Is this MSPI? SO lost!

[Anonymous]

Ok, I desperately need some advice here, so I thank anyone who can help in advance. I am not even sure where to begin. Forgive me if I ramble. I haven’t slept in the six weeks since my son was born. Since night two in the hospital, he was up ALL night screaming. Just thoroughly miserable and the only thing that made him happy and calm was nursing.

After a week of him screaming whenever he was awake, we called his ped. Here’s what was happening: He was rarely sleeping, screaming in pain with gas and tummy troubles, having slimy, stringy, and occasionally greenish diapers, nursing constantly, and just being generally miserable. The ped diagnosed him with reflux and put him on Zantac. He does gag and arch his neck occasionally. He’ll be resting in his swing, and all of a sudden he will just make this horrible, screechy gagging sound. He is also congested constantly, but it’s not anything that I can get out with the nasal aspirator. Did I mention he nurses all. day. long. I am not even exaggerating when I say that he nurses for 45-60 minutes, and within another 45 minutes starts again. This would be a lot less of an issue if I didn’t also have a toddler who requires my attention. He is not happy about this at all.

A week went by and the Zantac didn’t seem to make any difference, and he was still crying whenever he was awake and up all night in addition to the other symptoms. And this is not normal fussiness – it’s blood curdling, purple faced SCREAMING until he is hoarse. Nobody could comfort him but me. I called the doctor and he said for me to cut out all dairy products, which I did. A week later with little change, he told me to also cut out all soy products. Check. A week later we had his one month check up and he told me that since we hadn’t seen a significant improvement, dairy was likely not to blame, but to keep the diet up for another week to give the soy a chance to get out of my system. And I know I wasn’t ingesting any hidden proteins. I was vegan for a few years, so I know how to read the labels. At any rate, he diagnosed him with colic, told us to stop the Zantac, and said if the diet made no difference in another two weeks we should just wean and put him on a hypoallergenic formula.

Two days later, he turned a corner and was pleasant when he was awake and seemed to only have “normal” fussiness. That lasted for about four days. Saturday we woke up to an upset, angry baby again. I had not eaten anything with dairy or soy, but I DID eat corn on the cob Friday night… was it the corn? Surely not. But then again, who knows? We didn’t know and were totally at a loss at this point and felt defeated again. By Monday, he was back to the daytime pleasant baby, although still not sleeping at night (AT ALL) and starting to spit up more frequently. So that has been this week. Generally pleasant when awake with “normal” fussiness, spitting up (more and more frequently), still gagging occasionally, nursing incessantly, and still having major gas pains and yucky, slimy diapers. The fussiness is especially bad at night. The gas keeps him – and me – up all night. He is so fussy and restless and obviously in pain. I would be willing to bet at almost 6 weeks old, he sleeps LESS than 8 total hours in a 24 hour period. He always wakes up screaming and wants to nurse immediately.

I decided to do a trial, and I ate some dairy last night. This morning was OK, but as the day went on, I noticed him getting more and more fussy. Also, his nasal congestion was MUCH more pronounced all day. Around dinner time, he had one of his explosive poops, and lo and behold, it was slimy and half of it was avocado green. I am so upset.

I am at a loss. Is it reflux, protein intolerances? Food allergies? A combination? Just “colic”? Am I overreacting? (That’s how many people have made me feel.) I spend every free minute I have researching on the internet and I am driving myself bananas trying to figure it out. I am tired, hungry, and frustrated. I am really ready to throw in the towel and put him on a hypoallergenic formula – and I really don’t want to. I nursed my oldest until he was 16 months, and breastfeeding is something that I never dreamed I wouldn’t do with my youngest, but at this point, I truly don’t know how to proceed. I suppose we could ride it out for a few months as is, but I feel like he is suffering, my toddler is suffering from lack of attention, and I need to sleep! I am averaging two hours of sleep a day, and that’s just not enough! And I can’t help but wonder how unhealthy this “diet” is for me. Won’t it affect my supply ultimately?

We have an appointment with his ped on Tuesday, and I have a call in to the lactation consultant. Any advice would be hugely appreciated.

Does the green diaper mean mspi, or is it just coincidence?

THANK YOU so much. This forum is amazing.

