Malcolm's sickies

Weeks before our move, Malcolm got sick.

Passed out on the couch in the middle of the day

He had diarrhea and vomiting for a few days, and then seemed to get better for about a day or two.  Then it was diarrhea and vomiting for days and days and days.  We took him to the doctor on Day 9 because that was just too long!  

I would have taken him earlier, but the Hibberts and Ryan's parents were in town.  We spent four sick days up at Bear Lake for the Green/Aurich family reunion too.  As soon as we got back in town, we went to the doctor.  He told us to take him off milk and see how that went. He suggested Lactaid milk, which improved the diarrhea, but still Malcolm was throwing up every night.  

Oh the laundry!  all the vomit!  Once a night, every night for WEEKS.  We switched him to completely dairy free when his symptoms didn't fully improve after 3 days.  Since then, we've had a lot more success.  

Apparently it's a somewhat common thing that can happen.  A kid gets a bad virus, and then becomes lactose intolerant.  Usually you can take them off dairy, and then start to slowly reintroduce after 6 weeks or so.  

We've only had a streak of 8 days with no vomiting.  A couple of times on our cross country trip, he threw up and had diarrhea.  (You think it's bad, and then you're camping and half your stuff is packed up in a trailer! ugh!)  We have to be especially careful, we've decided, when eating out.  We're really limited.  Which is kind of lame being in a new area with new restaurants to try.  It was only on days we ate out that Malcolm has had upsets.  

He lost so much weight during those three weeks before we got him totally and completely dairy free.  (no cheese, butter, milk, whey...)  It broke my heart. He was also very listless and sad and laid around on his sicker days.  So So Sad.  He's started to gain a bit back though.  

side note: I feel like the kids are CONSTANTLY asking me for food.  I'll make sure they eat well at meal times and it'll be 30 minutes later and they're asking for food.  I make sure they're eating real quality food, but they're still always asking!
I'm so tired of hearing about how hungry they are all the time!!  What's the deal??

Anyway, just keeping this blogournal up to date.  :) We hope that eventually we can get Malcolm back to tolerating at least SOME dairy.  I don't care if he has to stay away from drinking a glass of milk, or a large amount of cheese or something. But this label reading and worrying about trace amounts in things like battered chicken, etc, is really tiresome.  Not as tiresome as vomit in a bed every night, but tiresome all the same.  

One day at McDonalds.  Didn't want to eat.  Didn't want to play. (McDonald's Nuggets are Dairy free, btw.)