Rice - Day Five

Asher has been eating rice for five days now. Today is the dreaded day five on the rice trial.

I hate day five. It's always on day five that we see a food failure.

Days one and two are the honeymoon phase. It is when Asher is really enjoying his new food, happily eating away. Beginning around day three, I look at Asher and he seems so healthy, so energetic and happy and, well, healthy, so I think we're doing well. Then around day four, he's still doing great - very healthy and energetic and it feels like we're in the home stretch - just rounding the bend and heading for the finish line. Then, along comes day five and - bam! - Asher becomes sick as a dawg. I hate day five. It's really tough to see your child become so sick. It's even tougher when I realise that I caused it by allowing my child to eat something to which he is allergic. That's day five.

Today is day five on the rice trial. The dreaded day five. I've been worried about this day - concerned about how sick Asher is going to feel after eating rice for five days. He's been eating A LOT of rice!

Here it is, the end of day five, and Asher's still acting healthy and happy and not complaining or feeling sick.

All food trials last two weeks, so we still have a way to go before the end of the rice trial. But it's nice to know that day five is behind us.

Blueberries: A False Start

I know it's quick, but the verdict is in for the blueberry trial: Asher doesn't like them. I think they're too tart for him. It's early in the season and difficult to get good, juicy, sweet ones. So he doesn't want to eat his blueberries.

He is, however, chowing down like never before on his pork and broccoli. That's a good sign that he's feeling well.

We're not going to force him to eat something he doesn't like, so the blueberries are shelved for now.

Next up: rice. Asher thoroughly enjoyed eating a rice cake last night.

Broccoli, Augmentin, and Blueberries

We have officially declared broccoli and Augmentin as food trial successes. Phew! We really needed to see a success. Aside from a small bit of " whole-body" tiredness, Asher is feeling pretty good these days. So, we're moving on.

Asher has chosen blueberries to be the next food to add into his diet. Off to the store we went to purchase some blueberries (gasp - do you know how much these tiny little things cost?) and he had them for his dessert last night. And he's absolutely thrilled to learn that now he can drink a little bit less of his milk.

Swimingly Simi

When Simi was three, he began swim lessons. We took one five-week session of parent-tot classes, then put him in the group lessons. Then, we got permission to do another five-week session of parent-tot lessons because he was too small for the group lesson. He did absolutely fantastic in the parent-tot class and was close to swimming when we stopped to get his heart fixed. After we got his heart fixed, we focused on other activities, such as soccer and t-ball. Swimming took a back seat to all the other activities.

Seven weeks ago, we enrolled the boys in swim lessons again.

On Saturday, during the lesson, Simi swam about 10 feet all by himself. He did it! He swam by himself!

Augmentin - Day Five

Today marks the fifth day that Asher has been taking Augmentin. It's the dreaded day five. Keep your fingers crossed. Cross those toes too - we need all the superstitious luck we can get. After all, it's day five. Is Asher allergic to Augmentin or is it safe for our little guy? Stay tuned....

Sinus Infection for Asher

After another trip to the pediatrician's office, we have a prognosis for Asher's latest illness: sinus infection. And we have another prescription so that he can kick the infection: Augmentin.

Now we get to see if Asher's allergic to Augmentin.

The Doctor suggested we get Asher some probiotic while he's on the antibiotic. I explained that I couldn't find one that didn't dairy or wheat in it. Asher's allergic to both of those things. Deep sigh....

Stay tuned for the next installment of "how to make Asher sick to his stomach".....

Asher's Sick - Again

For the third time in less than six weeks, Asher is really sick. He is coughing so violently that he can't keep anything down. He just coughs so violently that he vomits up anything that he eats/drinks. We're giving him cough medicine, breathing treatments, and Flovent to ease his pain. I think it's helping a little bit, but the kid hasn't kept any fluids or calories in his tiny little body at all yesterday. Jeez.

At first, I thought he was having an asthma attack because the weather dropped 30 degrees overnight. I thought the temperature triggered it. It's also not lost on me that it happened on day five of the broccoli trial. If we're going to see a reaction, it happens on day five. Honestly, I hate day five. It's just enough time when you think that everything is going all right and then, bam! something bad happens.

Is it asthma? Is it broccoli? Is it ___ fill in the blank here? Who knows. I just know this kid is really sick.

Sweet Potatoes and Broccoli

Here is an update on Asher's food trials:

Looking back, I realise that I forgot to mention the sweet potato trial.

After the dismal failure of the apple trial, we had to wait until Asher was feeling better. Then we added sweet potatoes into Asher's diet. First, we gave him baked sweet potatoes. He didn't like them. So then we sliced them and made French-fry type sweet potatoes. We made fried sweet potato balls. We learned to make a lot of different things with sweet potatoes.

The verdict? Asher simply doesn't like sweet potatoes. He just doesn't want to eat them.

On day 6 of the sweet potato trial, pre-school called to tell me that Asher was leaning over the toilet trying to vomit and was crying. All of our initial thoughts were that the sweet potato trial was failing. Turns out that Asher caught the virus that Leila had the week before. He had a fever for four solid days and complained of a tummy ache. I'm pretty sure that it was a virus and not a food trial failure. But it doesn't really matter because Asher doesn't like sweet potatoes. OK then.

This evening we began broccoli. Why broccoli? Because it's low on the allergenic scale and because it's what Asher requested. So, broccoli it is. I'll be reporting back in two weeks or less on the results.