits of food he could pick up and put in his mouth (around 10-11mos). Like bananas, the freeze dried fruit bits, diced fruit, veggies, cheerios, etc. His gagging and throwing up episodes were not a daily thing, sometimes weeks would go by with none. At 15 months, DS was in the 40% for weight vs height. At age 2.5 he was off the chart. Reflux, as far as I understand, does not go away on its own. Lots of children are thought to have it and not diagnosed. Just something to keep in mind as your DD grows.

[southernmama47]

Yes, I agree that reflux is very possibly an issue as well. The pedi thinks maybe too, but wanted to wait a month to see what happened after avoiding eggs and only eating purees. Is there a way to treat reflux in babies other than meds? Is there a way to test for reflux?

[KempsMama]

Take her to a good chiro.  That's what we did for DS2's reflux after meds didn't work.  After just a couple of treatments we saw huge lasting improvements.

[WhiteHorse]

The "test" they used for my son was to give the meds for 4 weeks and see if there was improvement. I was very skeptical at first, but the alternative is an upper GI scope which is like surgery. They can also test for swallowing issues by doing a video swallow test which the child swallows barium laced foods while under survallience. I refused both of these options when the prilosec worked and he started to gain weight. There might be other tests or indications that I am not aware of.

[changingseasons]

Finally at age 2, we had him evaluated by a gastroenterologist who suggested it might be reflux and coupled with the allergies this is called esinophil esophagitis.

Eosinophilic esophagitis is not related to reflux or allergies. It's a chronic, incurable disease that may be present with or without reflux OR allergies. The only way to test for EE is by scoping. For reflux, you can do meds and watch for improvements, or do a pH probe for 24 hours (that records the amount of acid going up into the esophagus.)

[kjbrown92]

And for reflux, both of my kids had it, and were on meds, and when I took out the foods that they were intolerant to, the reflux went away. So it's possible that she's got reflux due to things in your diet, that are causing the reflux.

[LionessMom]

sounds like my kids. they all have fructose intolerance....