Well I thought I'd give a little update on Logan. He DID start eating again after that scary day of tests and stress and chaos, but EXACTLY a week later Logan stopped eating again! Again I didn't notice it until the middle of the night when he started getting really fussy and wrestling with his bottle and acting hungry but not able to settle down enough to eat it. It was so similar to what happened the first time that I immediately checked his bottle to see if he'd eaten anything. It was completely full and so I thought back to when the last bottle he ate was, it was about 6pm Wednesday night (only 30 minutes different than when it started the first time). So anyway, I still had some Pedialyte on hand from the week before and so I gave him some of that and he drank it right away but was still really fussy. It was another long day. Not as emotional since I knew that it WOULD end, however I did NOT think that it had anything to do with Bronchiolitis. He had a REALLY rough day and when the Doctors office opened I called them. Turns out that our Doctor was out of town so I talked with his nurse and asked her if she had any ideas of what it could be or of what I should try. She assured me that I was doing all that I could and just keep giving him Pedialyte and try to give him the bottle every now and again. After I described all of Logan's behavior to her she said that it reminded her of a patient that our Doctor saw awhile back who's child had similar symptoms. She asked permission to give this patient my phone number so she could call me and we could discuss each of our children's symptoms and see if they matched and what ended up being the problem with her child. In the meantime I called a Pediatric Gastrointestinal Specialist and described Logan's symptoms to them to see if they had ever had any experiences with patients that were similar (which they hadn't - the whole week in between of regular eating seemed to stump all of us.) I asked if I should bring him into their office to have them look at him, and they said just to keep him hydrated and wait until our regular Doctor got back in town.
Well the lady that the nurse gave my number to called and we started talking about our experiences. Her son didn't eat much at all every day and when he did eat they could only get him to eat 1 ounce at a time. I guess after months of trying a ton of things they finally diagnosed him with Silent Infant Reflux (which is basically regular Reflux but they don't spit up excessively) and they started him on Previcid and 2 weeks later he was doing TONS better and eventually grew out of it. Her sister was there and she had 2 kids that had the same thing, the Silent Reflux. I talked to her also and her kids didn't eat at all either. She was nursing each of them and had to stop and they had to be hospitalized because they didn't get enough to eat and eventually had to stop nursing and just take formula. Both of their kids didn't have any other symptoms but were not eating but their experiences were different in other ways than ours especially with him eating perfectly normally for a full week before it started up again. Anyway, after we got off the phone I started googling everything I could think of and tried on my own to piece things together. It seemed to be some sort of tummy issues for sure and as I read all of the posts and discussion forums I started thinking about Logan's behavior a little more closely and recognized some more symptoms that I hadn't noticed before. He never really seems to be a "calm eater" he is often very wiggly as he eats and he arches his back and seems like he's in pain. He does spit up, but all of my kids have been "spitters" and I never thought much about it. Then I found this list of symptoms for Silent Infant Reflux:
poor weight gain or rapid weight gain gulping with a painful look on the face sour breath, wet sounding burps persistent or chronic cough frequent hiccups sudden burst of painful crying painful wake-ups from sleep or poor sleeping habits poor feeding habits, possible feeding aversions neck or back arching during or after feeding excessive fussiness, crying or colic demands to be carried constantly red or salmon colored throat blood in the stool or spit up
He certainly didn't seem to have a hard time gaining weight but I hadn't noticed any rapid weight gain and he never had any blood in his stool or spit up and his throat didn't seem to be red, but other than that he seemed to have all of the symptoms. I read a bunch of discussion forums about parents who's children had it and it seemed to fit perfectly and it felt right. That's the only way to describe it. I had been searching all day for something that had at least some of the same symptoms and nothing seemed to fit. But this one did. Here's some more information that I found on it:
Silent GER refers to GER or GERD without any outward or typical symptoms. This could mean that a child isn't vomiting or appearing uncomfortable but is having reflux episodes. Some children may swallow the refluxed material (refluxate) back down instead of throwing it up, in some kids it may not come up enough to actually come out the mouth. This can be much more difficult to diagnose, since the most common symptoms are not present.
