Welcome to my Web site!

FIRST TIME AROUND

My name is Karen and my son, Riley, was born in May of 2001. 

Things were already a bit stressful before he even got here.

I went into pre-term labor at 32 weeks. I spent a week in the hospital and a week at home on bed rest before he finally decided he couldn’t wait any longer. He was born a month early and spent a week in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. He was breathing fine on his own, but was having problems digesting his food. We finally got that going and were prepared to take him home when he developed jaundice. He had to stay a few days longer to remedy that and finally we were able to bring our new baby boy home. Life would now be grand right?? Wrong!

Why was he screaming all the time? Why would he NEVER sleep? Why was he so gassy?

 Why did he constantly keep his little legs drawn up in pain? Why did he arch his back all the time? Why did he spit-up so much?

I was seeing a lactation specialist and I was describing the symptoms to her. She picked up on it right away – REFLUX. Thus began a long process of working with the pediatrician and finally, working with a specialist, to handle this

Riley - 12 months old

 diagnosis for why my baby was always so miserable. It was a grueling process at times, but we stuck with it and eventually saw the light at the end of the tunnel.

Early on in our saga, I posted a message on a discussion board describing my son's symptoms and asking for help.  Since then, I have received numerous emails asking what ended up working for us.  I was beginning to receive so many that I finally typed up a standard document of what worked for us (see link below ). 

I then decided to take things a step further and create this website.  I can remember all the sleepless nights surfing the net trying to find the answers that I needed.  I realize now what a blessing it would have been to have had one place to go and get all the information I needed.  So I hope that's the way you will feel about this website.
 

** Riley's Reflux Story **

** Riley's Timeline **

HERE WE GO AGAIN!!

In March of 2003, our second son, Garrett William, arrived!  Like many parents of reflux babies, one of my first thoughts ( after the obvious joyful ones ) was, "Oh no - I hope this baby doesn't have reflux!"  I kept telling myself, well if it does, then at least I will recognize it much sooner and I will know what to do.

The first few days were great!  My little munchkin slept all day and was so comfortable, even sleeping on his BACK, of all positions!  I thought maybe I actually was going to have that dream baby that so many people figured I would have since I was SUPPOSED to have "paid my dues" on the first go 'round.

Well, I should have known it was too good to be true!  Turns out our "little sleeper" had jaundice.  So much for the dream.  The jaundice peaked and was gone by the time he was a week old, but so was the sleeping!

Soon came the crying, the screaming, the non-sleeping, the spitting up.  One mother emailed me just as the reflux was rearing its ugly head and asked, "How can you tell the difference between gas and tummy pain?"  And I couldn't help but chuckle when I realized I was trying to answer that very question myself!  Here I was, a parent who had been through this before, who should have the answers, and I was asking myself the same questions as parents who are new to this.  So in some regards, I am starting over again.

Therefore, I have given Garrett's story the title, "HERE WE GO AGAIN!".  Since I am going through this "real-time" in relation to this website, I have decided to keep a journal so that everyone can see that even a seasoned veteran doesn't have all the answers when it comes to infant reflux.

THIRD TIME'S THE CHARM!

On February 20, 2008, my third child, Amanda Brooke was born.  We are so thrilled to have our little princess join the family!

Amanda slept so well the first couple of weeks that I thought maybe, just maybe, we would escape the jaws of reflux this time.  Afterall, everyone told me the third baby is the happy one, the quiet one, the one that sleeps.  I thought maybe all my friends weren't lying to me afterall.  But I still had my guard up because I knew with Riley and Garrett that the reflux didn't fully rear it's ugly head until 2 or 3 weeks in.

Sure enough, we hit week 3 with Amanda and the fussing began.  The sleepless days and nights began.  The screaming began.  The clawing began.  It all began.

But this time I was prepared to jump into action so I immediately took her in and she was put on Axid for the reflux.  It seems be doing an ok job of things and I don't think she has it quite as bad as her brothers did.  But she was still struggling with her bowel movements and after switching her to Nutramigen ( same as her brothers had ), those have gotten a lot better.

But she still struggles with tummy issues and most often cannot be put down during the day without waking up a few minutes later, wincing and crying.  But if she's being held she tends to sleep quite well.

So as I write this, she is 6 weeks old and we are still trying to figure her out and probably will be for months to come.  But I know that this too shall pass and I have made a mental decision that I am not going to let reflux steal my time with her like I feel like it did with my boys.  This time I remind myself that it's not her fault - it's the reflux's fault.  And I remind myself how badly I had reflux when I was pregnant with her and how awful it must be for her.  And then I just put on the biggest grin I can and smile at her and do the best I can to comfort her.

So as always, I wish you all good luck and best wishes for a happy baby, and if I may, I'd like to wish it for myself as well!!

Karen

If you would like to include your personal reflux story on my website, please email your story to me.  I will include it on my "Personal Stories" page!

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This site was last updated April 03, 2008.  All contents copyright © 2004 InfantReflux.Org.  All rights reserved.