12 month check up

We have had a wonderful week of celebration as Travis turned 7 May 5th then Frederick 1 May 9th followed by Mother's Day the 10th. Travis is having his friend party tomorrow so I will post pictures after that. Actually I left the camera in Alex's car or I would at least put Frederick's birthday pictures up. Anyway I know people have been waiting to hear how this last Dr's visit went so thought I better get an update up...

Frederick is doing well, he started crawling on his hands and knees on his birthday, although for speed or long distances he still drops to his stomach. He loves to pull himself up to his knees or feet and happily empty my bookshelves. His weight is 21 lbs 7oz. He went from the 95% in weight at 6 months to the 50% at 9 months and is now in the 25%. He is also in the 25% for height (at 9 months was 50% but as we tell Travis, "Berthrong's are short but powerful").

We have a wonderful Dr who has been researching infant food allergies and came to this appointment very prepared to give us as much information and advice as he could. I am so grateful for that. Unfortunately it seems Frederick does have true food allergies, while a GI reaction is not as common or easy to recognise, it is an allergic reaction. The Dr also is concerned that Frederick may be reacting to other foods in other parts of his digestive system so we have to watch his weight and make sure he doesn't lose interest in food if he begins to associate eating with his stomach hurting. Our Dr advised us to avoid dairy, eggs, soy, nuts, shell fish, legumes and wheat. Unfortunately Frederick has also reacted to rice so we have to avoid that as well. I am just now coming to terms with needing to cut out rice and haven't decided about wheat yet. He has eaten wheat and seemed fine but I defiantly don't want him to develop an allergy to it. I was so hoping that he would turn one and suddenly food would no longer be an issue but I guess that was wishful thinking. I am very grateful to Kristi who for Mother's Day made me some very yummy soy and dairy free chocolate truffles and after listening to this report advised me to go have a good cry, take a hot bath and eat a few chocolates then pick myself up and get to work. Great advise, she's been through this can you tell :). So we are once again slowly introducing new foods and looking for new recipes (we tried a great quinoa salad last night that Frederick loved). So that is our life now and next post will be filled with cute pictures of our birthday boys.