It can also be more damaging as the refluxate burns the esophagus on the way up and again on the way down. Whether or not the silent reflux needs to be treated depends on the complications that are arising from it.
Some symptoms that can indicate silent reflux are:
* irritability and pain
* poor sleep habits typically with frequent waking*
* arching their necks and back during or after eating*
* frequent hiccups*
* frequent ear infections
* refusing food or accepting only a few bites despite being hungry*
or the exact opposite requiring constant small meals or liquid
* food/oral aversions
* anemia
* excessive drooling
* running nose, sinus infections
* sinus congestion
* swallowing problems, gagging, choking
* chronic hoarse voice
* frequent red, sore throat without infection present
* apnea
* respiratory problems—pneumonia, bronchitis, wheezing, asthma,
night-time cough, aspiration
* gagging themselves with their fingers or fist (sign of esophagitis)
* poor weight gain, weight loss, failure to thrive*
* erosion of dental enamel
* neck arching (Sandifer's Syndrome)
* bad breath
As with regular reflux, the child does not need to exhibit all the symptoms listed to have silent reflux. If you believe your child has silent reflux, start with lifestyle modifications as suggested in the article on 14 Steps for Helping a Baby with Reflux. If this is not enough to help, you may need to bring baby to the doctor as the next step may be medications. The treatments page will give you a list of the medications used to treat reflux.
Usually the doctor will not order any diagnostic testing to confirm reflux is present unless it does not respond to initial treatment. If it continues despite medical therapy and begins to cause more serious complications, the doctor will likely begin further work ups.
* denotes most common symptoms of silent reflux
This list gave us even MORE symptoms and again MOST of them described Logan perfectly. So I called the Doctors office to see if I could possibly get someone to call in a prescription for me but of course since my Doctor was out of town they said it would be best if I brought him in and they looked at him first. Well since he was showing no outward symptoms I knew they wouldn't diagnose him and give us a prescription so I just kept trying to keep some Pedialyte in him. During this time my sweet sister in law Jen brought us over some more Pedialyte and watched the kids for me so I could take a shower. Logan had been screaming all day and was so fussy that I wasn't able to put him down. After my shower we were talking and she suggested adding formula to the Pedialyte. We tried it and sure enough he drank it! I was so glad too because it had been almost 20 hours since he'd had anything besides Pedialyte. The Pediatric GI told us that when he did start taking formula again we should water it down to 1/4 strength, so we didn't upset his stomach. So he was only getting one scoop of formula in every bottle that we were able to get him to eat. But at least it was something.
That night around 6pm (24 hours from when he stopped eating) he starting eating a regular bottle and I thought we were in the clear. However he didn't finish that bottle and got really fussy again and started to refuse his bottle again. So we went back to what we named the "Pedialyte Cocktail" (the formula mixed into Pedialyte) and kept trying the bottle. It was really touch and go for the rest of the night and finally when he woke up for his night time feeding around 3am he ate a full bottle of just formula. I was so relieved that it was over and couldn't wait for my Doctor to get back into town so I could talk with him about all of this. But the next day (Friday) he was still only eating about half of the time and we were still mixing his bottles with Grape Flavored Pedialyte to get him to drink it.
