ausEE Inc.

Andy started throwing up, between 2-4 times a day, most days from 8 months old, and by the time he was 1 year old he was categorised as ‘failure to thrive’. Even though I had taken him to many doctor visits, I was told that’s just what some kids do. As his weight now wasn’t registering in the growth charts he was referred to a paediatrician. This is when the tests began. He had ultrasounds, blood tests, x-rays, a barium swallow and we had eliminated a lot but still had no answers. 

Finally the decision was made to put him under General Anaesthetic at 15 months old for an endoscopy to see what was happening inside. The diagnosis of EoE was handed down and we began trying to understand this rare disease.

Eosinophilic Oesophagitis (EoE) is an inflammatory disease that is characterised by eosinophils (allergy cells) building up in the lining of the oesophagus. The eosinophils cause inflammation in the oesophagus which causes symptoms of feeding intolerance, poor weight gain, vomiting and reflux like symptoms.

The reasons why some people have EoE is not fully understood but a strong connection has been made between food allergies and EoE. To date Andy has undergone 6 hospital stays to have an endoscopy performed as this is the only way this disease can be diagnosed and confirmed. He has biopsies taken that confirm the extent of eosinophils in his oesophagus and determine how his body is reacting to the diets we are trying at that time. We really hope one day he will not have to go under an anaesthetic for this as it is quite traumatic for all.

Currently we have stopped Andy being on an elimination diet and put him on a steroid medication that protects his oesophagus whilst we try and get his body to tolerate more foods. We mix the steroids with apple sauce and make it into a slurry that he has every night. He also has to have a high calorie drink twice a day to try and get him putting on weight to meet his growth potential, as the specialist likes to tell us.