December 08, 2007
Food Issues
So as most of you reading this blog will know, Tabby has suffered reflux since she was tiny. This has basically made her very unhappy with painful acid in her esophagus all of the time. She's thrown up alot, and it's also caused alot of excess gas and painful rumblings in her tummy.
As she's grown, the crying has lessened and she's become a lovely sweet little baby, ready with her smiles, but she has still been suffering with tummy ache and throwing up.
The most apparent suffering happens during the night. She wakes up clearly in pain and struggles to go back to sleep again. She has real gas issues then too. I think that sleeping is generally difficult for her (not just for naps, but in the daytime too) because it's not something she can do easily, always being uncomfortable. It takes alot of rocking and patting and shushhhhing to get her to sleep every time and she's not learning how to be a good sleeper.
There is no putting her down 'drowsy but awake' (the ideal that the books will hold you to). She has to be zonked , completely zonked, before her bottom can hit a foreign object. If she's not zonked, she instantly wakes up! In the daytime even if she is zonked, that nap cannot be in her bed either. It must be in her swing or in our arms. She knows, somehow, even in a very drowsy state!
We still give her the Zantac twice per day but it's effect has lessened as she has grown and I'm really loathe to start her on another stronger medicine as she is approaching the age where reflux generally lessens anyway (we hope!). But recently I've really been wondering if alot of this isn't being caused by dairy in my diet.
Clearly the painful face as you see her bring up acid is what it is, as is the constant spitting up...... but If I take any large amount of dairy in my diet, it shows in her - being more uncomfortable than usual and having green poo. If I have a latte or similar, it really shows. I am so loathe to give up dairy entirely
Meanwhile, she's been waking up every hour or two during the night and it's been killing us. I've fed her, but it's not always a need for feed, it's discomfort as much as comfort. Finally in desperation we decided to try her with some rice cereal. I had wanted to hold out starting solids until she reached 6 months which is the current guideline..... I suppose 5 months + 1 week isn't TOO far off...... but argh.
Anyway, rice cereal mixed with a little breast milk is known to help reflux babies hold down their food in their stomachs. Alot of American DR's here 'prescribe' it for bottle fed babies, they mix it in with their bottles. Not so easy for breastfed babies of course. Anyway we decided to give it a go.
What can I say, she LOVED it. She could NOT get enough. She was trying to put the entire bowl in her mouth. She was grabbing the spoon from me and shoving it in. She devoured every single mouthful and cried when it was over.
And when she went to bed she slept until 4am without waking.
She's had it the last two nights too, with similar results. She's really loving it.
I guess it was the right thing to do! I think it's obviously helping her reflux alot, and also filling her up a bit more :)
Argh...... these stages go so fast!
Posted by katie at December 8, 2007 02:00 AM