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POSTED: Wednesday, Jul. 16, 2008

Boy battles rare disorder

Birch Bay child suffers condition that prevents him from eating solid food

When 3-year-old Jayden Ewing-VanderYacht sees his older sister and brother eat, he wants to eat, too.

But a non-fatal disease called eosinophilic esophagitis prevents him from eating almost all solid foods. He gets nourishment from a hypoallergenic formula that costs his parents more than $500 a month in insurance co-payments.

Now his folks, lifelong Whatcom County residents Shaysee Ewing-VanderYacht, 26, and Brad VanderYacht, 32, of Birch Bay, hope to raise enough money so he can be treated at a hospital in Denver. A fund has been established in Jayden’s name and donations can be made at any Washington Mutual branch.

Jayden’s mom is a food and beverage manager at Silver Reef Casino. His father worked at Intalco, but was laid off recently, his wife said.

Question: Shaysee, what’s your immediate goal for Jayden?

Answer: We’re hoping to be able to raise enough money for treatment of six to 12 weeks at National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver. They have agreed to treat Jayden there.

It’s one of only two hospitals in the country that treats food allergy patients. Jayden may eventually need a feeding tube, since there is no known cure, but we may find solid foods that he can digest, because it would be good to delay insertion of the feeding tube for as long as possible.

Q: How does E.E. affect him?

A: His white blood cells, called eosinophils, think solid food is a parasite and attack his body, which creates all kinds of life-threatening problems. This is really still a new disease for doctors, which is why only two hospitals in the country treat it. Q: Can Jayden have any solid foods?

A: He can have grapes, onions and avocados, and that’s all we know of. Since his body at any time can reject a given solid food, we don’t know if he’ll be able to eat those in the future.

Q: It must be difficult when he sees his siblings eat.

A: It is. Teauna is 9 and Dustin is 6 and both are healthy. This is just all so hard to explain to a 3-year-old. This disease just came out of the blue, because neither Brad nor I have any family history of this disease.

Q: When was Jayden diagnosed?

A: He was 14 months old. That’s really young to be diagnosed with as many food allergies as he was diagnosed with. They were typical allergies, such as milk, and they caused him to have all sorts of problems. He was hospitalized three times before he was 3 months old.

Q: He looks healthy.

A: He’s very bright, as sweet as can be, and he’s normal in other ways, although he’s slender.

Q: What are your plans?

A: If Jayden and I can go to Denver, Brad will stay here to take care of the other kids. We’d like to go to Denver by the early fall. Our health insurance does not pay for things like air fare, lodging, lost wages and some of the tests, so we would really love to receive help from the community.

Everyone in our families and at the casino have been very helpful, and we’re very grateful. We don’t have any plans to leave Whatcom County. This is our home and we want Jayden to be as comfortable and healthy as possible.

This story was corrected Wednesday, July 16. The character of the disease and the hospital specialties were incorrect.