Throwing in the towel.

If you're not completely tired of hearing my whining on the subject matter of mysterious childhood illnesses, read ahead.

1. Ben is skinny. We get it. Once in the 50th percentile, he's now below the first. We tried plumping him up by keeping extremely detailed lists of every food that entered his little body and then played around with percentages. 50% fat and 1200 calories a day resulted in no weight gain and loads of diarrhea. So then we lowered the fat and raised the protein and that helped the diapers but not the weight. We were elated to discover he'd gained 4/10ths of a pound only to watch the scale plummet right back down a few days later. We're still keeping the detailed list of foods along with pictures of his face and butt (nice, huh?) to give the naturopath or allergist or nutritionist or whatever specialist we eventually decide on. But as for weight gain? I give up.

2. Ben is rashy. We get that, too. His rashes wax and wane, and they are most definitely much improved from the horrific-ness of weeks past. But they're still there and I just don't know why.

3. I kept him off all foods except the least allergenic for 15 or 16 days. Things got better. Then I gave him a banana. Whoa, dog. Insta-rash. Then days later, sweet potatoes. Whoa, diggity dog. Insta-rash/diarrhea. Then days later, milk. WHOA hot diggity dog. The worst of all reactions by far. He can't truly be allergic to everything, right?

4. I think Ben has Acrodermatitis Enteropathica (a fancy word for a zinc deficiency), brought on by undiagnosed food allergies. I think his is the acquired version rather than the inherited. I'm not doctor, but the puzzle pieces fit. The problem? We already know his zinc levels are scary-low and he's already on a supplement. If he STILL has low zinc levels, it's because we're still exposing him to allergens we don't even know about. This is never-ending.

I just want to change his diaper without watching him scream in pain because his butt is so raw that he can't even sit down. I just want him to be pain-free. I love my little snuggle butt more than words.

The rash, part 429.

UPDATE: Since this post still gets traffic, I wanted to update it since it's been years.  Ben's eczema waxed and waned after this until he eventually just outgrew it in about six months. Our other two children, born after Ben, had similar but much more severe struggles.  I've posted about eczema a lot since then. Check out our eczema button in the sidebar up there if you're interested in reading more about what we've learned through the years. 

I think I've solved it, folks! All of Ben's test results came back negative, which is a HUGE relief. After being on an elimination diet for about 10 days now, I feel safe in saying that his rashes are caused, in most part, by food intolerances. Ben's doctor thinks I'm crazy, but I'll let the pictures speak for themselves and continue to follow my mommy intuition. That's what it's there for, right?

At the beginning of the elimination diet, you might remember that his face looked like this:



That was at its worst, so to be fair, here's a picture of its "normal" state:



Though we haven't been able to get rid of it completely, it is SO MUCH improved and hardly red at all anymore. I've been taking some progression pictures through out the past ten days to prove to his doctor that I'm not as crazy as she thinks I am.











So, what worked?

1. Moving to a diet of ONLY the least allergenic foods in organic form (absolutely no processed food whatsoever). We also moved to gluten-free and replaced cow's milk with goat's milk.

2. Replacing all the chemicals in our home with natural products - vinegar & water and hydrogen peroxide & water to clean with, natural laundry detergent, Dr. Bronner's baby mild soap and organic toothpaste. We stopped using disposable wipes and instead we're just using cloth wipes with water only. This, in combination with banning disposables completely, has really helped clear up the diaper rash. I learned so much this past week about the way chemicals are absorbed into skin and how the skin "revolts." Some great articles to read can be found here, here and here.

3. Trashing the aquaphor. I had a hunch that the aquaphor was actually making Ben's face rash worse. Almost as soon as we stopped using it, the redness in his face rash completely disappeared. Now I only use coconut oil when it gets super dry, but I pretty much just leave it alone. If you artificially moisturize your skin, you're only training it to produce even less oils than it already does. Or at least that's my opinion. :)

4. Taking a daily probiotic.

5. Taking baths every other day, sometimes every third day.

We'll start the process of re-introduction once we get to South Carolina and have had some time to get back into a routine. It will definitely be interesting to find out what he's allergic to. I'm hoping for dairy only, but I do have a hunch that it might be more than that.

One of the most exciting parts of this elimination is watching his tummy problems straighten out! You might remember that I shared a little too much last week when I mentioned that Ben has had daily diarrhea for, oh, months and months. Guess what? Gone!

If I've learned nothing else lately, I've learned that I should always trust my gut. The doctor would have us on all foods except peanuts and she'd want us to take steroid creams. Moms really do know best.

I want to end on this note: check out the Skin Deep database! Since our beauty products aren't really regulated, companies aren't required to list the ingredients that go into making them. The Environmental Working Group took it into their own hands by researching thousands of products and dishing on the safety of each. I was surprised to learn that Ben's organic body wash was a 3 on a scale of 1-10 (3 being a moderate hazard) and that my hair mousse was a TEN! Highly hazardous!

Two years ago today...

...I married my best friend. March 8, 2008, will love on in my heart as one of the best days of my life. Sure, we had three hours to find a new wedding location because of a freak sandstorm and maybe we left our sand ceremony back at the beach house and had to delay the start of the wedding to go get it, but I wouldn't have had it any other way. I could live that day over and over and over again.

