Dawson's News

Poor little stinker! He has been through a lot for the last few weeks. Come to think of it, I think it has been going on since just before Christmas, which was when we all got strep, TWICE!

So Dawson has now been worse for 2 1/2 weeks. We have been to the doctor and getting xrays. At one point I thought that his feeding tube was leaking food into his bowel and causing an infection, which because of the catherter in there that drains from his shunt in his head, would have caused another bought of Spinal Menengitis! UGH!

Well, thank goodness for mothers intuition and guidance from the spirit!
When we went to Twin a week and a half ago, we just thought that he had the stomache flu. He had lost 3 lbs which is definately not something he can afford! A little nerve racking to see his body so tiny! We were advised, by Dr. Scott, the best doctor EVER, to give him more white foods and try to stop his diarrea. So we went home and tried. It did work for a bit, but he kept waking up all night and he was pretty much constantly wimpering. Something else was going on.

This is when we went for the x-rays. They shot "ink" into his g tube to see if it was leaking. It was not! GOOD NEWS! But still no explanation for his discomfort. At which point I started to think that it is his shunt not working again, which would mean a trip to Utah and another surgery!

Then I noticed something. You can see it in the bottom picture best. Dawson' tongue was white. That is a sign of thrush. So I called the doctor. We talked about how that would explain a lot, and she was about to call in the prescription. Then I just mentioned that he had the worst diaper rash and I wondered what I could put on it, since everything I tried didn't seem to help. I told her he was getting quite swollen. Then the pieces to the puzzle came together!

Thrush is a yeast infection babies get in their mouths AND he had a yeast infection on his bum! It had gone through his body! Probably from the antibiotics for the strep!

So now he is getting a couple meds for that and seems to be feeling a little better. We also put him back in his swing to help with his equilibrium. He was startling constantly even when we were in the truck and I turned a corner! So we are trying to give him as much motion as possible, and he is loving it!

So here are a couple pics of his halfway smile (it will come back soon, I am sure) in his swing.

He is a sweetheart! Poor baby! I wish that we could have figured this stuff out long ago. The only thing that brought him comfort was to snuggle his little face into my neck. So sweet!

As for putting the pounds back on, I am trying to get him off of formula. I think it is better for him to have real food, however being allergic to wheat & oats (gluten), nuts, dairy & soy makes it a little more challenging!

The goal is to get him 100 calories per kilo per day. He is about 10 Kilo's (20 lbs), so he needs 1,000 calories a day to gain weight. That means we have to make every meal he gets count. They have to be about 250 cals each, and it has to be about 7 oz! Not so easy!

The good thing is that we now have a little Magic Bullet blender and we can throw a bunch of stuff in that and just blend it all up. We use any kind of canned veggie, fruit, chicken vienna sausages, beans and whatever we can. He doesn't taste it so the combos can get quite funky at times! :)

Any ideas? I would love to hear any ideas you have for food that would have no allergy stuff and lots of cals! Sometimes I just get a total mental block! So, comment away! (Please!)