[Anonymous]

Oh wow! If only I could be in the same room as you, I would give you a big hug and say “You are NOT exxagerating! What you are going through is very real. There IS something wrong with your child and it’s not ‘just colic'”. But beings I am not able to give you that hug I will “send” you one. ((((HUG)))) And I will try to tell you my opinions about what is wrong with your baby.

I will first say “Been there! Done that!” Your story sounds oh so familiar. 🙁 The ONLY good thing about my 2 boys suffering so much is that now I can help educate other moms. 🙂

I will not fill up this reply with my long story but if you want to read the details about it you can go to my blog. (see my signature)

My boys started having reflux and food intolerances etc. before they were a week old. When they were ages almost 3 and 1 I found that by having them drink and make bottles with alkaline water it made their reflux enough better that they were able to be taken off of their Prevacid. I was very happy that they didn’t have to take medicine anymore but they were still often restless at night and seldom slept all night long. I was pleased thought to be able to get them settled back down quite quickly by having them drink some alkaline water.

A year later they were still avoiding many foods including milk or soy products, and while visiting with friend he suggested I contact Shan Stratton, a well known nutritionist to seek advice on what to do for my children.

Within minutes of talking to this man my eyes filled with tears. He gave me real answers and real hope! Hope that my children could someday we well and hope that my next baby could be digestive problem free. It was almost 2 years ago now that I first talked to him. Since then I have talked to him many times, listened in to numerous of his conference calls, and attended 2 of his seminars that were in our area. So I have learned many things from him along with doing a lot of my own research. So I will try to tell you some of what I have learned….

While a baby is still in the womb, he/she has a sterile digestive system meaning nothing including good or bad bacteria has entered it. As the baby is coming down the birth canal he picks up his first dose of probiotics. Probiotics are the good live bacteria (also referred to as gut flora) that coat, line, and protect the entire digestive tract including the ear, nose, and throat. The second dose and the biggest dose of probiotics the baby will ever receive is from mother’s colostrum.

If a baby is born by c-section and/or is not breast fed they will not receive these probiotics. They will pick up probiotics from physical touch but they will get a slower start and also they kind they will pick up from touch will be a different kind than from the birth canal and the colostrum.

Mother’s type of probiotics that she gives to baby depends on her diet and how well her body is capable of digesting the food she eats. It can also be altered by taking antibiotics HERE is an extremely interesting article that explains more about the probiotics of mother’s and how it affects her children.

Antibiotics can not decipher between good and bad bacteria so they kill both. If a mother takes antibiotics while pregnant it will kill and alter her probiotics and up the chance of her baby having digestive problems. If antibiotics are taken while nursing or if they are given directly to babies it will most certainly affect their digestion.

All foods have digestive enzymes in them to aid in breaking down that food into a usable form. When a food is cooked or processed the enzymes in it are. Also our pancreas makes enzymes and puts them into the stomach to aid in digestion when we eat foods that are lacking enzymes. But our pancreas was never meant to make enough enzymes for our American diets of mostly cooked and processed foods. Many people at the age of 30 or above start having some kind of digestive problem symptoms like acid reflux, heartburn, indigestion, irritable bowel syndrome, etc. This is because the pancreas is getting tired and starts to slow down its production. The medical world calls it “Pancreatic Exhaustion”. Also study shows that once a person hits 40 their pancreas decreases production by 12% every 10 years.

For some people though it can be inherited to have a pancreas that doesn’t produce enough enzymes. This can sometimes be the reason babies are born with digestive problems.

Proteins are one of the hardest things for a person’s digestive system to break down. So this is often why babies and adults too are diagnosed with a protein intolerance. These problems are rarely the case of being a true allergy because in truth it is just the inability to break down the foods.

When food goes into the upper portion of the stomach, the first thing the stomach does is secrete a little hydrochloric acid (stomach acid). This acid is secreted into the the stomach to activate the enzymes. If there are enzymes in the food and/or enough enzymes from the pancreas there, then all will be well. The stomach will break down the food into a usable form and it will go pass easily into the intestines to be absorbed and used in the body.

