JUICE!

My oldest son is 9 years old, which means I had him when I was pretty young. I was trying to do my best while being pretty paranoid and over protective. Camden's pediatrician had advised against giving him, or any of my kids, too much juice because of all the sugar in it. Juice was to be give only occasionally and if I watered it down then all the better. So I followed that advice and thought I was being a "good" mom because my kids weren't demanding juice all the time and were content to drink water when they were thirsty.

Camden never had an ear infection, or strep, or the flu. He was the healthiest kid I knew. He still would get colds like the other kids but never anything serious. Camden was the best eater, sleeper, snuggler, etc. You get the picture. To me, he was perfect, though a little sensitive.

Skip forward four years, Camden is....four, almost five, and we had moved from San Francisco, CA to  Dayton, OH. Camden threw up for the first time in his life that winter. I figured it was because we were in Ohio and it snows a lot and he was stuck indoors where germs can breed rampantly. He had a few incidents that winter and I would have not thought much of it but whenever he threw up it was always in the early morning and he never had any other symptoms, ie fever, chills, rash, aches and pains. Well, he did have frequent loose bm's so I just thought his tummy was sick. We would feed him the BRAT diet and hoped it would solidify soon.  I wasn't extremely happy in Ohio and I missed California and all of my friends so I just blamed the entire state for his condition.

Fast forward four more years, we're still in Ohio, and after three different moves, jobs, schooling, etc it looks like I'll be forever in Ohio. Camden is 8 and has been throwing up every two weeks for two months.  Just like before, Camden doesn't have any symptoms but he's not bouncing back after these episodes. Usually he would throw up for a few hours, sleep a little, then be begging for food and to play with friends. But this time he was still pale and weak. He'd been doing this for years, mostly in the winter time. Every year when the weather turned colder, Camden would start these episodes and Nate and I were so annoyed because we were inconvenienced...I'm pathetic. Camden's lips were always dry and cracking and he was constantly picking at them so we nagged him to quit touching his lips and to wash his hands ALL the time. Poor kid.

I was getting really worried that something was really wrong with him. When I took him to the doctor the first time they gave him a generic diagnosis, prescribed anti nauseous medicine, liquid zantac and sent us home. Two weeks later he threw up.

On top of all the hassle of sleep deprivation, clean up, and the smell, Camden would miss school because he needed to be puke-free for 24 hours. And have I mentioned his breath? It was HORRIBLE! When I was pregnant with Wyatt I couldn't stand to be near him. (sorry sweetie, but it was true. pregnancy heightens the senses and my nose was in overdrive) So, my poor guy had been throwing up every winter for four years, had foul smelling breath and he, um, ahem, had flatulence issues. After a particularly heinous release I was teasing him to make light of it and he started to cry saying he couldn't help it and kids at school were teasing him and said he smelled. Well, I pretty much felt smaller then a gnat. I had no idea it was effecting him at school.

Back to the doctor we went and this time we saw a different pediatrician. After explaining all of Camden's symptoms, she immediately diagnosed him with constipation! We took an xray and the poor boy was completely stopped up inside. Even though he went #2 every day it wasn't enough. The Dr. referred us to a pediatric gastrointerologist  and he said that severe constipation is actually very common in kids. It's easily treated. He needs to take a capful of Miralax once a day, drink lots of water, and eat at least 18 grams of fiber a day. Camden had already been doing all of that since his previous doctor appointment but this specialist said it could take up to one year for Camden's body to send his brain appropriate triggers to dispose of his waste more frequently.

And here's the kicker. Camden's special Pediatric GI doctor said that the best thing to give kids to help prevent this is?....dun! dun! dun!

JUICE!