Abel was born full term weighing in at 7 pounds 6 ounces and looking healthy as any baby. We were discharged from the hospital and that’s when our nightmare started. Abel didn’t take very well to the one brand of cows milk formula (Enfamil) they gave us in the hospital so we switched it another brand of cows milk formula(Similac). That is also what my oldest son took when he was a baby. However, the Similac wasn’t staying down and the diarrhea started.
After a long night of throwing up and diarrhea we took him to the ER. They knew something wasn’t right and started all these IV’s but he was so little they kept blowing his veins, eventually he had to have an IV inserted into his bone. Then I heard the words “ma’am your child is very sick..life threatening.”
He was transported to another hospital and was taken to the PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit), test after test was ran and no one could give us answers. They changed his formula and sent us home. Fast forward five days and we are back in the hospital same symptoms and back in the PICU, this time it was a two week stay. After hearing the same thing my husband and I requested we be sent to another hospital. Our request was answered and we were sent to the Children’s Hospital. That’s when things get bad. Abel was down to 5 pounds!!! Five tiny pounds and fighting with everything he had. My baby coded..he almost died. I walked back to the ICU to see my 5 pound 2 month old on a breathing tube and paralyzed from medicine. He couldn’t even blink. But, he was still fighting. We went back and forth with the team trying to find answers,finally the team said he had a malabsorption problem. Once again the formula was changed and after 3 weeks we were sent home.
Still not having answers we were satisfied with, we made an appointment with another GI doctor in the city. He looked at Abel’s chart and told us he had FPIES. I had no idea what this was; but now I had answers. My baby boy is now a 18 pound 7 month old. We’ve had a few bumps in the road trying food. We go back to the hospital for a food challenge test in a few months. He’s my fighter and we will get through this one day at a time.