EAT!

"You have to eat 1 WHOLE french fry before you can get your ice cream" - These are the words I say to Toby to bribe him into eating.  I laugh as I say them.  Who has to bribe their child to eat 1 french fry??  I do.  But, hopefully, not for long.  

EAT! It took me by surprise the first time I heard it.  I know he knows the word, but he's never thrown it at me in a demand.  I got excited, rushing around like I was a husband whose wife had just gone into labor.  I ran into the pantry and asked Toby what he wanted to eat - "Frwench Fwry!!" - it came out in a tiny, high pitched scream.  And then again, and again. 

 "Frwench Fwry!!"

 "Frwench Fwry!!"

 "Frwench Fwry!!"

 "Frwench Fwry!!"

Ok!!  I'll make you some french fries!! I yell back turning our toaster oven to bake. I never thought a three letter word like Eat! could make me swell with happiness and positivity, relief that maybe we were turning a corner - daydreaming that he would magically start sprouting up as his potatoes started to broil.  

While Toby has indeed started to show signs that he's hungry, something that we've never really seen from him before his ENTIRE life, he still isn't ingesting a normal amount of the food he requests.  He isn't even ingesting a small amount - I'd call it minuscule.   I'm not letting his lack of quantity downplay the fact that he is starting to enjoy food.  His insides must be healing over, allowing him to feel pleasure at the taste of his GF food, instead of pain.  His vomiting has decreased substantially, and he generally enjoys the food we make him - so all of my worry about transitioning to a gluten free lifestyle was in vain - as is most worry from a parent. 

We met with our GI doctor, nutritionist and our Immunologist on Wednesday.  I had been anxious to hear the results of the trauma that took place about 6 weeks ago, siphoning what seemed like a gallon of blood from Toby's tiny wrist.   All of his immune system tests checked out fine, as well as any additional allergies outside of Gluten.  Thank you God.  The only area of concern identified by one of the tests he ran indicated that Toby will most likely develop Crohn's disease by the time he is a little boy.  Crohn's disease has similar characteristics of the more generalized Irritable Bowel Syndrome.  Like Celiac Disease, its diagnosed by a specific test and is managed in most part by diet.  This is something we can handle.  

Hi GI doctor was less impressed than I was by Toby's 1 lb weight gain.  That's right.  1 lb!  In 6 weeks!  We've been waiting a year for Toby to gain 1 lb and he did it in the last 45 days.  What a precious gift God has given us.  I can officially say Toby weighs 20 lbs - a milestone I hope for at every office visit.  Toby did not gain any height, but I'll take the little accomplishments as I can get them.  

 Toby - Now 20 lbs!! - in his 3-6 month swimsuit

Due to his negative results in Immunology, he was released from their care pending any discoveries by Genetics.  We see them next week.  Both doctors we saw wouldn't say they thought Celiac is the only reason Toby is so small - and they both were anxious for me to get to our genetics doctor and let him start his evaluation. 

In the meantime, we will continue to feed our happy little goober as many french fries as he can handle.  Thank you all for your kind words of support, and your constant prayers!!

Thank you for listening, 

Lindsey