Friday, October 12, 2007

Another doctor visit

This one was an appointment made by me; no emergencies. I took Nick to the tummy doctor in hopes they could possibly shed a little light on his mushy stools. I had hoped that the chunkier food would firm them up a little bit, and it did for a while. But we are now back to mushy and I was just trying to figure out why. He had also had quite a few days with horrible behaviors-so I was wanting to get to the bottom of it. Well, I got Nick to the waiting room with no tantrums-so I was quite happy. He screamed bloody murder when it was time to weigh him, and was not liking all the noise in the little room we were in. After getting him weighed, I decided to tell the nurse that he was autistic and that's why he was acting the way he was. She smiled, and told me "I know. He has all the signs. We will just do what we can, ok?" After she got all his vitals(this took a while-he was barely cooperative), it was time to see the Doc.

I explained to him my concerns about wanting to make sure Nick was digesting all the nutrients in his food properly, make sure we were not missing anything in this puzzle. He asked me questions like "Is he allergic to anything", "What kinds of food does he eat?", "How many times a day does he poop?". I explained that he eats babyfood due to texture aversions, but we are moving towards chunkier foods. He felt Nick's tummy, and looked him over real good. He then went and consulted with his boss, and then they both came in. The other doctor looked at Nick and asked me questions as well. Between the both of them, they told me that since Nick has gained weight, and shows no visible signs of food allergies or digestion problems, they said he was perfectly healthy. I am not sure what to think about this. I am glad that they say he is healthy. In fact, I have been told that he is "Too healthy". I still wonder if he has digestion issues that cannot be seen? We are going to limit his dairy intake(no yogurt), and watch his gluten intake as well. Just maybe, it will help with some things.

Needless to say it is getting a little tiring taking him to these "-ists" only to be told he is perfectly fine. I took him to the nutritionist who said he was "too healthy for this clinic". I took him to the "feeding clinic" at this hospital as well, only to be told "Wow, he is a tough cookie. You might want to try another clinic", and "have you seen our nutritionist?". Now, the gastro doctor says the same thing. How can he not have issues when he goes from firm stools to mushy, then to loose all in one day?? He went weeks with normal stools, now we are back to square one?

I went shopping today and bought him NO Foods with wheat flour, or other forms of gluten in them. He got NO yogurt. I printed out a list from the internet of babyfoods that do not have gluten in them-and he is getting those only. We will see what happens.

Tomorrow is our walk for autism! I just wanted to say THANK YOU to those who donated! Our team raised $580 for autism research!! YAY!!

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