The big appointment/disappointment

So we had our visit to Children's Hospital to see the 6th doctor for Beth. He was a pediatric gastroenterologist. I had to demand a referral to him at a walk in clinic just to get this appointment so I was very excited. I have been asking for a referral to an allergist since she was 4 months old but the doctors just kept saying "they don't allergy test on babies" which is complete crap because I know babies who have been allergy tested.

Advice: If you think your kid has an allergy issue, you tell them what they need to do, do NOT let them give you some BS response like "oh he's fine, he's just sensitive, he'll outgrow it". You are not an idiot, you know your kid better than they do.

Anyways, I told the doctor about FPIES and big surprise, he'd never heard of it. But I came prepared with an article and he was surprised that it was from a reputable source. Not sure if I should have been offended by that. But basically he said it sounded like a fancy name for a protein allergy. He explained what that meant, that her gut was too permeable and certain proteins would pass through the lining and her body would have a reaction. This is the exact description of FPIES so he wasn't giving me any information I didn't already have.

He then said "well what do you want me to do?". I told him I needed to know what our next step was, that we didn't want to start trying her trigger foods unless we had good reason to believe she had outgrown her intolerances. He said her gut should be corrected by age 2 and we should try again and if there was a reaction, see an allergist.

This was where I nearly lost it. How am I supposed to see an allergist when nobody will refer me!!! He then changed his story and said he would refer us and we should wait to see the allergist before trying any new foods.

Anyways, we got a referral to the allergy centre at Children's. Guess what? 10 month waiting list! So for the time being we will continue with our daily grain free, nut free, soy free diet for Beth and later in the year, probably between 2.5 and 3 years, we will either muster the courage to test her on something like wheat, OR we will wait for the allergy appointment, which may or may not be helpful. Either way, I think we are going to just have to take care of business ourselves, which we have been prepared to do since seeing the first doctor when she was 4 months.

In other news, Beth now loves raisins, cucumber and baked apple chips which I make at home and she graduated to big kid sunday school early as it provided a safer environment for her, cookie free!