Hard Job

One of the hardest things about being a parent of small children is that they can't tell you what is wrong. We have had a week of that. For Micah's third birthday, we told him that he would now have to go poopy on the potty. He has been potty trained for several months, but will only go poopy in a diaper. He has been very obedient about our new rule. He has not had one accident, and he has gone to sit on the potty almost every night. The problem is, he won't go. So, you can imagine he is a little grumpy, and I am sure his tummy hurts. We have added some Benefiber for kids to his drinks and tried a stool softener for children--still no poopy. Last night, after a very long, cranky day, he had a complete meltdown. This is not like Micah at all. He was out of control crying, and even unbuckled his seat belt because he said it was hurting. Matt and I pulled over and thought "what on earth is wrong with him?" Our only assumption was that his tummy hurt, so Matt got out a diaper and told him that he could go if he needed to. I am not joking, he did a 180. He was all of a sudden smiling, laughing, and excited to go meet Nana for dinner. He didn't go to the bathroom, so I am wondering if he just had so much anxiety about it. We decided last night to wait a little while on continuing with the potty training. Something I have learned from this: They are right when they say potty training is about so much more than discipline. There is skill involved and psychological issues (apparently Micah is terrified to make a poop on the pot). Sometimes, we just have to throw our time table out the window and listen to our children. My mom reminded me that he will not go to college in a diaper!
The other part to our hard week: another food allergy. So, Owen has been a bit cranky lately, waking up an hour or two earlier than normal in the morning, and has an extreme breakout of eczema on his arms and legs. I thought he was just getting a tooth, but couldn't figure the eczema out. I started being extra careful watching everything he ate for no dairy, soy, or eggs...still the rash (and getting worse). I was searching for an allergy cookbook for kids, when something caught my eye. One of the titles had the word corn in it. A light bulb went off. In an effort to make sure that Owen gets all the complete protein he needs, I have given him corn with his beans and peas. It just so happens that he loves it and had had a lot of it the past few days. Poor guy. They say that corn allergy looks like this: trouble sleeping, rash, and tummy aches. Yes, I think that must be it. I am looking into taking him to an allergist and possibly a pediatric nutritionist. I have felt in the past that I had this allergy and feeding him thing under control, but it is really getting beyond my expertise. The child is allergic to everything. I need some good ideas about what to feed him too (hopefully my new cookbook will help too.) By the way, everything is made from corn. Pretty much everything on the ingredient list that you aren't sure about has corn in it. Looks like he will be one child who doesn't get processed food. Any other fellow allergy sufferers out there? Any ideas about what to feed my child?