My first born daughter, Daisy, was born in March 2016. The first few days of her life were amazing, with her being a great sleeper and feeding really well. After that, on April Fool’s Day, Daisy surprised us with her first bout of projectile vomit. Since then Daisy has been diagnosed with FPIES.
FPIES is an allergy syndrome that causes Daisy to have projectile vomiting episodes when she is having a reaction to a food she is allergic to. Today I want to share a slightly light-hearted look at what it is like dealing with a poorly child – by talking about 5 places my child has vomited.
Some of this post was written several years ago, before we found out that her sleeps after reactions were actually a sign of a potentially dangerous health issue, so please take it with the light hearted pinch of salt that it was intended if you’re an FPIES parent, or sufferer, yourself!
We have been living with FPIES in our family for 3 years now. Parenting a 3-year-old isn’t always easy, even without food allergies. When we were invited to a family wedding while we were very excited, to see my brother-in-law finally marry his long-term partner, it also filled us with dread. Attending a wedding with FPIES was something that I had never really thought about and now the wedding has passed I want to share some tips with you in the hope of helping someone else.
Having a baby with allergies can really feel so scary and isolating at times. When my 4-year-old daughter Daisy was a baby I would often stay home, as it was far easier than going out and facing disappointment in restaurants. Or dealing with the fear of being in someone else’s home and seeing our FPIES allergy triggers everywhere. If you’re someone who likes to stay home, as I did, to help your own anxiety, then these are my top tips for keeping your home safe for your allergy baby.
Parenting a child with FPIES can be so hard. First up there are the physical symptoms; vomiting often until unconsciousness, but then, as your child gets older, you have to start to teach them about FPIES, and allergies. I want to share with you how I am teaching my child about allergies. I’m not professing to be an expert, and this post is just written based on my own experiences, but I hope someone will find it helpful! My daughter is 3, so I have kept everything fairly simple, but I hope this post will give you a frame to base your own learning experiences on, and perhaps inspire some new ways to talk about allergies.
Recently our lovely Daisy headed to the Evelina Children’s Hospital for an FPIES food trial and I thought I’d pop up a little post explaining how it worked and how she got on. We explain allergies to Daisy well, and so she was aware before we visited the hospital, of everything that would be happening.
