Milk

A while ago I posted about James' eating troubles. They have continued. He still would eat a little then arch his back, throw back his head, and scream bloody murder. We are are going on week 8 of this. Through much trial and error I figured out the he would only eat if he was asleep or falling asleep. This made for a very cranky and sad baby since he wanted to eat but it seemed like it hurt him when he did and he would just have to wait until he fell asleep again to eat. This also made of a cranky and sad mom.

A night last week he was having a really bad screaming episode and I just kept feeling in my gut that this is just not right. A baby shouldn't have an aversion to eating like this. This was not just a weird phase or stage he was going through. It had been 8 weeks. So, the next morning I called my pediatrician and requested an appt for that day. My dr. was out of town but they said I could have an appt with her PA. We went to the appt and the PA diagnosed him with reflux. Actually silent reflux. I didn't even consider that he had reflux because I just associated reflux with excessive spitting up and James doesn't do that. But I found out that silent reflex is just when the acid comes up the esophagus and then the baby swallows it back down and they don't spit it up. Thus, burning/hurting him when he eats and causing him to have an eating aversion. He would eat when he was asleep because he was just too tired to fight it. Yes, a diagnosis! She gave us a prescription and said we should see improvements in the next 72 hours. YEA! I went home and searched the internet about reflux and the symptoms he had seemed to match. I was so excited that we were on our way to recovery.

After a week went by, no improvements. Back to the dr. Our dr. was back in town so we were able to see her. I told her our situation. She agreed with me that this was not normal behavior and something needed to be done. She arranged for us to have an upper GI tract test done on James on Friday. Basically they will have him drink some kind of formula that will dye his insides and they will watch him digest the formula and see if there is any glaring problems with this esophagus, stomach, and intestines. My dr. also said that I have to stop nursing. I quickly teared up. She reassured me that it wouldn't have to be forever but I needed to go dairy free and just pump and in the mean time James would have to be on a special formula for babies with milk protein intolerance and I could go back to nursing once all the dairy was out of my system after a week or two. Seriously, going without dairy is like taking away my happiness. I am a daughter of someone who grew up on a dairy. The love for dairy is in my blood. I probably drink a gallon of milk by myself every week. I drink it with every meal. Sam thinks that is weird. I think it is delicious.

So, we are still not sure what is wrong. He might have something wrong with his GI tract. I really hope not. He might have a milk protein intolerance and it is hurting him and making him so upset. Or it might be reflux and he needs to be put on a different med. Hopefully soon we will know. We did start the formula yesterday. Expensive and gross. Sam and I decided that it smells like a combination of cheeze-its and dog food. Gross. I was afraid he would hate the formula. He doesn't love it but he doesn't hate it either.

There is the long story. In the end we just want our baby to be healthy and happy. I will even go dairy free.