Thursday

So far, so good. We are now at one full week without any tummyaches from Iyyar. And, I hope, counting.

We went to the allergist yesterday, to get her take on all of this; I'd made the appointment a couple of weeks ago, when I thought of it more as one last thing to do before starting more invasive testing. She thought we should still do an endoscopy, since so much of what's going on with Iyyar doesn't make sense; the most likely thing is a gut allergy to dairy and/or soy (since I completely eliminated dairy at the same time that I took out soy, I don't really know which it is), but that usually shows up by age 1 and in Iyyar it didn't show up until he was well past two; also, he tested negative for dairy, which he "should" not have done. She was also concerned about his nutritional needs, so sent me home with a can of hypoallergenic baby formula and instructions to give him two 8-oz glasses a day.

I got home and read the label on that and saw both dairy and soy on the ingredient list, along with the line:

"Nutramigen Lipil with Enflora EGG is a hypoallergenic, lactose-free formula for babies who develop cow's milk allergy." It goes on to say that allergenic ingredients have been specially modified to be better tolerated in allergic children.

Sorry, but no. Butter is pretty much lactose-free, and we all know how well that went over; the second ingredient is soybean oil. With only a week of Iyyar feeling OK, there is NO WAY ON THIS GREEN EARTH that I am going to give him this stuff in the name of healthy bone growth. He can have calcium-fortified oatmeal and OJ and he can have spinach and salmon patties with the bones ground in; he's not going to get osteoporosis or rickets or scurvy on a few months of chicken and potatoes and vegetables, either.

Anybody need a can of Nutramigen? I hear it's pretty expensive stuff, and I'd hate to just toss it in the garbage.

So far as the endoscopy, I'm holding off. It's only been a week. If a month or two months go by (please please please) with no problems, then I don't see any need to put him through that. If this doesn't last, then that's a different story, but right now I can't see any good reason to go ahead with it.

Tomorrow, at great long last: the Tzitzis Party. Iyyar is getting tzitzis, a Spiderman t-shirt and the fabulous box of worker-man toys; Barak has a 100-piece Iron Man puzzle; there will be doughnuts for everyone, and Morah and her kids are coming too. I mamash can't wait.