Boy Suffering From Rare Disease Can Eat Only Grapes, Avocados, Onions

My kids would be down to grapes...

Jayden Ewing-VanderYacht has food allergies so severe they prevent him from eating almost all solid foods, the Bellingham Herald reported Thursday.

Jayden, 3, of Birch Bay, Wash., was diagnosed with eosinophilic esophagitis at 14 months old and only can eat grapes, onions and avocados.

As the young boy watches his older siblings eat regular foods, Jayden must receive his nourishment from hypoallergenic formula that costs his parents more than $500 a month in insurance co-payments.

There is no cure for the non-fatal disease, but Jayden eventually may need a feeding tube, said his mother, Shaysee Ewing-VanderYacht, 26.

This is how the disease works: Jayden’s white blood cells think of solid foods as parasites and attack his body. At any given time, the boy's body can reject the foods he is able to eat.

The family is hoping to raise enough money so that Jayden can be treated at the National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver, one of two hospitals in the country that treats severe food allergies, Ewing-VanderYacht said.