Oatmeal, glorious oatmeal

In May, we introduced organic, gluten-free oatmeal for Keandre's latest food trial.  That day, Keandre skipped around the house yelling at the top of his lungs, "Hooray!  Oat-a-meal!  I love oat-a-meal!"  Followed by, "It's yummy, right?  I think had it once a loooong time ago." :)

Because Eosinophilic Esophagitus and Eosinophilic Gastroenteritis (EE & EGE) are allergic conditions, every food has to be trialed separately until you know whether it's a 'safe food', meaning it doesn't trigger the growth of eosinophils, or white blood cells, in the digestive track.  The only way to know for sure if there are eosinophils is to schedule an endosocopy with biopsies, but you can also tell if the food is a problem from other symptoms. 

Within 1.5 weeks after we added 'oat-a-meal', Keandre was flaring.  Hiccups, stomach pain, reflux, and then vomiting returned.  Some families keep it up longer, and scope to be sure it's really 'a fail' (checking for evidence of eosinophils), but I just can't do that...it's too hard on him.  It's sign enough if I remove the food from his diet and he recovers. 

Oatmeal was a huge loss -- an emotional one for both of us.  My Mama heart breaks to see my son suffer, and I struggle with what to feed him with this limited diet.  He is grieving the loss of a food that he loved, and this loss is forcing him to face how different his life is from other 5-year-olds.

Please continue those prayers.  Keandre's body has rejected 7 of the last 8 foods we've trialed in the last 6 months, so I'm a little scared to introduce anything new for a while. 

For now, we're trying some new allergy treatments, in hopes that it will help his body tolerate more foods.  More on that later....

Foods that caused him to flare so far this year: lentils, cilantro, chives, green onion, leeks, celery, and now oatmeal.  (For the EOS moms who read here. :)

Please, please pray that pear continues to be safe for him.  He loves them!