Our Skinny Picture of Health.

Yesterday was E's big weigh in!

I joked Sunday night that it was the opposite of the "Last Chance Workout" on The Biggest Loser. Trying to fatten our girl up has been quite the feat.

At her 15 month appointment she had weighed in at 19 lbs, 7 ounces with a diaper. Considering the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends babies to triple their birth weight by 12 months (and she was born at a whopping 8 lbs 4 ounces) she was significantly underweight falling into the 5th percentile.

So on top of a new and improved dairy, peanut and egg free diet we also have been working on finding ways to increase her body weight. Last week we had our mandatory appointment with the dietician who told us that we were feeding her great things but she wasn't getting enough calories. So we are working on feeding her the fattier, more substantial parts of meals before adding fruit, veggies and soy milk. All things she had been filling up on in the past and then not eating the bigger part. She suggested cooking her foods in oil and even resorting to some Mickey D's therapy. So yes, I am admitting publicly that Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, she had a McDonalds hamburger for a meal. Doctors orders!

So yesterday I stripped down my babe and placed her on the scale and watched the numbers teeter. The dietician said that the minimum recommendation for weight gain for a child her age is 8 ounces in a month. She said Monday's weigh in would be five weeks after her last weigh in and if we didn't see a weight gain of 8 ounces, we would be needing to make some more serious and drastic changes.

So when the numbers on the scale stopped at 19 pounds, 15 ounces, I didn't hold back at all from shouting; "Hurray!! You did it Evie!"

And then; "Thank you God!"

The nurse had tears because she has been our nurse on many of our weekly, sometimes bi-weekly visits. And she has been the one not just once, but twice now to mummify and draw the excessive vials ofr blood for testing. She knows that Miss E is our beautiful enigma of a child and she is seriously in love with her smile!

We were still smiling when our pediatrician came in with E's overflowing chart in hand. He was too.

He looked her over head to toe and reported that one tube is gone and the whole in her eardrum has already almost completely closed up.

We won't be getting tubes again because in the last seven weeks E has had just one ear infection. Just one! That is a record for her. Since changing her diet her ears have improved ten-fold.

While her pediatrician doesn't believe her dairy allergy caused her ear issues, he does believe that it helped inflame her eustachian tubes causing infections to happen more frequently than they should. Being dairy free will not completely eliminate the infections but has already proven to help minimize them.

I believe this wholeheartedly!

She also walks now. Which relates back to her ear issues because of her equilibrium being off balance so often.

It is funny how all the pieces of Miss E and her health puzzle are coming together.

While it has finally been officially decided that she is dairy allergic and restricted from peanuts until she goes through skin tests at age 2, it's nice to have some answers. There is no reason to believe she is egg allergic yet but we are still taking it slow. We will start trying hard boiled egg yolks slowly this week too.

She can outgrow this. And there is a big part of me that thinks she will as she starts packing on some more pounds. Making a diet change has been difficult, I won't pretend it hasn't been. She definitely misses herself some cheese and I miss the pure convenience of feeding her anything, anywhere. Meals and snacks are much more planned and prepared beforehand.

But it has been worth it.

"She is the picture of health." Our pediatrician said. "Well, a skinny picture of health."

Finally, please don't take this recap and E's story as medical advice. It is simply our experience, our pediatricians opinion coupled with my own research and beliefs about E and E's health. I am always happy to answer questions or further discuss via email.