Aaron had his own little adventure last Friday night. I've been starting him on solids for a couple weeks now, limiting it to only egg yolks. He's had them maybe 5 times now. Anyway, Friday evening I fed him an egg yolk... freshly laid at that. He ate it, but as always, didn't enjoy it. He nursed later on that evening and went to bed as normal. About a half hour after going to sleep has started fussing. I waited, hoping he would put himself back to sleep. Finally, after a few minutes of really screaming, I went in... and found him and his entire crib drenched in egg-smelling vomit. We immediately started cleaning him up, but he continued to throw up. Even when nothing would come out, he still was heaving. After a bath and a few minutes of heaves, I tried to call poison control wondering what to do if the egg was, by chance, bad. Not finding the number, I called 911 to get transferred. The dispatcher transferred the call but only after dispatching paramedics. Poison control could tell me nothing as he didn't ingest poison, but food. Paramedics got there and thankfully I knew them- a good friend of the family and the husband of a former co-worker. They started suctioning out thick mucous (why didn't I think of that???). Aaron continued to heave to where he would stop breathing for a while and even turned slightly blue. My neighbor was over in a heartbeat of the fire truck (paramedics) pulling onto the street. My mom showed up only seconds after that. Then EVAC. Then my brother-in-law with another fire truck. My brother-in-law heard the dispatch from a different station, called my sister to find out our address. My sister, called my mom. And boom- they were all there. The recommendation was to take Aaron to the hospital to make sure he didn't asperate and that the vomitting would subside. So off we went. It was pretty hard to look and my tiny, little man strapped onto a stretcher. He was acting kinda out of it. No smiles. No fussing either, but that's not uncommon. I didn't know if it was from him being sick or just tired that he was so loopy. Anyway, Randy followed in the car, going 70 mph down US1 behind the ambulance. We arrived at the hospital with him still dry heaving and me suctioning out yellow muck. My mom and neighbor stayed with Gloria (who slept through it all). The nurses and doctor said Aaron's lungs sounded pretty junky, like he did asperate, and that they needed to take a chest x-ray. We waited for that and I sat praying for his lungs to clear. Aaron went to sleep without a care in the world. The chest x-ray happened and I called my midwife to find out what to do regarding antibiotics should the x-ray come back unfavorable then kept praying. Not that it was bad advice, but I just didn't like any of the alternatives. A nursing shift change occured and the new nurse said his lungs sounded perfectly clear. Finally the x-ray came back- all was clear. We had to wait another 45 minutes to be released as he still was vomitting every so often. At 12:30am (I think) they sent us home. The most blessed moment was loading him into the car and having him look at me and smile. Dimples and all. He slept with us that night... well, he slept. Randy did a little bit and I might have dosed for 5 minutes at a time. He got a fever of 99.6, but was back to his normal self. The next morning he blew out an enormous load... right into the cushion of a papazon chair! I'm still trying to clean it. But all has been normal since. I still don't know if it was a bad egg, a stomach virus, or egg yolk in general, but I think we'll be moving on to oatmeal for a while instead.
Monday, August 4, 2008
Aaron's Big Night Out
Aaron had his own little adventure last Friday night. I've been starting him on solids for a couple weeks now, limiting it to only egg yolks. He's had them maybe 5 times now. Anyway, Friday evening I fed him an egg yolk... freshly laid at that. He ate it, but as always, didn't enjoy it. He nursed later on that evening and went to bed as normal. About a half hour after going to sleep has started fussing. I waited, hoping he would put himself back to sleep. Finally, after a few minutes of really screaming, I went in... and found him and his entire crib drenched in egg-smelling vomit. We immediately started cleaning him up, but he continued to throw up. Even when nothing would come out, he still was heaving. After a bath and a few minutes of heaves, I tried to call poison control wondering what to do if the egg was, by chance, bad. Not finding the number, I called 911 to get transferred. The dispatcher transferred the call but only after dispatching paramedics. Poison control could tell me nothing as he didn't ingest poison, but food. Paramedics got there and thankfully I knew them- a good friend of the family and the husband of a former co-worker. They started suctioning out thick mucous (why didn't I think of that???). Aaron continued to heave to where he would stop breathing for a while and even turned slightly blue. My neighbor was over in a heartbeat of the fire truck (paramedics) pulling onto the street. My mom showed up only seconds after that. Then EVAC. Then my brother-in-law with another fire truck. My brother-in-law heard the dispatch from a different station, called my sister to find out our address. My sister, called my mom. And boom- they were all there. The recommendation was to take Aaron to the hospital to make sure he didn't asperate and that the vomitting would subside. So off we went. It was pretty hard to look and my tiny, little man strapped onto a stretcher. He was acting kinda out of it. No smiles. No fussing either, but that's not uncommon. I didn't know if it was from him being sick or just tired that he was so loopy. Anyway, Randy followed in the car, going 70 mph down US1 behind the ambulance. We arrived at the hospital with him still dry heaving and me suctioning out yellow muck. My mom and neighbor stayed with Gloria (who slept through it all). The nurses and doctor said Aaron's lungs sounded pretty junky, like he did asperate, and that they needed to take a chest x-ray. We waited for that and I sat praying for his lungs to clear. Aaron went to sleep without a care in the world. The chest x-ray happened and I called my midwife to find out what to do regarding antibiotics should the x-ray come back unfavorable then kept praying. Not that it was bad advice, but I just didn't like any of the alternatives. A nursing shift change occured and the new nurse said his lungs sounded perfectly clear. Finally the x-ray came back- all was clear. We had to wait another 45 minutes to be released as he still was vomitting every so often. At 12:30am (I think) they sent us home. The most blessed moment was loading him into the car and having him look at me and smile. Dimples and all. He slept with us that night... well, he slept. Randy did a little bit and I might have dosed for 5 minutes at a time. He got a fever of 99.6, but was back to his normal self. The next morning he blew out an enormous load... right into the cushion of a papazon chair! I'm still trying to clean it. But all has been normal since. I still don't know if it was a bad egg, a stomach virus, or egg yolk in general, but I think we'll be moving on to oatmeal for a while instead.
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4 comments:
It's good to know that it didn't end up being anything serious, though I'm sure it was a bit scary at the time. We haven't yet had to make any late-night ER trips (thankfully), although we have had firetrucks come to our house in the middle of the night for a faulty carbon-monoxide alarm (they apparently send 3 vehicles with lights and sirens for that around here).
...and I am relieved to know that I am not the only person to consider the "eye for an eye" approach to teaching right and wrong. In her stubbornness, though, I think Bethany just might respond with a smile, too.
I'm so sorry about your little angel! He might be allergic to eggs, but consider yourselves lucky, because botulism found in some eggs would not be a good thing for such a little boy.
My pediatrician recommended no eggs until after a year. It seems their little systems haven't matured enough to handle things like milk and eggs before then.
Botulism is rather evident in chickens and none of my birds have shown any sign, so I know that wasn't the case. Egg WHITES should be avoided for the first year, but egg YOLKS is one of the best starting foods. They are easily digestible and contain lots of good fats and proteins. They aren't a typical first food because they aren't sweet and so don't have the "yum yum" effect which is desired when trying to get a baby to eat from a spoon. We're going to try them again soon.
Turns out it is an egg yolk allergy. He had 2 bites of egg yolk mixed with breast milk (and spit most of it out) and an hour later was throwing up, loopy, everything all over again. We didn't take him to the hospital, just watched him close. He came out of it by evening, but still got to sleep with us that night... ie- all night buffet.
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