Henry and his Mom were taking pumpkins to their friends in the forest. These weren’t ordinary pumpkins, but special Teal Pumpkins! They show children who are trick-or-treating that there are special non-food treats at that house. Henry couldn’t wait to bring these special pumpkins to his friend’s houses because it meant that this year he could dress up with his friends and get fun treats like everyone else.
First they took them to his friend Oscar the Owl’s house. Oscar lived in a big old oak tree and his family had already started decorating with twinkle lights and paintings done by Oscar and his sister. Oscar’s mom told them thank you for bringing the pumpkin, she was excited to join the Teal Pumpkin project this year. They waved and headed off to drop off the last pumpkin at Ellie the Mouse’s house. Ellie also had allergies but they were a little different than Henry’s.
Henry has a special kind of food allergy called FPIES. For Henry, it means that he gets very sick by eating certain foods. Sometimes he gets so sick that he has to go to the hospital to get help. It can be really hard when holidays come around because Henry wants to be like all of his friends and eat the fun looking food but he knows that not all food is safe for him. Most of the time his mom makes him yummy things to bring from home but sometimes Henry wants to have a special treat that doesn’t come from his family. It means so much when others include Henry in their activities and don’t make him feel different.
More about FPIES
FPIES (Food Protein Induced Enterocolitis Syndrome) is a serious rare form of food allergies that can cause a host of symptoms. The most serious is in the form of shock, typically from violent vomiting episodes, until the body goes into shock because of dehydration. This can be a life-threatening situation. Symptoms usually present 2 to 6 hours after ingesting a food.
While FPIES is rare, the number of cases are growing. Also, while most children outgrow FPIES by the age of 2, some children are taking longer to outgrow things and some simply don’t out grow it.
There are currently no tests for FPIES, it is a clinical diagnoses based on health history and symptoms, that also means that there is no way for families to know what or how many trigger foods their child will have.
Each time a child tries a new food their parent has set up a special trial starting with a small amount of the new food and increasing the amount each day to see how their child will react. If no reaction happens then that is considered a “safe” food and the family can move on to trial another food. If the food is a “fail” then usually that child needs to be on gut rest for some time. Think of how you feel after a bad stomach flu and how you need to eat food that is gentle on your stomach, gut rest is similar to that but may last quite a bit longer depending on how badly a child “failed” a food. Learn More: Learn more about FPIES by visiting The FPIES Foundation. You can find many wonderful resources on their site, including emergency plans, finding a doctor in your area that is familiar with FPIES, reading stories from families who have dealt with FPIES, and so much more! 10% of all the profits from Teal Mice, goes to this very worthy foundation.
You can learn more about the Teal Pumpkin project Here.