Cyclic vomiting and what we are trying (part 3)

Cyclic Vomiting (part 1)

How cyclic vomiting affects my little girl (part 2)

1) Vitamins - I am going to start the kids back on multi-vitamins. They have taken them on and off through the years, but I am going to try to find one they like and then be more consistent with making sure they get them each day.

2) Digestive enzyme with probiotics - a friend of mine suggested digestive enzymes. I don't know why I didn't think of this before. My husband takes them from time to time (especially when he is going to eat something he knows may potentially upset his stomach). My brown-eyed girl is taking it for now, but I am not sure how long she will want to because she is not thrilled about the taste. I may try a different form other than a chewable next time or a different brand.

3) Gluten - We are going to try and cut gluten out of her diet. I have been doing a lot of research and getting advice from friends who are on gluten free diets and I am thinking this may help some of my brown-eyed girls tummy troubles. I know what you are thinking...another person jumping on the gluten-free-fad band wagon.  Before you go judging and rolling your eyes (as some have already done), if you thought doing this even had a small chance of helping your child, you just might try it too. We eat LOTS of wheat in this house and I wonder if increasing our wheat consumption over the years has inadvertently increased some of my brown-eyed girls issues. If anything, it will get me to bake more, which is better than buying all the store-bought overly processed stuff, which is healthier for all of us in the long run. 

We picked up a hodge-podge of gluten-free foods and snacks to try. Some have been a hit and others have just been nasty. I told my daughter I would try whatever snacks and foods she did so I can see what they taste like too. The KinniToos chocolate cookies were a hit. With that price though, she'll be the only one eating them. Whenever I buy those, I'll just buy a bag of Oreos for the rest of us. They are both similar in appearance and taste. Glutino crackers were good too, but again, a little pricey. My daughter loves tomato soup, so when we eat that, she can have her crackers to dip and the rest of us will have Ritz. I found a Cream of Mushroom condensed soup. Apparently, condensed soups have gluten in them. We haven't tried it yet, but hope it tastes good as a lot of my recipes call for Cream of Mushroom soup. Julian's frozen pancakes were ok. My daughter ate most of it. Van's Buckwheat Berry waffles were nasty...kinda like eating cardboard. I am waiting for my gluten-free flour to come in and plan to make and freeze my own pancakes and waffles. I usually make mine from scratch anyway...well, when I have some spare time to make up a big ol' batch of em. We have a few other things to try, but haven't done so yet.

4) I am finally going to make an appointment with Texas Children's. I guess I put it off so long because I got discouraged. Don't get me wrong, I really like our pediatrician, but he never seems really concerned about what is going on with her. Once he slapped the name cyclic vomiting to what was happening to her, that was pretty much the end of the discussion. That is not good enough for me. I want to brainstorm ways to help her or at least lessen her occurrences, not just accept it and act helpless to do anything. Something or a build up of something in her system has to be what is causing this. The last time I was at the pediatrician talking to him about it, he referred me to the local pediatric gastroenterologist. If you read my previous posts, then you know that was a mistake. 

Anyway, after this last episode, that jumpstarted me wanting to press on again looking for ways and people to help her.

Through it all, we are praying and asking God to guide us...