Ben is 11 weeks old now and I feel like we've had about a thousand doctor's appointments since my last post. You're probably thinking Beth, but alas, our little guy has digestive issues too!
Ben started crying whenever he ate and waking up every one or two hours through the night. I kept hoping he would start to sleep through the night at around 7 weeks, but that's when the real fun began. We discovered that he has infant reflux. Basically, he has bad heartburn. Acid comes back up his esophagus and burns his throat so it hurts when he eats. He also coughs like an old man and gags until he dry heaves. We can't put him on his back after he eats so we bought him a cradle that is on an incline so he can sleep and he now takes Zantac twice a day for the heartburn.
He should be greatly improved by around 4 months of age. We're lucky really since a lot of babies with reflux puke so much they have trouble gaining but Ben has the opposite issue. He is so fat he is almost the same size as his 10 month old cousin!
He is very happy now and sleeps for as long as 5 consecutive hours at night right now, which is heavenly.
And now an update on Beth.
We took Beth to a naturopath who sent her for blood tests. Have you ever taken a 2 year old for blood tests? I don't recommend it.
I held her down while they poked that needle in and out of her arm over and over and then again in the other arm. They couldn't find a vein because she is so little. So they told me to go to the biomedical lab down the street and try again. A week later I took her there. I had to wrap my legs around her and it took two nurses and me to hold her down. Once again they went in and out of her arm over and over with no luck. We had to give her a break and then do it again and praise the lord they found a vein!
Now when we play doctor Beth stabs me in the arm over and over and pretends to put bandaids on me. It definitely made an impression on her.
The outcome of the test was a long list of food that her body reacts to. Some foods she reacts to violently, and others we don't see any outward reaction. It confirmed all the grains, except it said rice was safe. If you recall, rice put her in the hospital vomiting blood last time we tried it. It also confirmed almonds and peanuts but the other nuts were safe.
The naturopath wants us to put her on an extremely strict diet for 3 months. We tried it for about 3 days and then gave up. She couldn't have dairy. I mean, what do you give a kid who can't eat dairy, almond milk, soy milk, or rice milk? the alternatives were flax milk and hemp milk. I tried both. no dice.
So we have decided to keep her on her current diet and wait until she is older and then give her some grains and see what happens. She should outgrown her issues at age 3. She is almost 2.5 now so not much longer!
