what do results look like?

One thing that a lot of us have in common, is that we brought home a delightful little bundle of joy that we could brag to others about how “good” our babies were. Then, after about two weeks of bliss, a new crab apple emerges. Babies are screaming for hours a day, during and after feedings. They are arching their backs, spitting up, procectile vomiting, refusing to eat, having apnea episodes, suddenly waking from sleep and whaling. They spend most of their day crying and you spend most of your day wondering what could be wrong.

Moms have a whole host of fresh ideas for what can even minimally soothe/improve their baby. Some of us use swings, inclined mattresses, vaccuum cleaners, tucker slings, babywearing, stomach sleeping , thickening feeds, formula changes, different meds, rides in the car etc.

For me, Evie had a lot of the above symptoms, but didn’t spit up or vomit. After reading Dr. Sears Baby Book’s ‘colic’ chapter over 100 times, I figured that Evie must have silent reflux. Our ped was very supportive and ordered all of the obligitory tests to confirm/deny reflux. They started with the barium swallow upper GI series. Although there were no visible signs of reflux, at least we had the confirmation there was no blockage. So we also had a cranial ultra sound ( I still don’t really know what that was for) but in the meantime we tried the Zantac, which provided no relief, and switched to Prevacid ( I snuck the marci-kids dose just to see if it would work)and timed it appropriately before meals(meanwhile, I am also, in the meantime, learning SOOOO much from infantreflux.org). I think I was on, like, day 11 and nothing was changing. I remember posting on here, “When will I see a change?” and I kind of got the feeling that I should’ve seen results by now. Anyhow, I should mention that I was also bf and on the total elimination diet, (cheerios and rice milk were my staple, I loved it)

I had pumped for about a week somewhere along the line to try Nutramagin, and again, like so many others, we honeymooned and then it became worse than ever. It wasn’t until I finally actually got my appointment with the ped GI in Orlando, that they told me Evie did not have reflux. They told me to stop taking Prevacid immediately and offered me 3 cans of Neocate to sample. I struggled with this and did not want to give up bf. However, as Evie turned around 12 weeks, I just did it. I knew I was going back to work and was going to transition her anyways, so I fed her the Neocate. I had that “new baby” that everyone talks about when they finally found their cure. Evie is still on Neocate and doing wonderful. She eats oatmeal, all of the fruits and veggies now, Cheerio’s, and cut up green beans. My interpretation of what happened to Evie is that she had MSPI which really aggravated any possible refluxing. Once the food wasn’t an issue, there was never any reflux either. I also believe that Evie had true colic (I know, I hear you all getting mad!) She would get overstimulated so easily. It was like after 20 minutes of semi-happy morning time, the rest of the day was then ruined. OK, I can’t believe how much I actually just typed, and if anyone will read this, but I think I’m going to “Save” my story to look back at one day. I do not advocate giving up bf for formula by any means, but sometimes, you gotta do what you gotta do. Besides, it was nice for me to eat normal again!!!

I can tell you that you will probably find all you will ever need to know about what’s going on with your baby from this website. Whether it is medical information or just support, you can find it. No matter how many years of schooling our peds all have, I am convinced that MOMS are the true experts.