Illnesses
Fussy Buns has been sick for 2 months now with one thing after another. We first took her in to Urgent Care for a goopy eye and not only did she have pink eye, but she also had an ear infection, tonsillitis, and a yeast infection! Poor baby. After Round 1 of antibiotics and eye drops, the pink eye came back and the ear infection persisted. Round 2 took out the ear infection and Nystatin cleared up the yeast infection, but 20 days of antibiotics really messed up her stomach. She started having diarrhea, became extremely irritable and wouldn’t eat or drink much, so we took her in to the ER. (Of course this had to happen on a holiday when everything was closed.) She was dehydrated, so they did an IV. Let me tell you, it is extremely challenging keeping a toddler attached to an IV! Fortunately, nothing else came back on the tests, so we went home. Just when she finally started to seem more like herself, she developed a runny nose, horrible cough and started wheezing. The pediatrician thinks she has seasonal allergies (hay fever) and we can use an Albuterol inhaler every 4 hours as needed, as well as 1/4 Zyrtec at night. Pinning her down to hold the inhaler spacer over her face is so sad, so I’m ready for her to be healthy again!
New: Seasonal Allergies 
It’s not really a huge surprise that she has hay fever given the fact that both her parents do. I’ve noticed that my seasonal allergy symptoms have really improved the past couple years since I’ve changed my diet, but we live in a valley where grass is grown so there’s really no avoiding it. I’m interested in getting an air purifier to see if that would help with her wheezing. Anything to do with not being able to breathe well concerns me!
Read this blog post by Itchy Little World: http://itchylittleworld.com/2013/06/04/air-purifiers-help-relieve-asthma-allergies-and-eczema/
Eating
We took Fussy Buns to a pediatric dietitian that specializes in food allergies, and she recommended that we get her to eat 1,000 calories a day to gain weight and offer 3 meals plus a couple snacks spaced 2-3 hours apart. That seems like a lot of calories for a 16 month old, but she is underweight, especially since she’s lost weight due to the illnesses. We are hopeful that we can offer more calorie dense meals to make every bite count.
Ideas to increase calories:
- Increase flax oil (in smoothies, purees or cereals) to 1 T (1 t = 35 calories)
- Add coconut oil in cereals, on pancakes, gluten free vegan bread (1 t = 35 calories)
- Add Sunbutter (sunflower seed butter) in smoothies (1 T = 100 calories)
- Sneak in avocado (1/2 avocado = 150 calories)
- Increase pure maple syrup to 1 T (60 calories)
Protein Ideas:
- Goal: 13-20 g/day
- Pumpkin protein powder good
- Find pea protein powder
- Grind up seeds to add to food (also contain oils): (I just bought this coffee and spice grinder.)
- sunflower
- chia
- hemp
Milk Alternative Ideas:
- Continue making hemp milk, but add more flax oil. It has more protein than rice milk.
- Consider soy milk (Not sure about this. Waiting until she’s healthy before offering organic Non-GMO soy. I would probably make my own by soaking soy beans and using my milk maker.)
Vitamins and Supplements Ideas: 
- Animal Parade Gold Liquid
- Nano VM powder
- Ferrous Sulfate (liquid iron supplement)
Fussy Buns 