But… if the food has no enzymes in it and there isn’t enough enzymes from the pancreas to compensate, then the stomach will excrete a little more acid to try to activate the enzymes. But with little or no enzymes there, the stomach will continue to produce acid. Stomach acid is meant to stay in the stomach, but when there is so much of it, it is forced up the esophagus and down the intestines. This excess acid kills probiotics. And remember that probiotics are the protective coating in the esophagus, stomach, and intestines. So when that protective coating is gone it causes irritation, inflamation, burning, pain, and sometimes even bleeding. The names of many digestive disorders end in “itis”. So those diagnosases are simply saying that “something” is inflamed.

There are many drugs out there to treat all the symptoms of digestive problems.

PPI’s (proton-pump inhibitors)like Prevacid, Prilosec, Nexium and others, stop the pumps in the stomach from producing so much acid. But why just stop the excess acid production rather than get to the root of the problem and figure out what is making those pumps put out so much acid?

Zantac also slows down the production of acid but in a different way than the PPI’s.

Then there are things like Tums, alka seltzer, Rolaids, and milk of magnesia that neautralize the stomach acid.

Pepto Bismol is something that coats the stomach and makes it feel better. But it is so temporary. If the stomach would be properly coated with probiotics then it wouldn’t need things like Pepto Bismal.

Alkaline foods will also help to counteract too acidic stomach but the pH of the stomach is 2.5. But 80% of the foods in the standard american diet are acidic.

Alkaline water is also a good natural way to neautrilize that excess acid. We found that out with our children. But it did not make them produce more probiotics and enzymes.

So, after first talking to Shan, I decided to try a probiotic/enzyme supplement called “Digestive Health” sold by Core Health Products which Shan owns. Within several days of my children taking the Digestive Health I could see changes. I was so relieved. After about 60 days of being on the pills, I started adding dairy and other things they couldn’t tolerate into their diet. I
was truly amazed that my boys continued to sleep through the night with no reaction. 🙂

It didn’t take long and I could see that Shan had changed our lives forever! I began to have hope that I could have another child without having to go through the terrible nightmare of sleepless nights, a screaming baby, vomit everywhere, terrible gas, etc etc….

While pregnant and nursing I took the Digestive Health. Now that I quit nursing (due to spending much time in the hospital with my dad after he was suddenly hurt and passed away) I give my little 10 month old girl the Digestive Health pills directly. She is truly a better-than-normal baby and sleeps 12-15 hours solid every night. I feed her any and all kinds of food and make all her bottles with alkaline water.

I can not honestly say that my boys have NEVER had any digestive problems in the last 2 years but they have improved by at least 95%. Every once in awhile they will be restless at night and sometimes my oldest will have a little reflux. I believe though that is caused from when they haven’t taken enough of the Digestive pills and/or drank enough alkaline water. And of course there is plenty of room for improvement in our diet.

I am sorry my reply got so long. I hope I haven’t overwhelmed you with information. Feel free to ask me any questions that you would like.

By the way… yes, corn is extremely hard for the digestive system. 🙁

[hellbennt]

I would look at diet AND MEDS.

You can always BACK OFF MEDS.

in the meantime, you might have a happy (happier) baby.

mine screamed. mine lost his voice.

I did the TED (Total Elimination Diet) so I know.

hugs!

READ all you can. LEARN and TELL doctors what you want. If you don’t want to stop breastfeeding, then DON’T.

I hate the word colic.

try probiotics?

I think if you would like to pursue the ‘colic‘ route, then read here:
Wondertime article, Colic Solved:
http://wondertime.go.com/learning/article/interview-colic-expert.html

please read:

best EXPLANATION OF FOOD ALLERGIES/INTOLERANCES and their RELATION TO REFLUX that I have found, to date: 2nd post: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2697&PN=2

Misconceptions about how Neocate & Elecare work: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=6013

Reasons a breastfeeding mother might think her baby is reacting to something in her milk:

*poop that is not ‘normal’ mustardy yellow, seedy breastfed baby poop

*mucous in poop; mucous can look like: snot, jelly, cottage cheese, stringy like the inside of a banana

*foul-smelling poop

*stinky, foul-smelling painful gas

*straining and grunting to poop and, when baby finally does poop, it’s soft

the TED takes two weeks and then you start adding foods in to see what you CAN eat.

Research all you can! You are your baby’s best advocate!

Look for all posts by Erinntx! (be SURE to read her ‘sticky’ – the link is below)

Erin‘s sticky: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=12948&PID=105126#105126

More Erin: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=13175&PID=106395#106395

Erin post: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=13576

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