"where's the beef?"

a thought kept struggling to bob to the surface of my addled, rice-infested brain today. it finally surfaced and i realized: the last time he was this bad (at 11 mos), was when all of his other food allergies were diagnosed (besides the dairy he was born reacting to and the egg he became allergic to at 7 mos). i've been sitting here preparing myself to deal with eliminating chicken... and what if it's really black beans, kidney beans, chicken, turkey and beef? (when he was 11 months, he had a virus and became allergic to: corn, soy, wheat and peanuts).

how on earth do you get protein if you can't have dairy, soy, nuts, meats, or beans? he's still getting human milk protein from my milk, but would that be enough at his age to replace these other sources? i'm not going to worry about this until i have to... but it just keeps bobbing up in my brain like some noxious and malevolent toad in a stagnant pond.

on a positive note, we've only had rice today and one fruit smoothie in the morning and i haven't seen 'lou scratching at all! he slept better last night and got off my boob for a while to play, too! i think :::knock on wood::: this rice-only diet is clearing him up. i also think this shows it's probably not the dog he's allergic to, but something he was eating. of course, i don't know if he will ever poop again... and i am starving 5 minutes after i eat and yet have the belly of a 7 month pregnant woman. i really hope our allergist calls the second he gets our results and doesn't wait until the end of office hours. come to think of it, i may just call and check in myself about those results on monday!

what i'm wondering about today is how there can't be a doctor specializing in these kinds of issues yet. how there can't be corn-free medication options out there. i have so many questions i want answers to that nobody seems to know.

~how do i advocate more effectively for my child's right to have medications he isn't allergic to?

~who dictates what medication options there are, if not the dr.s treating children like 'lou?

~why is he becoming allergic to more and more things if i've eliminated all the allergens and been doing things to heal his gut all his life?

~are other kids like him outgrowing these food allergies? by what age?

~can we import corn-free medications from other parts of the world for kids like this on an as-needed basis?

~can a corn allergy become anaphylactic?

~are children with a history like 'lou's outgrowing these food allergies?

~is it possible that his immune system is also fighting off food proteins and becoming allergic when it fights off prolonged viral exposure?

~if so, would restricting his diet to rice while he's ill, prevent him from 'imprinting' on his foods and becoming newly allergic to foods that were previously safe?

~are children with a history like 'lou's outgrowing these food allergies?

~what kind of dr. would i need to find that was curious and passionate enough to start researching severe corn allergy issues in his spare time and give us more guidance, support and options?

~or is there such an expert out there already that my own dr.s can contact?

~where would i look to find such a specialist?

~are children with a history like 'lou's outgrowing these food allergies?

see if you can guess which question is most urgent to me right now, as i sit here hallucinating about protein, any kind of protein i could sink my teeth into...