Allergies and Sickness #3 Rant

Chase is having a rough month, to say the least. She started to sound a tiny congested a few days a go and I was keeping my fingers crossed that it was just a minor reaction to the manic cold/rain/snow/occasional sun combination we've been having. No such luck. Yesterday she started to have a runny nose while we were out having lunch with our friends. I stopped at Ramstein Bx to look for a bulb syringe. We have several, but I find the one that was sent home with her from the hospital to be the most effective. Paddy was mesmerized by the thing and kept stealing it, and now I have no idea where it is. If he has it, he's not telling. I mean it sounds simple enough right? Well, I couldn't find it anywhere, so I asked 2 store employees, who had no idea what I was talking about but eventually sent me to another kid section, where I was told by two more employees that bulb syringes were being phased out. Huh? Phased out? A newborn/infant necessity is being phased out at AAFES, you hear it here first! Personally I thought there was some language barrier as none of the four I spoke to were a native English speaker and I had to actually explain what a bulb syringe was. I mean, if you don't know what you are talking about, why not just admit to it? I pretty much gave up after combing through all the baby/kid sections and went up to pay, where I registered my question/complaint to the cashier, who appeared to be a sweet high school student. She didn't have an answer for me, but the girl who was in line behind me thought she surely did when she chimed in with "oh, yeah, that's old." What's old? Bulb syringe? I had a baby 9 months ago and it was in use then. As far as I know, newborns haven't evolved so far as to be able to blow their own noses immediately after birth, so I'm pretty certain it's still fairly "in" and "new." I have very low tolerance for morons especially when my poor baby is telling me with her sad eyes that she's utterly miserable and can't breathe. I didn't have time to drive around on the economy to look for one, because the baby didn't look well and I wanted to give her some medicine and let her rest. Needless to say, our night was horrendous. She was up for nearly every hour crying because she couldn't breathe. Benedryl doesn't even put a dent into this one and the tiny bulb syringe we have is just useless. And since today is Sunday, no stores are opened on the economy for me to go look. Sigh. I'm thinking about calling Mother & Baby unit at Landstuhl, where we got the first one, and offer to buy one from them. This much trouble for a FREAKING BULB SYRINGE!!! I reserve a special kind of hatred for AAFES buyers/stockers.

So while we were out at lunch yesterday, I let Chase try a piece of steamed sweet red bell pepper. I made sure to order them without butter, salt, or any kind of seasonings. No more than a few minutes passed before red rashes started to appear around her mouth. Unfortunately, this is not at all uncommon with Chase. She has so many food allergies that the poor child ends up just eating the same thing over and over again. At the very least, the reaction is localized around her mouth and goes away quickly without an aid of any medication. The worst was when I gave her about two teaspoons of baby yogurt a few months ago. Her whole face puffed up and she became very fussy, which led me to believe that she might be having some trouble breathing. Of course, we rushed her to the German Krankenhaus in town (we were living in Baumholder then) immediately and thankfully she was fine. Her airway didn't close up and her internal reaction was the cause of her agitation. When the doctor undressed and examined her, we could see that she had broken out in red hives, with her belly being the main area of concentration. It was the scariest day of my life, and every time she has a reaction since then, however minor, it sends me into a panic. I had the worst time finding something that doesn't have dairy in it to eat when I first found out that Chase had milk protein intolerance, so I could keep nursing her. Now imagine trying to find something for my finger-food-loving 9 month-old that doesn't contain any dairy. I feel so bad for her. On most days she ends up eating Cheerios and fruits, because the child has decided that she doesn't like the taste of bland chicken or meat that I'm supposed to give her. I spoke to her doctor about it the other day when we went in to discuss having her tested for allergens, because she suddenly started to randomly breakout (not food related) since we moved into this house. We're thinking that she might be allergic to something in the yard that the boys track in. Anyway, back to the food. I never thought letting the baby have food with some seasoning was bad as long as it wasn't too salty, but I had been trying to go by the books, which all said to NEVER add salt to baby food. I'm beginning to think little salt is better than no protein outside of breast milk at all.

I know this post is so long and unorganized. I'm guess I'm just frustrated. Normally I would have Wil to bounce my thoughts and concerns with about the baby, and I kind of don't want to bring it up to my other friends because I feel like illnesses and sleep problems are all I talk about as is. I guess this is what I'm doing here, but since this is MY blog I'm just going to let it rip. I'm having a really foul Sunday, can't you tell?