The next day we had a follow up with Liam's GI Doctor. She was very happy with Liam's progress so far. She said on paper he looks really good. We were suppose to take him to clinic and have tests ran, but due to him just having surgery for his adenoids, tonsils and terbinates she felt we could wait. She was very impressed with the diet changes and wished more parents would do the same for their children. She believes preventative care is the best. Her hope for Liam is to one day live a normal life where prebiotics and probiotics as well as healthy eating is what ultimately keeps him flare free. He is still on what we call a roller coaster, but hopefully his surgery will allow him to get healthy and not be on as many antibiotics, thus allowing good flora to build up in his gut.
She stressed to us that we need to be really strict on sugar intake. We allowed him to have a snow cone July 3rd and it gave him a horrible headache, tummy ache and diarrhea. I knew better than to give it to him, but wanted him to have fun with his sister and cousins. Lesson learned and we will have to be more careful. The next step is that we have a follow up appointment in November unless Liam has a flare up. At that appointment we will schedule another scope and blood work. I am not looking forward to prepping him for that scope, but we will cross that bridge when we get there.
On a side note something that Mike and I had never thought about was Savannah. We were talking with Dr. Davies about the diet change and I brought up how Savannah has given the coconut milk a really good try. I expressed to her that I wanted to switch her to raw milk. We made the switch to raw cheese and was thinking of putting her on raw milk too. She strongly suggested against the raw milk. She had just treated a child who got very very ill from raw milk. She advised us to take Savannah off all milk products like Liam. Dr. Davies is a huge believer that Cows milk is for "baby cows" only. She strongly believes the milk made here in the US has lead to the increase in allergies and that it leads to so many health issues and cancer. I agree with her on many levels, thus why I was looking into raw milk. Her concern is that since Savannah has tested positive for a slight milk allergy, then we should not mess with it. She essentially said that Savannah has the same genetic makeup as Liam and although she is not showing signs of UC, and may never, why take the chance? UC is usually diagnosed at the ages of 15-35 and they still don't have concrete evidence as to why and how people get it. Many researchers and doctors think its genetic as well as environmental and the food we eat. Liam is a rare case being diagnosed at 2, but why would we take the chance when it comes to our daughter? Mike and I had never thought about Savannah possibly coming down with this. What if I did allow her to eat certain stuff that we know causes Liam to have a flare up and she showed signs of UC at 15 years old. I do not think I could forgive myself. Preventive medicine I think is so important. Through all of my continued research why would I allow my daughter to drink milk that has been highly processed. I was giving her organic milk, but it is still highly processed. So now all of us will be dairy free. We need to lead by example and so no more cheating for Mike and I. I sure am going to miss gelato and pizza! If anyone has any good pizza recipes that is gluten and dairy free please let me know. I will be experimenting very quickly in my kitchen to come up with a yummy recipe. I will share if I succeed!
