There’s an assumption that doctors should be able to diagnose and treat all medical issues. The only problem with that thinking is that the human body is complex. There is still so much we don’t know and so much we’re still learning. Sometimes this can lead to cases where only the symptoms are treated but the underlying cause remains a mystery. In some situations, this kind of treatment is enough to make someone feel better. In others, it can actually make the condition worse. This is what happened to Autumn’s six-week-old son when they took him to urgent care.
Switching formulas
Based on the rash, the formula he drank, and his incessant crying, the doctor on staff believed Autumn’s son was allergic to dairy. He was actually the first doctor to look at her son’s rash as something other than ETN. His recommendation was to stop all dairy, which included nursing, and give him soy formula instead. Unfortunately; this was the wrong remedy.
Switching to soy made her son’s condition worse. His body violently rejected the formula and couldn’t get rid of it fast enough. He projectile vomited the entire contents of his stomach after the feeding. He threw up so much, he began throwing up blood and having bloody stools. The amount of blood he was throwing up, was terrifying. Autumn described it as something you would see in a horror movie. It’s definitely not something any parent would want to see happening to their baby.
Medical response
The pediatrician told Autumn to immediately stop giving her son the soy formula and recommended switching to an elemental formula instead. These types of formulas break down dairy proteins into it’s simplest form, amino acids. Babies who have both dairy and soy allergies and reactions to hypoallergenic formulas are typically given this type of formula. But in Autumn’s case, they skipped the hypoallergenic formula and went directly to the elemental. Unfortunately, not only did it smell bad, but her son didn’t like it either and wouldn’t drink any of it.
So they tried a hypoallergenic hydrolyzed formula called Alimentium. Unlike elemental formulas, hypoallergenic hydrolyzed formulas contain partial milk proteins which are broken down into smaller bits making it easier for babies to digest. Thankfully, he tolerated this better.
Based on the reaction to the dairy and soy formulas, the pediatrician suspected Autumn’s son might have allergies and suggested an allergy test when he turned one.
Autumn’s concerns
Having allergies could definitely explain some of her son’s symptoms like the rash and the colic but it couldn’t explain everything. The amount of blood her son threw up didn’t fit with allergies. It wasn’t “blood-streaked spit – it was big blobs of pure blood” as Autumn describes it. There was so much blood it was shocking that someone so little could produce that much. This was in addition to his bloody stools, where there were chunks of what looked like chicken liver.
Although the doctor’s eyes betrayed their concerns, they were still thinking horses (read about that here) and food allergies were the most common explanation.
Not knowing any other reason for her son’s symptoms, Autumn had to defer to the pediatrician’s judgment. Unfortunately, allergy testing wouldn’t give them the answers they were looking for, instead, it would lead them down a road of confusion and more missed clues.
To be continued…