Allergies

It's official- Annabelle has food allergies. She has a very rare one called Food Protein Induced Enterocolitis Syndrome. Here's a summary (copied from http://community.babycenter.com/post/a23131809/fpies_faq-_start_here?cpg=1&csi=2242518307&pd=-1)

FPIES is a severe delayed food allergy of the gut, it is understood to be a T-cell mediated response in which food is considered a foreign invader and the body “fights” it until it can violently expel it; although the exact mechanisms are still not well understood.
Symptoms include: profound vomiting (often to bile), diarrhea and/or constipation. These can lead to: lethargy, low body temp or fever, hypotension, and in severe cases, sepsis and shock. And still yet, many children also experience many discomforting symptoms while the body "fights" this reaction and these can include: extreme stomach pains, gas, runny stools with or without mucous or blood, persistant hiccups, acid reflux, rashes, sleep disturbance, and agitation.
FPIES is a clinical diagnosis (based on symptoms), there is currently no test for it.

FPIES common trigger foods include, but are not limited to: Dairy, Soy, Rice, Oats, Barley, Green Beans, Sweet Potatoes, Squash, Chicken, Turkey, Corn, Eggs.

Annabelle has reacted so far to rice cereal, oatmeal and sweet potatoes. Her first reaction was extremely severe. She vomited and dry-heaved for an hour and was very lethargic. (This was after 2 weeks of having rice cereal almost daily, mixed with breastmilk.) We tried oatmeal a month later and she vomited that day. It took about 2 weeks for sweet potatoes to have a reaction as well. We have been trying pears for about a week. Today was the 6th time she's had it, so we're waiting to see if she handles it.

Right now, we just have to try new foods and see how she reacts. If she doesn't have a reaction after 2 weeks of a new food, we can introduce another one. There is not a very accurate test to see what she will react to; it is just trial and error. Fortunately, most kids outgrow it around age 3.

I've done some research online, and it gets scary, but I'm not going to look at that stuff anymore. We're going to take it one day at a time and see what happens. She's healthy and gaining weight on breastmilk, so I'll continue to nurse her as long as possible while we search for foods she can eat. The allergist said this is the easy time of the diagnosis, when she's still nursing, but once she is weaned, it may get difficult to keep her thriving.

We've been referred to a GI specialist. I hope it doesn't get so bad that we have to do invasive testing, but at least we have a good doctor in case it does. We would appreciate your prayers as we start this journey with Annabelle.