Well, it's been a wild ride!

How did we discover his food allergies?  What were the signs and symptoms?  This is J.R.'s story.

J.R. was a "miracle" baby.  I was 43, had never had children, and was told I never could have children.  I had uterine fibroids and I had not used any kind of birth control for several years.  In May of 1999, I got married and planned to honeymoon throughout the summer and schedule a hysterectomy in the fall.  After a boating trip at the end of the summer, I called my doctor and scheduled an appointment to arrange for a hysterectomy.  However, one Saturday about 2 weeks before the appointment, I felt exhausted and fell asleep on the couch.  I NEVER fall asleep during the day! I knew something was going on, and bought a pregnancy test kit.  The instructions said to wait 2 minutes for the results to show ... my results showed in about 2 seconds! I was indeed pregnant!

It was a difficult, high-risk pregnancy, due to my age and the size, quantity and placement of the fibroids. 

But I had an inner conviction that if this little soul was so determined to be born that he had overcome all odds just to get conceived, then I was certain that he would manage to be born. And never had a moment's worry about it.  I also had an excellent obstetrician, and he determined that we'd be lucky to make it to the 32nd week. You see, the fibroids were taking up so much room in the uterus that there wasn't room for the baby to develop beyond that size and would have to be delivered early. We scheduled a C-section 6 weeks before his due date and he was born healthy and fairly strong for a preemie.  I was awake for the delivery, then they whisked J.R. off to the perinatal nursery, and put me under anesthesia for a hysterectomy to get those fibroids out of there. 

The doctors thought J.R. would be in the Neonatal I.C.U. for about 3 weeks to stabilize his body temperature and supplement his oxygen.  But he was a strong little guy, and he was only in there for  10 days when they announced he was doing so well that he could go home!  We brought him home on Easter Sunday, weighing only 5 pounds, in a carseat that was comically too big for him - he looked like a little pea at the bottom of this huge seat!  The nurses helped us prop him up with blankets and towels and we made it home just fine.

He seemed like a healthy, normal baby and grew and thrived as we hoped he would.  However, as weeks and months passed I noticed certain behaviors that seemed odd.  Small things when considered one at a time, but they began to concern me as I noticed there seemed to be more of them as time passed.

Some of these included:

waking up frequently - about every 2 hours

pushing constantly with his feet

banging his head

sensitivity to noise

skin sensitive to some materials and clothing tags

a strong preference for carbohydrates (pancakes, pasta, cookies, etc.)

lack of interest in feeding himself and in manipulating things

18 mo. "tantrums" where he'd shriek and pound his head for up to an hour with no apparent trigger

fascination with windshield wipers to the point of seeming obsessive

manifested some symptoms of classic ADD/ADHD:

   Having difficulty remaining seated.