Allergies, Chicken Pox, and Everything in Between

The stuff you want to sign up for as a parent: the first time your baby calls you “mama."
The stuff you don’t want to sign up for as a parent: illnesses - be they mild or severe – they all suck!

The last few weeks have been eventful. It all started after the girls' 12 month checkup. The Wednesday following, Grace and Frances had both developed some bumps but we thought they were mosquito bites. Frances' appetite began waning (very, very unusual for her). We thought maybe she was just teething extra badly (some molars were coming in). Between Wednesday and Thursday she only ate a couple spoons of applesauce and a cookie. Nothing more. However, by that Friday, she was refusing fluids as well and was throwing up – A LOT. A dilemma...

Was she just plain sick?

Was she having a soy allergy (we had been trying to introduce her to soy milk and were just 2 days shy of 2 full weeks on soy)?

Was she having a reaction to one of the vaccines she received?

By the time I got home from work she was just a lump of clay on the living room floor. She had a low grade fever – just shy of 101 – nothing dangerous. But her lips were so dry and her eyes were all sunken and she just laid there without moving. Every time I tried to pick her up, she’d throw up. But she had nothing left in her belly so it was that bile stuff and violent dry heaves. Poor baby. So I called the pediatrician and she said to take her to ER.

Fortunately, my mom was still here helping us out while the nanny was on vacation. She stayed home with Grace while Richard and I trekked off to the hospital with Frances. So we get to the ER and they get her in a room pretty quickly. They can tell right away that she’s dehydrated. So they decide to give her IV fluids. Now getting an IV into the arm of a squirming, unhappy baby is not easy (and babies have that extra fat which inhibits searching for veins, being dehydrated doesn't help either) – so the nurses requested that mom and dad help hold her down. Richard subsequently left the room, without notice. So I had to hold her legs and arm down and try to reassure her – the reassuring part being next to impossible. So she was screaming and crying of course because it hurt and she was scared and I was singing to her and talking to her in a fruitless attempt at distraction. Emotionally I was doing really well, since I knew this was to make her feel better. Then it happened… she screamed, “Ma! Ma! Ma!” A knife went straight through my heart. And then I felt horrible. Why? Because that was the FIRST time she called me mom. I felt so horrible because she was clearly seeking my help and I couldn’t do anything to help her, instead, I was aiding in the “torture.” I know that is completely illogical, but really, logic seems to fly out the window when it comes to your child being in distress. Logically, I know that by getting her the IV I was helping her to feel better. Illogically, I wanted to fix her by saying “presto!” Richard returned to the room when she shouted “Da!” They got the IV in right when he was coming up to the bed. He reached to scoop her up for comforting and I admit I was selfish and kept her to myself for comforting – hey, I figured I didn’t want her to view me as the torturer and daddy as her savior. Yes, totally, totally, totally selfish, I know that’s wrong. And for those of you wondering, yes, Richard did feel bad for leaving the room.

So anyway, that’s one reason I hate illnesses and now a very traumatizing way (for me at least) to remember the first time she called me mom.

The ER doctor and nurse assured us it was a stomach virus that we'd just have to wait out. By Saturday she was doing much better and by Sunday, even better still. So on Monday, Richard gave her a bit of milk in the morning. A couple hours later the nanny calls because Frances was throwing up again. I left work early and took that Tuesday off as well to help get her back to keeping the Pedialyte down. We called the pediatrician's office again and they said there was a stomach virus going around that’s taking 2 weeks to clear up and just to keep her on a bland diet with pedialyte for a few more days.

Meanwhile the bumps we noticed a week back have scabbed over, and some new ones appear on Grace. We now suspect Chicken Pox. They got the vaccine at their 12 month checkup and the doctor said they could get it from the vaccine. The nurse at the pediatrician's office confirms the chicken pox diagnosis for Grace on Thursday. By Saturday, a full week and a half after Frances first started feeling yucky, we decide to try (for the second time) introducing a bit of milk back into her diet. Grandma and Grandpa who had left town for the week had returned just in time for her to start vomiting all over again (poor Richard got drenched, Linda Blair-style). It is at this point we conlude the vomiting is indeed an allergic reaction to soy.

After input from 5 medical professionals (pediatrician, ER doc, 3 nurses), who all assured Richard and I that Frances' illness was in no way allergy or vaccine related, we discover that those were in fact the culprits. We did the calculations as to when the bumps first appeared on both girls. Grace had far more and they started the same Wednesday that Frances' appetite started to disappear. At that point, Frances had a couple bumps. And then the day after we took Frances to the ER I noticed a big red welt on her thigh, and asked my parents if they thought it was a spider bite because there were two small bumps in it. I thought maybe that was making her sick. My mom noted that was where she got her vaccines. And Grace got the same big welt where her vaccines were too! So Frances' low grade fever was probably attributable to the chicken pox and she just happened to be unfortunate enough to have her soy allergy present itself at the exact same time! Poor girl.

Anyway, we starved her for a week and a half for nothing. But I can't be completely angry with the doctors, it's hard to diagnose an infant -- hell, it took us a week and a half to figure it all out and we're with her all the time. It's still so frustrating when they completely rule out otherwise plausible explanations. Ah well. And Richard kept saying "soy allergy" and I kept saying "no" because all the medical professionals said "no way." I guess we've learned to trust our instincts. Nobody knows your child better than you do.

So now Frances is back on her hypoallergenic formula and right as rain. She had been our little “chubbette,” but due to her illness, lost considerable weight. She looks so skinny to us. At the ER visit she weighed in at 22 ¼ pounds - that’s a whole pound and a quarter down from her 12 month checkup the week before! We're guestimating that she probably lost at least 2 pounds during the whole ordeal, which is a lot for someone so little.

So now, Frances is on a dairy, soy and egg free diet. The allergist said the stricter we are about elminating all potential sources of allergen, the quicker she could grow out of them. Cross fingers! We're reassured by the fact that Grace has outgrown her milk allergy and is on whole cow's milk now. As for the chicken pox, Grace had several more appear on Monday of this week but hopefully this is the last batch. Thanks to it being the mild version from the vaccine, it has been pretty "easy." Frances only had a few pox and the fever. Grace had more pox but no fever. Interesting.