Hello - I could use some advice!

[Guest guest]

Hi, I am , I just joined the list. My son, 13 months, has some

yet-to-be-diagnosed digestive troubles. He's had trouble with food

since he was 8 weeks old, violently fighting feeding. At 6 months we

switched him to Alimentum formula and he did great, though introducing

solids was really hard, he resisted quite a bit. Most everything seems

to make him fussy. The foods he seems to be OK with now are Alimentum,

sweet potatoes, and bananas, with ocassional pieces of apple and peach.

His worst foods are all grains or grain products, though most everything

seems to bother him to some degree (milk, soy, legumes, etc.).

We've done the following tests, all came back negative - allergy tests

both scratch and blood, upper GI, lower GI, and a panel of metabolic

tests. He reacts to food with behavioral symptoms, he fights eating, he

gets very aggressive, is whiny and cries all the time, he has trouble

falling asleep and is restless all night, tossing and turning. When we

can restrict him to his " good foods " he is great - happy and loving and

falls asleep well and sleeps fine. He has no typical physical signs of

a problem - no vomiting, diarrhea, rash, blood in stools, etc. His

weight gain has been fine, he's 23 lbs, though he's pretty tall for his

age. But still, weight is not a problem for him.

We *know* there is something wrong, but finding out what it is has been

so hard. I'm beginning to suspect EE or EG a little more, and I asked

his GI to schedule him for endoscopy and colonoscopy, which she had

suggested earlier, but I was hesitant. So that should be coming up in

the next few weeks.

We feel that we have to do *something,* mealtime is so incredibly

stressful for us, especially now that he sees that we are eating

something different from him, he gets furious and demands it, and often

we give it to him (which in turn makes him more fussy later). But at

this point I think he is so sick of sweet potatoes and bananas (which he

has been fed pretty much exclusively for the last 2 months) that I

really can't blame him too much!

So for now, my questions are:

Do these symptoms sound familiar to anyone? Do they point to EE or EG?

Is it sufficient to have our current GI do the endoscopy/colonoscopy and

read the results, or should I look for someone who knows alot about

EE/EG? I really don't know what this dr's. experience level with it is.

Can anyone recommend a dr. in the Washington DC area (we live in VA)?

Any other thoughts/suggestions/insights?

Thanks so much for any advice or insight anyone can provide, I really

appreciate it. And it was a wonderful article in the Post about

's family, though I had given EE/EG passing thought and

mentioned it to the GI a few months ago, I really didn't pursue it

because it is supposed to be so uncommon. But the article made me think

that we really need to rule it out, if nothing else, since tests have

all been negative.

Again, thanks, and I look forward to your input!

mom to Winona Jane (almost 3 yrs old), Caton (13 months) and

baby girl due in 7 weeks!