Within the first two weeks of Evelina’s life, we discovered that we were blessed with a spitter. Yay us!! She would spit up with each burp, she would spit up at the end of each feeding, and she would even spit up within hours of a feeding. Her spit up runneth over, onto furniture, rugs, floors, toys, anyone holding her, herself...... There were many days for which we grew concerned that the amount of spit up she would produce was cause for alarm and may impact her weight gain, but after many discussions with her pediatrician, the conclusion was….she spits up, most babies spit up. If she isn’t in discomfort as a result of the spit up, she is just fine and will grow out of it eventually. Until that time, our stock of bibs and burp clothes would be coveted at every feeding, positioned under her head during playtime or always close by ready for wiping, and included as a permanent article in the diaper bag…treated as gold.
At Evelina’s 2 month well-baby visit, all was well, and of course, being that annoying first-time mom that I am, couldn’t help but bring up the spit up issue once again. “If she doesn’t appear to be in discomfort, then she is doing fine. She will grow out of it, babies spit up.” Then all of a sudden, I found my ass glued to the stability ball, bouncing Evelina throughout every feeding, too help sooth her, and to avoid back arching and painful crying. I wouldn’t dare take the bottle away to burp her in fear of pain taking over or her not accepting the bottle again. She went from eating about 4-5oz bottles to 2oz bottles and I dreaded each feeding, especially those that had to happen outside of the house. It was heartbreaking to see her in so much distress at each feeding and it was exhausting for me to deal with 5-7 times per day. At the time, I was still on maternity leave, so when Chris would walk though the door each evening I was incredibly relieved to have a break. Luckily, once her feeding was over she would be back to her happy self and any pain she experienced during her feedings didn’t impact her sleep which was positive.
Once the seemingly painful feedings began, we were in constant communication with Evelina’s pediatrician about the possibly of her being diagnosed with GERD. She had most of the symptoms but we all wanted to avoid putting her on medication, if possible, so we attempted to keep her propped up at 45 degrees (or more) the majority of the time in hopes that it would alleviate her symptoms. After a few days of propping and little improvement we started administering Zantac two times per day. Within a week, we saw vast improvement in feedings...YAHOO!!
Fast forward to two weeks ago when Evelina came down with Croup, which included a horrible cough, in addition to congestion, a runny nose and lots of phlegm. During this time, she became increasingly fidgety during her feedings. Thinking perhaps the stage 2 nipple was to slow, we transition her to stage 3 nipples which helped for a few days but the ease of feedings didn’t last very long and were followed by back arching, crying, bottle swatting, head turning and lip pursing…all reminders of the horrible weeks we all suffered through during her initial attack of GERD, minus all of the spit up (she still spits up some but definitely not as much as she did in her first 6 months).
After consulting her pediatrician, we increased her Zantac dosage but so far have seen little improvement. He thinks that the introduction of solids may be aggravating her reflux but Chris nor I are convinced this is the cause. She has been eating solids since she turned 6 months and has had no issues until she got her recent cold. We think that her congestion and nasal drip are irritating her stomach and that she is still having some difficulty breathing, resulting in discomfort when she sucks. Trying to get her to eat 6oz is quite a challenge and can take up to 45 minutes or more depending on the number of breaks taken. I thought we were beyond this phase and I have grown frustrated and very sad seeing my little baby in discomfort during each feeding. If we see no improvement in the next few days, we may have to switch her from Zantac to Prilosec or Prevacid. I am REALLY hoping that her cold goes away and she gets back to eating normally on her own. Before this all happened she was doing so well and we were even thinking about stopping the Zantac. Fingers crossed that she will feel better soon.
Ugh.. Sorry Sarah I feel your pain as a fellow GERD household. We use the compound butterscotchy flavored Prilosec ($!). It works pretty well from what I can see, but it's hard to tell if it's the baby growing up and growing out of the GERD or is it the meds? I hope you find a solution fast!
ReplyDelete