On Saturday evening he had been doing okay and we went to Peter's soccer game and as we were getting ready to leave Logan stopped breathing for several seconds. His eyes got really wide and his arms flew wide open and he was gasping and not getting anything in. When he finally started breathing again (about 5 or 6 seconds was all) he was choking and gagging and screaming. It scared me pretty bad. I got him calmed down and called the Doctors to see what time their urgent care clinic closed. I started thinking about all of his symptoms combined and worried that he might have breathed in some of the spit up that he'd been swallowing back down. Then I thought back to the x-ray and the fact that they thought they saw bronchiolitis which is issues with the lungs and I started to worry. The Urgent Care was open until 9 and it was only 8:30 so I took him in. The Doctor on call was the ONLY Doctor in their practice that I had never seen and I was SO VERY UNIMPRESSED!!! He was SO rude and condescending and he kept interrupting me and asking me crazy questions like "how much did he weigh when he was born" when I'm in the middle of telling him how he hasn't been eating for over 24 hours. Then he totally dismissed the whole stopped breathing event and said immediately (before he'd even looked at Logan) that he knew "EXACTLY why your baby won't eat" and then he proceeded to tell me that Logan was eating way too much and that he was very unhealthy because he had gained a pound and a half since he last came in (really it wasn't even that much because he was just in a diaper the time before when they weighed him and this time he was wearing overalls and shoes and a long sleeved shirt and a sweatshirt). He noted that Logan was in the 90% for weight and that eating 5 ounces every 3 to 4 hours was WAY too much. He said that babies will still THRIVE if only given 2 ounces every 4 hours and that I definitely needed to cut back to at LEAST 3 ounces every 4 hours and that he would be very upset about it and cry a lot for the next 2 weeks but after that he would be adjusted to eating only 2 ounces. I asked him if he thought he would cry for 2 weeks because he was HUNGRY to which he responded, "Of course! But that's only because you have conditioned him to want more and done him a great injustice by forcing him into the 90th percentile for weight." ***HOLY COW!*** are you KIDDING me?! What a YAHOO!!! I was so upset. I told him that it seemed to me that he had reflux and he said, "Well even if he DID have reflux I wouldn't treat him with medicine, the way to treat reflux is to cut back on feedings. 90% of the time babies with reflux are just overfed." I told him that I'd read that Prevacid was a very safe medication that has proved VERY helpful in many cases of reflux and since my son had refused to eat for over 24 hours on several occasions I would hope that we'd at least be able to try it. Then I proceeded to apologize to him and I said, "I'm so sorry. It must be really annoying when parents come into your office and try to tell you what's wrong with their children." and his response was, "No, it's fine. It doesn't bother me at all when parents try to tell me what's wrong. I appreciate the fact that they have done some research and tried to come up with some answers on their own. However, what I DON'T appreciate is when they try to tell me how to TREAT the problem." Basically saying, 'look lady, I know you think you know what you're talking about but just because you may have found out what's wrong with your baby, that doesn't mean you can just fix it with medicine. Have you ever stopped to think that YOU may have caused the problem?' That was his underlying tone through the whole appointment and he was an absolute jerk! I'm sorry to say it but I truly couldn't stand to be there another minute especially with the way he was talking to me! Grrr!!!
Anyway! He slept pretty poorly that night and I kept worrying that he was going to stop breathing again but he was fine. By Sunday he was perfect again. He was an absolute JEWEL! He was soooo sweet all day and calm and eating great and super happy! He was good all day Monday too so I didn't call the doctor, even though he was back in town. On Tuesday Logan was still doing better and not seeming to have any problems but I called in and talked to the nurse again and she said that she thought I should bring him in so we could at least talk with the Doctor about everything. So I scheduled an appointment with our Doctor for Wednesday morning.
Wednesday morning he woke up around 6am and ate a full bottle with no problems. He was still wide awake so I got him all dressed and ready for his Dr appointment. Around 7:35 some of the kids woke up so I got them some breakfast and then practiced Maddie's choir songs with her on the piano for awhile. Logan was still happy so I put him in his bouncy seat while I helped Maddie do her hair and finish her homework and then I got Nathan and Emily ready to go to the appointment with us. Logan started to get kind of fussy around 8:45 and I figured he was tired since he didn't go back to sleep like he normally does in the morning. I made him another bottle knowing that he wouldn't eat much but it would help him to fall asleep and then we'd already have one made to bring with us when we left. Anyway, since it was almost time to leave, I buckled him into his car seat and propped his bottle in there with him so I could finish getting Tyler and Maddie ready for school and shoes on Nathan and Emily, plus I didn't want to have to wake him up to buckle him in when it was time to go. ANYWAY! So I propped his bottle and went about the rest of the crazy morning schedule getting everyone ready and off to school. He was pretty upset now and I figured he was just overly tired and wanted to fall asleep in his crib like he usually does or in my arms at least, but certainly not in his car seat! So I didn't think anything of it when he wouldn't eat his bottle. I thought he was just mad at me for buckling him in.
So eventually we got out the door and drove to his appointment. He fell asleep in the car on the way there and slept for the whole time while we were waiting to see the Doctor and even during the start of the visit while I was explaining what had happened the week before and also about my ridiculous visit to the urgent care clinic on Saturday (which my Doctor was pretty upset about and told me not to listen to a thing that the other Doctor told me and said that Logan was perfectly healthy and cutting back his feedings to 2 to 3 ounces was absurd and he told me that when the Doctor told me my baby was overweight I should have just told him HE was overweight, which he was but of course I didn't say it. Anyway, I love my Doctor). Eventually Logan woke up and was smiley and happy. He hadn't eaten since 6am so I thought he'd be hungry by now, it'd been about 4 hours, so when he got a little fussy during the visit, I gave him his bottle (the same bottle I made for him around 8:45 that morning). He quieted down and seemed to be eating for the rest of the appointment. My Doctor agreed with me that it sounded like Silent Reflux and he wrote me a prescription for Previcid and we left. Logan got pretty upset when I put him back into his car seat and wouldn't take his bottle anymore. On our way to the pharmacy we ran a few errands and Logan was not very happy. Eventually I gave up and just picked up his prescription and came home. He was still really upset when we got home and I gave him his bottle again while I was holding him and he calmed down and started eating (or so I thought). He finally fell asleep and I started to worry that even though we had given him the first dose of Prevacid he was still going to have a pretty rough night/morning just like he did the past two Wednesdays. Well, after I laid him down for his nap around 1:00 I went to put the rest of his bottle in the fridge I noticed that it was still completely full! Oh great! It had already started. No wonder he was so fussy! Only THIS Wednesday it started at 6am instead of 6pm! So the rest of the day was pretty crazy. He wouldn't sleep for long. He started completely refusing his bottles, he wouldn't even suck on them for comfort. He was screaming most of the day and finally started taking "Pedialyte Cocktails" but was still obviously so hungry. It was a LONG day! I don't think Nathan has been feeling well either and he's been SUPER grumpy and fussy and just plain miserable! Emily slept in as long as she could that morning and then fell asleep in the car while we were out which is not normal for her. So I assumed she was getting sick too. I usually do okay with just rolling with the punches and not getting stressed out, but after weeks of spreading myself so thin I started to lose it. Especially with Logan being SO upset all day when he is normally SOOOOOooooo good! He doesn't fuss at all! He is such a happy baby and is so content just to sit and observe things and give an occasional squeal of delight and tons of smiles! So it was a little overwhelming.
Well, it lasted all day Wednesday and now it's Thursday afternoon and I am skating on thin ice! Logan slept well last night after struggling to get him to sleep, but woke up this morning pretty fussy and he's had a rough day so far. It's so emotionally draining and I feel like I have so much LESS to give to the rest of the kids when I am barely keeping things together enough to take care of Logan when he's so upset. My poor kids. I've lost my patience with them several times in the past few days and it always hurts their feelings and I hate it! I feel like the worst mother! I've let my blog sit post-less for a few weeks because I didn't really have any cute pictures or fun stories or uplifting thoughts to share. I've been kind of a grump and I didn't want to blog it. But I really did want to get this whole experience with Logan down so I wouldn't forget details. Especially if it will help anyone else that may have any similar issues with their kids. I found that reading blogs and forums of parents was SO helpful for me in finding out what was wrong with Logan and how to help him.
So that's what's going on with us. Logan has Infants Silent Reflux and is now taking medication to help him feel better and hopefully we won't have anymore episodes of not eating and extreme fussiness! Poor sweet boy! It's been a long 3 weeks but I'm glad to know it should get better from here on out.
Well the lady that the nurse gave my number to called and we started talking about our experiences. Her son didn't eat much at all every day and when he did eat they could only get him to eat 1 ounce at a time. I guess after months of trying a ton of things they finally diagnosed him with Silent Infant Reflux (which is basically regular Reflux but they don't spit up excessively) and they started him on Previcid and 2 weeks later he was doing TONS better and eventually grew out of it. Her sister was there and she had 2 kids that had the same thing, the Silent Reflux. I talked to her also and her kids didn't eat at all either. She was nursing each of them and had to stop and they had to be hospitalized because they didn't get enough to eat and eventually had to stop nursing and just take formula. Both of their kids didn't have any other symptoms but were not eating but their experiences were different in other ways than ours especially with him eating perfectly normally for a full week before it started up again. Anyway, after we got off the phone I started googling everything I could think of and tried on my own to piece things together. It seemed to be some sort of tummy issues for sure and as I read all of the posts and discussion forums I started thinking about Logan's behavior a little more closely and recognized some more symptoms that I hadn't noticed before. He never really seems to be a "calm eater" he is often very wiggly as he eats and he arches his back and seems like he's in pain. He does spit up, but all of my kids have been "spitters" and I never thought much about it. Then I found this list of symptoms for Silent Infant Reflux:
poor weight gain or rapid weight gain gulping with a painful look on the face sour breath, wet sounding burps persistent or chronic cough frequent hiccups sudden burst of painful crying painful wake-ups from sleep or poor sleeping habits poor feeding habits, possible feeding aversions neck or back arching during or after feeding excessive fussiness, crying or colic demands to be carried constantly red or salmon colored throat blood in the stool or spit up
He certainly didn't seem to have a hard time gaining weight but I hadn't noticed any rapid weight gain and he never had any blood in his stool or spit up and his throat didn't seem to be red, but other than that he seemed to have all of the symptoms. I read a bunch of discussion forums about parents who's children had it and it seemed to fit perfectly and it felt right. That's the only way to describe it. I had been searching all day for something that had at least some of the same symptoms and nothing seemed to fit. But this one did. Here's some more information that I found on it:
Silent GER refers to GER or GERD without any outward or typical symptoms. This could mean that a child isn't vomiting or appearing uncomfortable but is having reflux episodes. Some children may swallow the refluxed material (refluxate) back down instead of throwing it up, in some kids it may not come up enough to actually come out the mouth. This can be much more difficult to diagnose, since the most common symptoms are not present.
It can also be more damaging as the refluxate burns the esophagus on the way up and again on the way down. Whether or not the silent reflux needs to be treated depends on the complications that are arising from it.
Some symptoms that can indicate silent reflux are:
* irritability and pain
* poor sleep habits typically with frequent waking*
* arching their necks and back during or after eating*
* frequent hiccups*
* frequent ear infections
* refusing food or accepting only a few bites despite being hungry*
or the exact opposite requiring constant small meals or liquid
* food/oral aversions
* anemia
* excessive drooling
* running nose, sinus infections
* sinus congestion
* swallowing problems, gagging, choking
* chronic hoarse voice
* frequent red, sore throat without infection present
* apnea
* respiratory problems—pneumonia, bronchitis, wheezing, asthma,
night-time cough, aspiration
* gagging themselves with their fingers or fist (sign of esophagitis)
* poor weight gain, weight loss, failure to thrive*
* erosion of dental enamel
* neck arching (Sandifer's Syndrome)
* bad breath
As with regular reflux, the child does not need to exhibit all the symptoms listed to have silent reflux. If you believe your child has silent reflux, start with lifestyle modifications as suggested in the article on 14 Steps for Helping a Baby with Reflux. If this is not enough to help, you may need to bring baby to the doctor as the next step may be medications. The treatments page will give you a list of the medications used to treat reflux.
Usually the doctor will not order any diagnostic testing to confirm reflux is present unless it does not respond to initial treatment. If it continues despite medical therapy and begins to cause more serious complications, the doctor will likely begin further work ups.
* denotes most common symptoms of silent reflux
This list gave us even MORE symptoms and again MOST of them described Logan perfectly. So I called the Doctors office to see if I could possibly get someone to call in a prescription for me but of course since my Doctor was out of town they said it would be best if I brought him in and they looked at him first. Well since he was showing no outward symptoms I knew they wouldn't diagnose him and give us a prescription so I just kept trying to keep some Pedialyte in him. During this time my sweet sister in law Jen brought us over some more Pedialyte and watched the kids for me so I could take a shower. Logan had been screaming all day and was so fussy that I wasn't able to put him down. After my shower we were talking and she suggested adding formula to the Pedialyte. We tried it and sure enough he drank it! I was so glad too because it had been almost 20 hours since he'd had anything besides Pedialyte. The Pediatric GI told us that when he did start taking formula again we should water it down to 1/4 strength, so we didn't upset his stomach. So he was only getting one scoop of formula in every bottle that we were able to get him to eat. But at least it was something.
That night around 6pm (24 hours from when he stopped eating) he starting eating a regular bottle and I thought we were in the clear. However he didn't finish that bottle and got really fussy again and started to refuse his bottle again. So we went back to what we named the "Pedialyte Cocktail" (the formula mixed into Pedialyte) and kept trying the bottle. It was really touch and go for the rest of the night and finally when he woke up for his night time feeding around 3am he ate a full bottle of just formula. I was so relieved that it was over and couldn't wait for my Doctor to get back into town so I could talk with him about all of this. But the next day (Friday) he was still only eating about half of the time and we were still mixing his bottles with Grape Flavored Pedialyte to get him to drink it.
On Saturday evening he had been doing okay and we went to Peter's soccer game and as we were getting ready to leave Logan stopped breathing for several seconds. His eyes got really wide and his arms flew wide open and he was gasping and not getting anything in. When he finally started breathing again (about 5 or 6 seconds was all) he was choking and gagging and screaming. It scared me pretty bad. I got him calmed down and called the Doctors to see what time their urgent care clinic closed. I started thinking about all of his symptoms combined and worried that he might have breathed in some of the spit up that he'd been swallowing back down. Then I thought back to the x-ray and the fact that they thought they saw bronchiolitis which is issues with the lungs and I started to worry. The Urgent Care was open until 9 and it was only 8:30 so I took him in. The Doctor on call was the ONLY Doctor in their practice that I had never seen and I was SO VERY UNIMPRESSED!!! He was SO rude and condescending and he kept interrupting me and asking me crazy questions like "how much did he weigh when he was born" when I'm in the middle of telling him how he hasn't been eating for over 24 hours. Then he totally dismissed the whole stopped breathing event and said immediately (before he'd even looked at Logan) that he knew "EXACTLY why your baby won't eat" and then he proceeded to tell me that Logan was eating way too much and that he was very unhealthy because he had gained a pound and a half since he last came in (really it wasn't even that much because he was just in a diaper the time before when they weighed him and this time he was wearing overalls and shoes and a long sleeved shirt and a sweatshirt). He noted that Logan was in the 90% for weight and that eating 5 ounces every 3 to 4 hours was WAY too much. He said that babies will still THRIVE if only given 2 ounces every 4 hours and that I definitely needed to cut back to at LEAST 3 ounces every 4 hours and that he would be very upset about it and cry a lot for the next 2 weeks but after that he would be adjusted to eating only 2 ounces. I asked him if he thought he would cry for 2 weeks because he was HUNGRY to which he responded, "Of course! But that's only because you have conditioned him to want more and done him a great injustice by forcing him into the 90th percentile for weight." ***HOLY COW!*** are you KIDDING me?! What a YAHOO!!! I was so upset. I told him that it seemed to me that he had reflux and he said, "Well even if he DID have reflux I wouldn't treat him with medicine, the way to treat reflux is to cut back on feedings. 90% of the time babies with reflux are just overfed." I told him that I'd read that Prevacid was a very safe medication that has proved VERY helpful in many cases of reflux and since my son had refused to eat for over 24 hours on several occasions I would hope that we'd at least be able to try it. Then I proceeded to apologize to him and I said, "I'm so sorry. It must be really annoying when parents come into your office and try to tell you what's wrong with their children." and his response was, "No, it's fine. It doesn't bother me at all when parents try to tell me what's wrong. I appreciate the fact that they have done some research and tried to come up with some answers on their own. However, what I DON'T appreciate is when they try to tell me how to TREAT the problem." Basically saying, 'look lady, I know you think you know what you're talking about but just because you may have found out what's wrong with your baby, that doesn't mean you can just fix it with medicine. Have you ever stopped to think that YOU may have caused the problem?' That was his underlying tone through the whole appointment and he was an absolute jerk! I'm sorry to say it but I truly couldn't stand to be there another minute especially with the way he was talking to me! Grrr!!!
Anyway! He slept pretty poorly that night and I kept worrying that he was going to stop breathing again but he was fine. By Sunday he was perfect again. He was an absolute JEWEL! He was soooo sweet all day and calm and eating great and super happy! He was good all day Monday too so I didn't call the doctor, even though he was back in town. On Tuesday Logan was still doing better and not seeming to have any problems but I called in and talked to the nurse again and she said that she thought I should bring him in so we could at least talk with the Doctor about everything. So I scheduled an appointment with our Doctor for Wednesday morning.
Wednesday morning he woke up around 6am and ate a full bottle with no problems. He was still wide awake so I got him all dressed and ready for his Dr appointment. Around 7:35 some of the kids woke up so I got them some breakfast and then practiced Maddie's choir songs with her on the piano for awhile. Logan was still happy so I put him in his bouncy seat while I helped Maddie do her hair and finish her homework and then I got Nathan and Emily ready to go to the appointment with us. Logan started to get kind of fussy around 8:45 and I figured he was tired since he didn't go back to sleep like he normally does in the morning. I made him another bottle knowing that he wouldn't eat much but it would help him to fall asleep and then we'd already have one made to bring with us when we left. Anyway, since it was almost time to leave, I buckled him into his car seat and propped his bottle in there with him so I could finish getting Tyler and Maddie ready for school and shoes on Nathan and Emily, plus I didn't want to have to wake him up to buckle him in when it was time to go. ANYWAY! So I propped his bottle and went about the rest of the crazy morning schedule getting everyone ready and off to school. He was pretty upset now and I figured he was just overly tired and wanted to fall asleep in his crib like he usually does or in my arms at least, but certainly not in his car seat! So I didn't think anything of it when he wouldn't eat his bottle. I thought he was just mad at me for buckling him in.
