It's been a while! Here's an update on Joy...
Growing Personality. Joy is a funny girl. Every morning I bring her downstairs to play and she immediately grabs her stuffed animals and begins to "purr". She LOVES soft things like blankets, clothing, toys, etc.
When I return home from work, she immediately crawls like there is no tomorrow to me. Sometimes I can't get to her fast enough and then she starts to whine and cry until I pick her up. No wonder people say she has me wrapped around her little finger.
Joy also crawls normally now (no longer in the military) and can cruise on our furniture very well. She still hasn't tried to stand up or walk but the physical therapist is impressed by the amount of progress. We hope Joy will be able to walk before baby #2 arrives in late January.
Food allergies. After Joy was sick with roseola, she started eating very well for several days. Maybe her body was telling her she needed to eat. Then we resumed our food challenges with soy sauce, soy beans/tofu, coconut milk, tomato sauce, and eggs. We tried each food item for about a week and then moved on to another food. We constantly checked for signs of allergic reactions but she didn't vomit (gagged a bit more than normal), didn't break out in hives on her face or get puffy lips/eyes, but she DID have occasionally have spots of itchy/redness behind or in her ears, back of her neck, or sometimes on her back. But it was very mild and didn't seem to bother her that much. It's been so difficult to determine what exactly she's allergic to so we're taking Joy back to the allergist for another round of allergy testing. Could she be intolerant as opposed to allergic?
Difficulty with Meals. As time as progressed with the food challenges, she has progressively become worse as an eater in terms of volume. She still only drinks 7-9oz of formula/days and there are meals where she will eat a few pieces of food and then toss the food off the high chair, suck her thumb and refuse to eat again. Teething? Picky? When she refuses, we try to find something she is willing to eat, including junk food (e.g. french fries), fresh and dried fruits, or whatever we are eating as long as she's not allergic to it. We have noticed that she does eat better when we're out at a restaurant (distracted?).
At this point, we are now concerned that she hasn't gained any weight since July and she has a lot more bad meals than good ones. For breakfast, we stopped giving purees for a while and then went back to it only to then stop again. For some meals, she will try to escape the high chair by standing up which is a major safety risk. So she's either one of the most pickiest babies on the planet or there is something else going on medically that we haven't identified. It has been stressful trying to feed Joy for Selena, my mom and me. But either way, I'm not going to culinary school to learn how to cook gourmet baby food.
Next Steps: Given her persistent difficulty with feeding, we have been in touch with our pediatrician and the doctors at Children's to perform a second endoscopy. We need to rule out
eosinophilic esophaghitis, which can cause kids to stop eating if they repeatedly have allergic reactions to a food. So please continue to pray for Joy as we try to figure all of this out.
