GI Update

Thanks for all the well wishes for Roo's Friday GI appointment!  Overall things went as expected with a few surprises. 

As far as the GI doc is concerned, Roo's growth is following a curve.  He's not following "The" growth chart, but he is growing.  He weighed 20 pounds 15 ounces and that put him on a tiny slanting upward arc from where he was three months ago at 19 pounds 10 ounces.  Forgive me for not mentioning to the doctor that the previous weight was taken while he was naked and this one while fully clothed and diapered.  I was all too absorbed by the fact that his height has increased to 32.5 inches which is, drumroll please......officially on "The" chart.  In fact, it's 10th percentile for his age on the chart.  That's non-adjusted for prematurity, regular old 24-month old American boy height.  Yup yup.  Take that size 12-month pants!  We're moving up to 18-months...as long as we can find adjustable waistbands. 

The general consensus is that the eosinophilic esophagitis is not causing his vomiting anymore.  Unless we alter his diet drastically, which we have not, the EoE is not likely to be causing many problems at the moment.  There is no clear single cause for his eating issues and food aversion but rather a combination of EoE, regular food allergies, oral delay, reflux, and his learned avoidance behaviors. 

The recommendation is to see a feeding team.  We have a referral for a different GI doctor who specializes in food aversion.  He works as a team with a gaggle of other specialists - speech therapist, occupational therapist, nutritionist, psychologist, etc.  While Roo has seen all of these therapist types before, the beauty here is that they are all part of an integrated team.  We'll see how it goes. 

Roo will return to his old GI team for an EoE check-up and allergy testing in about six months.  Until then it's status quo for his diet - no eggs, nuts, milk, or beef, and full steam ahead trying to get him to eat, enjoy eating, keep food down, gain weight, and grow.  No problem I'm sure. 

The final surprise of the appointment was that our current GI doctor is leaving Children's Memorial.  I'm not thrilled since he's been good to us, and the fact that he is young, Indian, and has little twins of his own didn't hurt his reputation in our house.  In retrospect, however, I'm not so sure how I feel about him performing Roo's last surgery a couple of weeks after bringing his own newborns home.  Anyway, he's heading out of state to a clinic that currently has no EoE specialist.