I love you, baby. Always and forever.

Two years ago today...

...I married my best friend. March 8, 2008, will love on in my heart as one of the best days of my life. Sure, we had three hours to find a new wedding location because of a freak sandstorm and maybe we left our sand ceremony back at the beach house and had to delay the start of the wedding to go get it, but I wouldn't have had it any other way. I could live that day over and over and over again.

I love you, baby. Always and forever.

Of parks and portable DVD players.

I feel like it's been a lifetime since I've last posted! I have so much to share that I should probably make four different blog posts, but...nah.

The weather here has been beautiful! Doesn't it always seem that the first Spring-ish day of the year it feels like it's 75 when it's really only 50? I love that. Friday, Ben and I set out on a long walk and a trip to the park down the street.



Jealous, Tim rushed home from work in time to also take Ben to the park. This park-right-down-the-street business is pretty nice. On Saturday we threw on some layers and took a 2.5 mile hike to an even cooler park.





With no sun, it was a lil chilly and poor Ben's hands were turning purple. On the way home, convinced that my child's fingers were going to fall off (in 50 degree weather?), I gave in and did a little stroller run with Tim. It was fun. Um, until I wussed out, screamed that we had to stop and felt like collapsing. All the while Tim was barely even breathing hard.

Oh, oh! Also, I'm applying for Wife of the Year award. Since I'm leaving for two weeks, I made out this awesome little schedule for Tim to go along with the 14 meals in the freezer. The schedule lays out when he needs to take each meal out of the freezer, how long it needs to thaw, how to cook it and what to pair it with. Vote for Chelsea!







Here's my beautiful little freezer stockpile for March. I don't know why I always insist on capturing every last moment of my life on camera, but I do. And I share. You're welcome.



We rounded off the weekend with TWO more trips to the park today and an unbelievably brilliant and slightly expensive purchase (don't tell Dave Ramsey). Enter my new best friend:



She is going to save my sanity on this little trek across the country. I know, I know! TV is bad! And TV for 16 hours straight is even bad-er! I get it. But it's the only way we're going to make it out of this trip alive; I feel it in mah blood.

My coffee is running out and my eyelids are doing that droopy thing, so I'll end this on one last happy note. Tomorrow is mine and Tim's wedding anniversary and I got a new phone! I would tell you how much I love it but there aren't words. It's so awesome to have a Palm again! I know you Blackberry folks think I'm nuts, but I didn't get it. I tried the Blackberry thing for the last seven months or so and I just...hate it. My Pixi rox. :)

Of parks and portable DVD players.

I feel like it's been a lifetime since I've last posted! I have so much to share that I should probably make four different blog posts, but...nah.

The weather here has been beautiful! Doesn't it always seem that the first Spring-ish day of the year it feels like it's 75 when it's really only 50? I love that. Friday, Ben and I set out on a long walk and a trip to the park down the street.



Jealous, Tim rushed home from work in time to also take Ben to the park. This park-right-down-the-street business is pretty nice. On Saturday we threw on some layers and took a 2.5 mile hike to an even cooler park.





With no sun, it was a lil chilly and poor Ben's hands were turning purple. On the way home, convinced that my child's fingers were going to fall off (in 50 degree weather?), I gave in and did a little stroller run with Tim. It was fun. Um, until I wussed out, screamed that we had to stop and felt like collapsing. All the while Tim was barely even breathing hard.

Oh, oh! Also, I'm applying for Wife of the Year award. Since I'm leaving for two weeks, I made out this awesome little schedule for Tim to go along with the 14 meals in the freezer. The schedule lays out when he needs to take each meal out of the freezer, how long it needs to thaw, how to cook it and what to pair it with. Vote for Chelsea!







Here's my beautiful little freezer stockpile for March. I don't know why I always insist on capturing every last moment of my life on camera, but I do. And I share. You're welcome.



We rounded off the weekend with TWO more trips to the park today and an unbelievably brilliant and slightly expensive purchase (don't tell Dave Ramsey). Enter my new best friend:



She is going to save my sanity on this little trek across the country. I know, I know! TV is bad! And TV for 16 hours straight is even bad-er! I get it. But it's the only way we're going to make it out of this trip alive; I feel it in mah blood.

My coffee is running out and my eyelids are doing that droopy thing, so I'll end this on one last happy note. Tomorrow is mine and Tim's wedding anniversary and I got a new phone! I would tell you how much I love it but there aren't words. It's so awesome to have a Palm again! I know you Blackberry folks think I'm nuts, but I didn't get it. I tried the Blackberry thing for the last seven months or so and I just...hate it. My Pixi rox. :)

It's too cute! It's too cute!

I mean, really. It's TOO CUTE. I gave Ben his first fork and he acted like he was going to cut up some meat or something.





I love this picture because if you look really closely, you can see the little piece of chicken falling (to the right and under the spork thingy):





And this one? Possibly the cutest of all. Snapped totally in-the-action, unposed and I LOVE it. Of course then I proceeded to snap a bunch of posed-ish pictures which are almost equally as cute:









I love my little schweepy man: