I took Natalie to see her pediatrician on Friday to give her an update on how Natalie has been doing. Update: she still seems to be in pain though she's spitting up less, it's like she's forgotten how to sleep more than 4 hours at a time at night, and she'll go from happy and cute to hysterical and rigid in the matter of a nanosecond.
(Bright side: she weighs 11.5 lbs! She's still only in the 40th percentile for weight [80th for height!], but she's been gaining a good amount of weight each day)
Her pediatrician recommended that we see a gastrointestinal specialist. She doesn't think that there's anything physically wrong with Natalie, but wants her to see the specialist just to rule out anything. She said that it could take up to two weeks to get an appointment - which sounds like an eternity to parents who are at their absolute wits end. But thankfully, a receptionist at the GI office called me that same afternoon and said they had an opening for Monday at 9am. Thank you, God!
I feel like a terrible mom for writing this, but I'm going to do it anyway. A teeny, tiny part of me wants the GI to find something wrong with Natalie. Not that I want her to be sick or anything, but I want there to be a reason why she's so fussy and seems like she's in pain. A fixable reason, of course, but a reason nevertheless.
I have a hard time accepting a diagnosis of "reflux and colic". It's not that I don't believe that reflux and colic aren't valid diagnoses, but they just haven't seemed like fixable diagnoses up till now. I'm very right-brained. I need a definite diagnosis and a definite remedy. Unfortunately, that's not possible. Poo.
And what we're trying isn't doing much. We've tried the 5 Ss from The Happiest Baby on the Block, we've tried a warm bath, we've tried taking long car trips, we've tried changing my diet, we've tried burping her differently, we've tried holding her differently.
That's not to say that the things I just listed haven't ever worked. Usually one of them helps with her colickiness (word? not a word?). But for the reflux, it's hard to find something that works. Soothing techniques don't necessarily work on an irritated stomach. It's kind of like if she had a broken leg and I'm trying to make it feel better by shushing in her ear. The shushing might be calming but it certainly doesn't reset her broken bones. So with her reflux, the shushing (or swaddling or whatever) is probably calming, but it doesn't make her stomach pain go away. And THAT sucks. A lot.
Lee and I are looking into whether we should see a pediatric chiropractor for some craniosacral therapy or maybe trying some homeopathic remedy for reflux and colic. These seem a little extreme but again, when you're at your wits end ...
But hopefully the GI specialist can shed some light on what's happening. I don't know if this appointment will be much more than an initial consultation and that we'll have to wait until the following appointment to run any tests. But who knows? Maybe they'll do something on Monday.
Happy thoughts ... happy thoughts ... happy thoughts ...
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3 comments:
Sending you prayers, hugs and happy thoughts :)
I wonder if she has an allergy to something. My niece (the redhead you saw yesterday) suffered from chronic constipation and she cried a lot. My sister asked the Drs to test her for allergies and they refused b/c she didn't have diarrhea. Abby was almost diagnosed with failure to thrive and some kind of horrible intestinal disease. Come to find out, she was allergic to eggs. Once you see a list of all the ingredients in foods that are an egg product, you will be shocked. Sure enough, egg was the culprit. My sister had quit breastfeeding (thinking that was the issue) and even the formula had some kind of egg product in it. Albumin I think. After 9 months of suffering, she finally got some relief and can now tolerate eggs.
It just makes me wonder if Natalie isn't experiencing some type of food sensitivity.
Ahhh, memories...sounds exactly like what my son went through. Amazingly enough, he just "got over it" at about 3 1/2 months. I know it's annoying to hear (I used to hate it when people said it to me), but they really do turn a corner by 4 months! If she's having a colicky fit, try bouncing her with a hair drier or exhaust fan in the near vacinity. My son spent more time with my hair drier than I did for the first 3 months of his life! Turning on the radio/tv to static helped, too...white noise...I don't know why, but it works!
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