A Poison Plan

FPIES presents so many situations that I never would have considered.  2 days ago Carter was in the garage and got hold of some chemicals. In his obsessive desire to eat anything and everything, he ate some. How much? I wasn’t sure, but it obviously didn’t taste good and he spit it out. We quickly consulted the product about what to do in case of ingestion.  The product said not to induce vomiting and to give the 2 glasses of milk or water. I washed his mouth out and got him to drink some water. I don’t think he swallowed any and is doing just fine.

But this got me thinking, what are the common recommendations for ingesting chemicals? After some research, there are a lot of recommendations to consume 2 to 4 glasses of milk and eat bread. A simple solution for your average kid, but a terrifying prospect for an FPIES or other food allergic child. It then becomes a game of the Lesser of Two Evils. What will the chemical do to my child? I know what consuming that much milk or bread will do to him; weeks of pain,  loose stool, rash, inability to absorb nutrients, weight loss, sleepless nights, respiratory infection, the list goes on and on. Certainly some chemicals can cause serious side effects as well, but a lot of these household products expect that you treat these things at home, that they aren’t too serious. For us, they would be very serious. I think our only choice would be to call an ambulance and have him admitted so they could pump his stomach.

Until a couple days ago, I never even thought to have a poison plan for Carter. I thought I’d just contact the Poison Control Center and follow their lead. Now I realize that Carter’s situation is outside of that box as well. We have been walking this maze for almost 3 years, and I am still learning as I go.

All products have an MSDS, Material Safety Data Sheet, and by law they must be available for free. You can find them by searching “MSDS” and the name of the product in your internet search engine. The Poison Control Center is available 24/7 at 1-800-222-1222. They also have an iPhone app that will connect you directly to the poison control center with the push of a button. You can find the app by searching “poison help”. The app is free. Do you have a plan for your child?

A Probiotic Update

Sorry I haven’t updated in awhile. We’ve been plugging along here. We had to pull spinach because his tummy just isn’t ready for it. He can only do it in small quantity every once in a while. We FINALLY got him started on a probiotic, which will help his body fight the bad bugs in his intestinal system and build up more good bugs. We are moving very slowly, but his body is adjusting well. We used the recommended dose of one capsule and spread it out over 8 days.  We have seen some symptoms: eczema flares on his face and little red painful bumps sporadically spread across his body. The worst of these has been the rash that’s developed from his urine. The areas where his pee comes in contact with his skin turns into small red welts. On bad days, it hurts when he pees and his entire groin is covered in rash. We’ve made great friends with Aquaphor, or as Carter calls it, Butt Jelly! As difficult as this is to watch, it really is a good sign. It means his body is ridding toxins through his urine. It means the probiotic is working. It means we are making progress.

Our other big news is that Carter has hotdogs!! We spend last Saturday making Carter homemade sausages, which he calls hotdogs, a snack just like his brothers. We stuffed them with safe ground beef, a little onion and some salt and pepper. Then Daddy smoked them, so now Carter has smoked hotdogs. He doesn’t appear to be tolerating the casings, which were pork that we picked up from the local butcher shop, so I’ve been removing them before feeding him. Either way, he doesn’t care. He loves his hotdogs!