So eventually we got out the door and drove to his appointment. He fell asleep in the car on the way there and slept for the whole time while we were waiting to see the Doctor and even during the start of the visit while I was explaining what had happened the week before and also about my ridiculous visit to the urgent care clinic on Saturday (which my Doctor was pretty upset about and told me not to listen to a thing that the other Doctor told me and said that Logan was perfectly healthy and cutting back his feedings to 2 to 3 ounces was absurd and he told me that when the Doctor told me my baby was overweight I should have just told him HE was overweight, which he was but of course I didn't say it. Anyway, I love my Doctor). Eventually Logan woke up and was smiley and happy. He hadn't eaten since 6am so I thought he'd be hungry by now, it'd been about 4 hours, so when he got a little fussy during the visit, I gave him his bottle (the same bottle I made for him around 8:45 that morning). He quieted down and seemed to be eating for the rest of the appointment. My Doctor agreed with me that it sounded like Silent Reflux and he wrote me a prescription for Previcid and we left. Logan got pretty upset when I put him back into his car seat and wouldn't take his bottle anymore. On our way to the pharmacy we ran a few errands and Logan was not very happy. Eventually I gave up and just picked up his prescription and came home. He was still really upset when we got home and I gave him his bottle again while I was holding him and he calmed down and started eating (or so I thought). He finally fell asleep and I started to worry that even though we had given him the first dose of Prevacid he was still going to have a pretty rough night/morning just like he did the past two Wednesdays. Well, after I laid him down for his nap around 1:00 I went to put the rest of his bottle in the fridge I noticed that it was still completely full! Oh great! It had already started. No wonder he was so fussy! Only THIS Wednesday it started at 6am instead of 6pm! So the rest of the day was pretty crazy. He wouldn't sleep for long. He started completely refusing his bottles, he wouldn't even suck on them for comfort. He was screaming most of the day and finally started taking "Pedialyte Cocktails" but was still obviously so hungry. It was a LONG day! I don't think Nathan has been feeling well either and he's been SUPER grumpy and fussy and just plain miserable! Emily slept in as long as she could that morning and then fell asleep in the car while we were out which is not normal for her. So I assumed she was getting sick too. I usually do okay with just rolling with the punches and not getting stressed out, but after weeks of spreading myself so thin I started to lose it. Especially with Logan being SO upset all day when he is normally SOOOOOooooo good! He doesn't fuss at all! He is such a happy baby and is so content just to sit and observe things and give an occasional squeal of delight and tons of smiles! So it was a little overwhelming.
Well, it lasted all day Wednesday and now it's Thursday afternoon and I am skating on thin ice! Logan slept well last night after struggling to get him to sleep, but woke up this morning pretty fussy and he's had a rough day so far. It's so emotionally draining and I feel like I have so much LESS to give to the rest of the kids when I am barely keeping things together enough to take care of Logan when he's so upset. My poor kids. I've lost my patience with them several times in the past few days and it always hurts their feelings and I hate it! I feel like the worst mother! I've let my blog sit post-less for a few weeks because I didn't really have any cute pictures or fun stories or uplifting thoughts to share. I've been kind of a grump and I didn't want to blog it. But I really did want to get this whole experience with Logan down so I wouldn't forget details. Especially if it will help anyone else that may have any similar issues with their kids. I found that reading blogs and forums of parents was SO helpful for me in finding out what was wrong with Logan and how to help him.
So that's what's going on with us. Logan has Infants Silent Reflux and is now taking medication to help him feel better and hopefully we won't have anymore episodes of not eating and extreme fussiness! Poor sweet boy! It's been a long 3 weeks but I'm glad to know it should get better from here on out.
3 comments:
Wow, what a saga. I know how draining it can be to have a little fussy one, not to mention taxing on everyone else. You're such a good Mama, hang in there!
janelle - i feel your pain! man, this brings back memories. Jake had GERD (not the silent kind though - so tons of barf) He was super fussy, wanted to eat little bits constantly, had failure to thrive for the first month and a half, and honestly for about the first 3 - 4 months Brent and I wanted to die. it was so hard. and we tried everything- all diff. kinds of formula, more breastmilk, less breastmilk, he had an upper GI, etc. But beware - we tried a few kinds of medication similar to what you are using, and none of them helped. For some people they did, but not for us. I couldn't tell any difference. He basically just grew out of it. Good luck - hang in there!
yikes, Janelle! It's a good thing he has such a good mother! Hang in there- I'm sure it will get better!!
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