Can You Outgrow FPIES a Rare Food Allergy (Food Protein Induced Enterocolitis Syndrome) – the short answer, obviously, YES.
(What is FPIES?!) There are many common food allergies and FPIES is definitely one of them. In fact it often goes unnoticed and your child may end up having unnecessary testing due to failed diagnosis.
When you feed your babies first foods is when you may notice food allergies. I made all our baby food recipes from scratch so I knew exactly what was in everything. I was worried about the common food allergy, but never knew of this rare food allergy. It was close to three years ago (when Kay was 7-8 months) we knew something wasn’t right. With some investigating of my own after the doctors brushed away my concerns as viral/flu, I came across Food Protein-Induced Entercolitis Syndrome. We didn’t have an official diagnosis, it was just my searching on google that lead us to believe she had FPIES.
I immediately called her pediatrician and told him about our findings. It was the first time they believed me about her symptoms. From there we went to a specialist who confirmed our fears. I wondered, can you outgrow FPIES food allergy? The doctor told us some children outgrow FPIES as early as 18 months old, whereas most outgrow FPIES at the age of 3-5 years old. In rare cases some children do not outgrow their FPIES triggers. There were so many what ifs, why and how questions in our head, that I couldn’t even think of what to feed her. My daughter’s first birthday cake was sliced bananas and strawberries and thankfully she loved it!
I was so upset when we got the diagnosis. I constantly thought, “what if she doesn’t outgrow her FPIES triggers?”. When we went to the first IAFFPE 1st Annual FPIES Education Conference I met with other parents who have children suffering with FPIES. Many of those children were in there teens or even adulthood with FPIES.. My mind would wonder, could my baby suffer with this food allergy for the rest of her life?! People can be inconsiderate when it comes to food allergies – they feel as if food allergies are an inconvenience for them.
Unfortunately most people don’t know that a single bite of a trigger food can send a child with FPIES to the hospital hours after eating the trigger food. FPIES is not like a typical allergic reaction where it’s immediate. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve explained it to people and they still don’t understand it. The fact is, doctors still don’t fully understand FPIES. We never let FPIES take away our fun though! We still made every holiday exciting by making everything homemade from scratch!
One thing is for sure, most kids WILL outgrow this Rare Food Allergy called FPIES. Thankfully we’ve been very blessed and our daughter had only 3 FPIES Triggers.
It was our goal to make sure that she had the healthiest foods, all organic, plenty of gut rest and of course extended breastfeeding. We steered clear of her triggers for over 2 years. It was terrifying to start trialing her trigger foods. I made chicken soup on May 4th (National FPIES Awareness Day). Baby girl begged for the soup, but unlike all of the other times I said no with a broken heart, I finally said yes.. yes you can have the chicken soup. I had to take that chance, that huge leap of faith that my daughter may be healed and rid of this food allergy. She passed chicken! Then we started an oat trial followed by her worst trigger, soy! She passed all 3 of her triggers!
So if you were to ask me, Can You Outgrow FPIES, my answer is yes! On August 4th her doctor told us that she was FPIES free of her trigger foods.
I’m so thrilled that we can finally say she is FPIES FREE!
Her allergist performed a few allergy tests using the prick test method so we could continue trying new foods without worrying about another type of allergy reaction. Thankfully she passed all of those too!
We are so excited that we have started a new series on our blog called Mini Chef Mondays! She loves to cook in the kitchen with me and you’ll be seeing posts from my little Mini Chef each Monday!
I believe we caught my daughter’s FPIES early enough that there wasn’t much damage – not much time for this horrible allergy to manifest inside of her. I’m a firm believer in food healing our bodies and made sure to heal her from the inside out with nutritious fruits and vegetables. I also thank God every.single.day that I was able to provide breastmilk for her, I believe without my breastmilk we wouldn’t have had this much success in our FPIES journey. I am so grateful for how far we’ve come – even when I didn’t think we’d get here.. We’re finally here! Goodbye FPIES!
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