2010.

Well, happy 2010 everyone! We made it through our first Christmas after Asher's diagnosis without too many issues. We've quickly learnt to come prepared with 'back-up' food as just one off ingredient can cause a bad reaction for Asher. This is something we are still learning about ourselves!

Since we made it through Christmas so easily, you'd think we'd still be dealing with everything well. How wrong that is! We are currently dealing with Asher's first severe reaction since his diagnosis 5 months ago. I forgot how tough it was to watch my baby in so much pain. Asher's reactions can vary, this time we are having a lot of wind issues. He's waking frequently during the night needing help to push out wind. Once it's out he falls straight back to sleep on our shoulders. He can get very irritable and distressed when in pain and is extremely hard to comfort. At times like this, The Wiggles are quickly becoming our saviours as Asher instantly calms enough to allow me to cuddle and massage him once they're on. We believe it's rice starch that is causing the issues with Asher. We have been trying to work out his limits and have been increasing his intake, obviously too much. I've also had some people tell me that they need to watch their child's carb intake during the day, this is something I'm going to research further as it may help us.

Throughout all this Asher still never ceases to amaze me with how brave he is. We are having so many beautiful moments that he'll have fun playing with all his toys with a big smile on his face. Children can be so resiliant. Paul and I always comment on how proud we are that with everything that he's gone through he's grow up to be such a happy and loving toddler.

Now that we are in the new year I am going to make it my resolution to post in this blog at least once a week. At the moment I'm currently attempting to get Carer's Allowance/Payment from Centrelink. Our weekly food bill is getting bigger and bigger all the time as Asher grows and needs more food (as well as more variety). This is getting tough for us so we decided to try to claim the allowances.

I've also started asking around about Sucraid for Asher. I started with his GP and he gave me a number to ring. From what I've been told only one other person is on Sucraid in Australia and it's extremely hard to get. I think this would help us out a lot, so I'm going to try my hardest to get it for him.

I'll keep the blog updated on how we go with both these things. Hopefully once Asher's stomach has calmed down again I will have the chance to share another food discovery that works for him.

Christmas Celebrations.

This weekend we had our first experience at taking Asher out to a Christmas Party that wasn't family orientated since his diagnosis. I must admit I was really nervous about how he'd cope and if he'd notice he got different things to the other children, but I forget he's a bit too young to pay attention to so much detail! I packed his lunchbox full of all his favourite snacks and things to fall back on if lunch didn't work out. I made sure he had salad ingredients so we could create his own while we were there.

Paul's work (who hosted the family BBQ) were fantastic. Instead of a lolly bag from Father Christmas they insured he recieved a bag full of his favourite treats. Lunch was chicken kebabs and salad and they made sure the caterers had some chicken without the sauce cooked on a clean hot plate (the caterers insured me they had cleaned and scraped it twice!). Asher enjoyed his chicken and salad, he sat in his pram stuffing his face with two of his favourite foods!

We realise that as Asher gets older that this will become more difficult. For now though we know we can cope with it and that Asher will have a good time even if he isn't able to eat the same food as everyone else. We make food such an important part of special occasions, but it's doesn't have to be. I hope that now Paul and I will both have the courage to face other Christmas celebrations with less apprehension now that we have had such a positive experience!