What's new.

It's been a few weeks since we started Violet on Prilosec.

*WAIT* First...let me apologize for EVERY blog post being about reflux lately. haha. I'M SORRY. Reflux just happens to be my life at the moment, and every time I Google something it seems like a blog written by another Mom helps me out. SO! Continuing on...

Prilosec is great.

The dosage our pediatrician gave us is not so great.

He prescribed 1 & 1/2 tsp. per day. That amount DESTROYED her poor tummy. The question in my mind quickly became: "Sure, it makes the reflux go away...but are the horrendous abdominal cramping/gas/pain the meds give her WORTH it..???"

I've been slowly decreasing her dosage amount every ten days or so to see how little we can get by on. It seems the less I give her, the better she sleeps (fewer tummy aches between her all-night feedings) - but if I back her off too quickly she'll get acid rebound (where the stomach produces too much acid = reflux flare up disaster).

She's currently on 3/8ths of a teaspoon per day. I give her 1/4 tsp in the morning and 1/8 tsp at night.

She gets heartburn and those yucky, ouchy acid burps a few times a day, *but* the Fischer Price Rock 'n Play sleeper does wooooonderful things for her at night! She hardly ever cries at the reflux during the daytime now and sleeping at an angle in the Rock 'n Play keeps the acid down while she sleeps. I've wondered lately how much of the reflux bothering her was TRULY because it was painful, or if she was super sensitive because she was so miserable from not sleeping and having constant belly aches.

It frustrates me to no end that none of the three pediatricians we've seen have ever suggested that her digestion problems could be related to her reflux medications - especially now that I'm seeing there is 100% a direct correlation. I feel horrible for giving her all the medicine so early on, thinking I was helping, when I was probably just making everything worse. Uuugh  I can't even spend time thinking about it - it makes me so upset.

Tonight I'm going to skip her nighttime dose and see how she does.

She eats every 3 hours, 24 hours a day. According to our pediatrician, this is normal for a baby with reflux because eating more than that can cause distended stomach and, you guessed it, reflux flare ups. So...she's basically trained herself to eat juuuuust enough to feel not starving anymore and then she stops.

Ask me if I'm excited to have her go LONGER THAN 3 HOURS.

Go ahead. Ask me. I DARE YOU.

She's actually had a couple nights this past week where she ONLY woke up to eat. So I got to sleep in three hour blocks! Surprisingly enough, it ISN'T that refreshing. It IS more refreshing than her waking up every 45 minutes with a belly ache, though, so...I'll count my blessings there.

It's really nice to have a baby who isn't so miserable all the time during the day.

Mom used to say I would wake up and sing to myself every morning when I was a baby. Violet does that now - instead of waking up screaming. She just sits there and plays with her toes and sings. I'm excited to see more of her true personality emerge as we get further away from all this gross reflux garbage.  

That's all for now...fingers crossed that no medicine tonight will be a good thing!!

PS In case you're wondering whether I'm giving her solids yet or not - I'm not. Her ped recommended that we wait until at least six months because her digestion has been so sensitive. I have fantasies of sleeping aaaaallll night when I start giving her oatmeal cereal (rice cereal can be constipating for babies with sensitive tummies)!!  Aaah....aaaaalll niiiiight sleeeeeppp.....someday. Someday.

PPS - We also started her on Gerber's Soothe Colic Drops! They were previously sold as Bio Gaia's infant probiotic drops, but Gerber bought them out. I've been looking for them for months and didn't realize the Gerber drops were the same thing!! They're the ONLY infant probiotic that doesn't have tons of warnings about initially causing gas and abdominal pain and I really think they're helping her. ANY BABY ON REFLUX MEDICATION SHOULD TRY THESE DROPS. You're making your baby's digestion all whack by messing with their stomach acids, so help them out with a little probiotic! Seriously. Buy these for your friends. For yourself. For strangers. Just, believe me on this one. I've tried pretty much everything out there.

Ok that's all for realsies this time.

bye bye.