Health Check

We took the boys to the baby health clinic to get some advice. Benji's eczema on his face is getting worse, and it's really bothering him at times. He gets very irritable and attempts to scratch near his eyes. Some days it's good, other days it's very red and angry looking. He mostly gets it on his face, but when it gets very bad it appears in the creases of his ankles, elbows and back of the neck. We think it's a food allergy. The problem is, we're not sure what specific food he's allergic too.... there's so many choices. We're planning to swap him to a soy-based formula for the next 2 weeks and not give him any breast milk for that time. In 2 weeks we have an appointment with the paediatrician, so we'll see what happens with his skin in that time. If his skin gets better we will know for sure that he's allergic to something. At that point, Tracie will go on an elimination diet and Benji will go back on breast milk. Tracie will slowly introduce one food at a time and we'll see what he reacts to. If his skin is still bad in two weeks when we see the paediatrician, we will have to ask the doctor for a hypoallergenic prescription formula that is specifically for allergic babies. Once his skin clears up Tracie will start the elimination diet. If his skin never clears up we'll have to search further for the allergen.
Benji is also having issues spitting up his food. He has several small vomits after every feed. He is still going through many outfits per day as he vomits on himself :( poor bubba. The nurses suggested we use a thickener in his milk to help it stay in his belly. We'll buy some tomorrow and see how it goes.

Ethan is still having digestive issues. We think it's a heartburn/gas type sensation that causes pain when his belly starts to get full. He will suddenly start to cry either while he's drinking, or after drinking, when he's resting. It's like the pain catches him suddenly because one minute he's fine, and the next he's screaming. He will also be reviewed by the paediatrician in 2 weeks. Poor baby :(

When we were at the health centre we weighed the boys. Benji weights 5.3kg with clothes on and Ethan weighs 6kg with clothes on. All previous weights have been naked. Last time we weighed them both clothed and naked. Their clothes seem to weigh about 300g, so they probably weigh about 5kg (11lb) and 5.7kg (12lb 9oz). Ethan is gaining weight faster than Benji, but Benji eats more..... weird!