I'm wondering if anyone here has dealt with a similiar situation to what we are going through with our eldest (turned 5 on 3.16.06).
Some background info: Our eldest DD was born with a cleft lip and gumline, congenital neurologic strabismus (basically eye co-ordination problems caused by a misfiring in her brain), and lots of unknown environmental allergies which have caused her adnenoids and tonsils to be enlarged (confirmed with an x-ray when she almost 2). We opted out of surgery to remove her tonsils and adenoids because 1) while it disrupted her sleep and caused congestion she did not have ear infections or other associated illnesses, 2) she had already been through 4 suregeries for her other issues and 3) we wanted to do our due dilligence on the cause before simply treating the symptom. This decision was supported by her ENT (love him) and her pedi.
Now, this is the first real Spring since she stopped nursing (I just made that connection right now) as she nursed till she was 4ish, asking periodically to nurse through that Spring and summer, but not much at all.
Our current issues: About once a week since the end of March she gets sick. She'll complain of severe headaches and nausea and it will get so bad that she has to stop whatever she is doing and lie down. She may or may not throw up and may or may not spike a fever. We've been a keeping a food and activity journal and foudn no correrelations. The nausea/headache/vomiting "spells" on average last about 18-24 hours, but have lasted longer (2-3 days intermintantly). Her pedi sent to her an Infectious Disease specialist (she's only partially vaxed and was on a highly delayed schedule) because a couple of these episodes (back in March only) her neck hurt her so bad she couldn't move her head. The neck pain has not returned and the ID specialist came up cold.
Both the ID specialist and her pedi are thinking this is allergy related (she also has chronic congestion, some coughing and has complaine dof a sore throat a few times) but neither can link the vomiting episodes to environmental allergies. She had been to an allergist in early March who determined she had no allergies (second opinion coming next week). She's been evaluated by her Ophthalmologist for this as well, and while her eyes are still have issues, they are not causing her vomiting/nausea spells. She has an appointment with a neurologist set for next week too. Her pedi wants a sinus scan done (they've done x-rays of her sinuses and chest and stomach which we have yet to hear the results from the ID specialist on) because he is convinced she has soo much mucus in her stomach it's making her feel ill. But again, he can't explain the chronic vomiting.
We made the appointment with the neurologist because there is a family history of migraines (my mother, brother and grandfather) and we want to rule that out. We take on a very hands on approach to our children's medical care and feel we have had to do this especially in regards to her current issues because no one else sees how debilitating this is for our 5 year old and how much this is impacting her life.
Thanks for reading this far. If anyone has any experiences they can share we 'd love to hear them.
Some background info: Our eldest DD was born with a cleft lip and gumline, congenital neurologic strabismus (basically eye co-ordination problems caused by a misfiring in her brain), and lots of unknown environmental allergies which have caused her adnenoids and tonsils to be enlarged (confirmed with an x-ray when she almost 2). We opted out of surgery to remove her tonsils and adenoids because 1) while it disrupted her sleep and caused congestion she did not have ear infections or other associated illnesses, 2) she had already been through 4 suregeries for her other issues and 3) we wanted to do our due dilligence on the cause before simply treating the symptom. This decision was supported by her ENT (love him) and her pedi.
Now, this is the first real Spring since she stopped nursing (I just made that connection right now) as she nursed till she was 4ish, asking periodically to nurse through that Spring and summer, but not much at all.
Our current issues: About once a week since the end of March she gets sick. She'll complain of severe headaches and nausea and it will get so bad that she has to stop whatever she is doing and lie down. She may or may not throw up and may or may not spike a fever. We've been a keeping a food and activity journal and foudn no correrelations. The nausea/headache/vomiting "spells" on average last about 18-24 hours, but have lasted longer (2-3 days intermintantly). Her pedi sent to her an Infectious Disease specialist (she's only partially vaxed and was on a highly delayed schedule) because a couple of these episodes (back in March only) her neck hurt her so bad she couldn't move her head. The neck pain has not returned and the ID specialist came up cold.
Both the ID specialist and her pedi are thinking this is allergy related (she also has chronic congestion, some coughing and has complaine dof a sore throat a few times) but neither can link the vomiting episodes to environmental allergies. She had been to an allergist in early March who determined she had no allergies (second opinion coming next week). She's been evaluated by her Ophthalmologist for this as well, and while her eyes are still have issues, they are not causing her vomiting/nausea spells. She has an appointment with a neurologist set for next week too. Her pedi wants a sinus scan done (they've done x-rays of her sinuses and chest and stomach which we have yet to hear the results from the ID specialist on) because he is convinced she has soo much mucus in her stomach it's making her feel ill. But again, he can't explain the chronic vomiting.
We made the appointment with the neurologist because there is a family history of migraines (my mother, brother and grandfather) and we want to rule that out. We take on a very hands on approach to our children's medical care and feel we have had to do this especially in regards to her current issues because no one else sees how debilitating this is for our 5 year old and how much this is impacting her life.
Thanks for reading this far. If anyone has any experiences they can share we 'd love to hear them.
