Pare down the pears.

Have I mentioned that Lillie is allergic to Pears?  Seems super strange, right?  Here is the short long story.

Lillie always had the most smooth, white little belly.  When she was 4 or 5 months old she started getting this rash all over her little stomach, and sometimes on her back.  It would come and go pretty regularly.  Get worse, get better, get worse.  I asked the doctor about it multiple times.  The explanation was always dry skin / eczema.  We used lots of unscented lotions, no dryer sheets, "free" detergents.  You name it- I tried it.

In January, Lillie started at a day care.  And the sweet led teacher in the infant class (who has been taking care of infants her whole career and who is a mom to two) said multiple times (very sweetly), I think this is a food allergy.  So, I'd go back to the doctor with, "Is this a food allergy".  He would say, I don't think so.  And so things went on for ANOTHER 6 MONTHS.

Finally this summer, we weaned Lillie off baby food fruits and were able to find enough non-pureed fruits that Lillie could chew.  The rash went away.  I thought she grew out of it.  Next thing I know we are in Arkansas and the rash is back with vengeance.  So, I start racking my mommy brain.  We are driving a lot, so I'm thinking a lot.

Then it hit me, Brad had gone to the store to pick up some yogurt before we headed out on our trip.  We had been feeding Lillie YoBaby 3 in 1 Yogurt- pear and green beans once or twice a day.   Pears were one of the first jar foods we took on and Lillie adored them.  As we started solid foods in feeding therapy, we had to avoid solid food pears because they are "slider foods" which Lillie will swallow whole- explaining the absence in the rash this summer!

So, we cut the pear & green bean yogurt out half way through the trip and by the time we pulled into NC we were rash free!  I guess that will teach me to listen to the books, "only introduce one food at a time every 3 to 4 days and watch for any reaction" still rings in my head.  Who has the time or energy to do that?  I was just trying to get her to eat for goodness sake!