When Hayden was about 5 weeks old it became obvious that he has reflux too, just like Ryleigh. Ryleigh just spit up a lot, until 10-12 weeks when she started arching her back while eating. Hayden started the back arching, pulling away while nursing despite being hungry, and he also cried every time you'd sit him up after eating. It would last a minute or two, then he'd spit up and be happy again. He gained weight fine. We got him on Zantac, which we had to give three times a day. It's definitely a challenge to get such a tiny baby to swallow medicine. The crying got better and it seemed like he wasn't in pain as much. And the spitting up seemed to decrease.
Then around 9 weeks he seemed to get worse. He was fussing and crying all the time. And he'd cry after meals and nothing seemed to help or calm him. The crying also got worse after eating and the spitting up got really bad - like drenching burp cloths. It was hard to tell if the meds weren't working or if he needed a dose change, or a new medication. We took him back to the doctor and they wanted us to get a stat Xray to rule out pyloric stenosis, and other issues. So Hayden had his first visit to the ER for an after hours Xray. The doctor also switched him from Zantac to Prevacid - only problem, the insurance needed special authorization to get the Prevacid. The Xray showed some bowel distension, which they explained could be indicitive of an ileus. The doctor's office called us with the preliminary results at about 9:30pm to tell us that, and suggested we get to the pediatric ER at Phoenix Children's ASAP to get a follow up Xray and further testing. I refused the stat trip to the ER and asked if we could go in the morning seeing as how he was sleeping soundly for the night at that time. In the morning as we were getting ready to go, the pediatrician's office called again to tell us that the final Xray report showed bowel distension, but it could be due to gas, GI inflammation, irritation from the reflux, etc. So it could be due to lots of different things. So we just needed to keep an eye on it and follow up with them.
The Prevacid got denied by the insurance company because Hayden had not failed 2 other medications prior to being prescribed this one. But there are no other medications FDA approved for use in children under 1 year of age. So after about 2 weeks, it was finally approved by insurance. Verdict is still out as to whether or not it's working completely yet. But it's one of those that takes a while to build up in the system. He doesn't cry when sitting up, so I guess that's a start. He still spits up lots.
We followed up with the doctor and they asked us to bring in poopy diapers to test. They tested them and found markers of blood in his stool indicating a possible milk protein allergy. So they said if I wanted to continue breastfeeding, I need to give up all milk protein and soy. I am very happy with the breastfeeding relationship that we've developed this time, and it's working well for us, so giving it up would hard. The diet sounds lot easier than it is! It took me about a week to figure out some staples I CAN eat. I have discovered a few substitutes (Chocolate almond milk, dairy free soy free gluten free chocolate bars, coconut milk ice cream, dairy free soy free butter, coconut and almond milk yogurt - now if only I can find dairy free soy free cheese my life would be complete ;) ) . After a week they retested his stools and they were still positive for blood. It makes sense though because I wasn't able to completely cut out milk proteins in the first week. I'm at the end of the second week now, and it's starting to get a little easier. They'll retest him again in 2 weeks to see if he goes back to negative. If not, we'll have to give him Alimentum formula which is dairy free and partially digested to allow his gut to rest. And if that one doesn't work, we'll have to try a different one. We're hoping the diet works because the special formulas are a lot more expensive than the normal ones.
So that our current challenge.
