Corn: The Prequel.

I have a burning suspicion right now.  And, as much as I like to be right most of the time... I'm really hoping I'm wrong on this.  There have been many unanswered questions with both of my girls and I believe the answer may come down to one word.  Corn.

This is Liv's FPIES blog, but I feel the need to expound here with L.  Bear with me, as I back up a few months.

Sometime following her third birthday, we re-trialed dairy with L and had it be a complete pass.  This, after having severe intolerance for the years prior.  I've talked briefly here about it; the couple of really exciting things we've been able to do now that she's enjoying a 'normal' diet.  Now, it was in the fall that her behavior really started getting extreme on occasion.  Assuming this was fallout from the entrance of a new sibling along with the recent homecoming of her Navy daddy, we just went with our new little discipline problem and dealt with it the best we could.  Fast forward to the past couple of weeks.  I've been putting in some serious computer time searching for the corn intolerance google needle in the haystacks of the internet abyss.  Seriously, if I thought there was little information available for FPIES there seems to be even less for corn allergy and intolerance.  Nonetheless, what has been written has been read.  While Liv's situation started making more and more sense... I started having a burning feeling in the pit of my stomach.

These stories talking about older kids' behaviors with corn intolerance or allergies sounds disturbingly similar to MANY things with L.  Oh dear.


Allow me to go down my list of goings on that seem to back up my suspicion.   First of all, it would make perfect sense that if this is corn allergy related, things went downhill in the fall.  You see, when she had to be dairy-free, there was very little pre-packaged food and convenience things that she could eat... these things are LOADED with corn ingredients and derivatives.  Being able to consume dairy opened up the possibility for the exhausted FPIES mommy to cut a few corners while I was nursing a a baby round the clock... it also pumped L full of corn.  When I say 'behavioral problems' I mean the kid goes off on tangents and is just completely irrational.  She will start screaming and/or crying for no apparent reason and can't tell you why she's so upset either.  Secondly, she has always been frantic when I've made her use hand sanitizer.  Goes ballistic and tells me it 'burns'.  Now, I just assumed there were cuts on her hands or something and she was being dramatic.  And maybe that's all it is, but it might not be.  Because hand sanitizer is alcohol... from corn.  For another thing, she has also been psycho at bath time getting soap anywhere near her face- says it burns.  It was tear-free baby shampoo.  It really shouldn't have been making her wail.  Again, thought it was just theatrics.  Buuuuuuut..... baby shampoo is made using, yes- corn.  In addition, the same reaction is seen with baby wipes near her face and she doesn't particularly like her hands wiped by them either.

From everything I've read, it appears that kids are just so stinking miserable being 'corned' if they are allergic or severely intolerant that it manifests in rather horrible behavioral ways.  They simply don't know how to verbalize that they feel like crap, and so they act out.  We have been very consistent with L,  but we are just at a loss when she is acting like this.  No discipline tactic seems to have any effect whatsoever.  Its like we aren't even talking to her.  She bounces off the walls and is very erratic. Very ADHD-like in symptoms, but there is an ebb and flow to it.  It isn't constant.

On the one hand, it really would be a bit of a parental relief if all of this could be traced back to corn.  To have the insanity end by changing her diet.  On the other hand, it is slightly heartbreaking to have to put her back on a restricted diet.  Having to tell her she can't have things she has come to really enjoy is not going to be fun.  Only one way to find out..  Here we go with corn-free trial with my #1 girl.


And what about my other favorite little person?  It is looking like my hunch with her was correct.  Since changing things like her sunblock, disposable diapers, wipes, and baby soap she has been quite a bit better.  She has worn the new sunblock on several occasions now and I've seen none of same symptoms as were experienced with the corn-laden version.  The more information I have seen, the more I'm questioning if some of her previous fails were really not the actual food at all, but the presence of corn ON the food from packaging or processing.

To be honest, its all making my head spin.  It makes SO much sense.  Too much, really.  I want so desperately to be wrong.  Avoiding corn is painful at best, and with so many other restrictions already the mere thought of my foreseeable future is exhausting.  So much to worry about... times TWO.