He Has EoE: I Wish I Knew

Sunday, April 18, 2010

I Wish I Knew

This post was written before Oliver was diagnosed with EoE, when we thought he had Celiac. I have kept it here because overall, it still applies.

It's so hard having a sick baby. A baby can't tell you what, if anything, is hurting. With Oliver it seems so much harder. Last night he threw up and today he was just not himself. I wish I knew why. Was the vomiting a fluke or the result of a gluten ingestion? I wish he could tell me if his stomach was hurting. Anytime he cries I wonder. I'm sure it will always be like that to some extent. But if he can tell me if his stomach hurts, then we can try and pinpoint a food that may be causing it. Right now there is just so much I don't know - about his food allergies and his potential celiac - and so much that he can't tell me, that I second guess everything.

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Who is he?

He is Oliver and he is three years old. Oliver was diagnosed with EoE two weeks after his first birthday. He was diagnosed as failure to thrive at nine months old at which point we pursued some blood tests. His celiac panel came back somewhat positive so we were referred to a pediatric gastroenterologist. We met with the GI on Oliver's first birthday at which point we scheduled an endoscopy to find out exactly what was going on. The endoscopy showed no signs of celiac, but instead a multitude of eosinophils in his esophagus. So celiac was ruled out and Eosinophilic Esophagitis became his new diagnosis.

What is EoE?

An eosinophil is a white blood cell that is an important part of the immune system, just not when found in large numbers in one's esophagus! Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EoE) is the result of an abnormal amount of eosinophils in the esophagus. These eosinophils are often caused by food protein and the eosinophils cause inflammation in the esophagus. Treatment options are dietary management (removal of trigger foods) and topical corticosteroid treatment. The steroids control the inflammation in the esophagus and suppress the eosinophils, but once treatment stops, the eosinophils will return unless the trigger foods are all removed.