The first week or two after Colton was born, he had a really hard time keeping food down. Anytime I fed him, everything seemed to come right back up. We worried about it, but within a short time he quit throwing up, so I never pursued it further. After that he seemed to have a strong gag reflex and there were definitely times when he threw up for seemingly no reason. He didn't ever act sick or even upset, he would just get worked up about something, throw up, then go on about his business. This starting happening often enough that I was concerned he might have acid reflux or something similar, but it was never severe enough that the doctor wanted to do anything about it.
Then came these last 2 months. I'm not sure what has changed or how it's been triggered, but this little guy is now throwing up on a daily basis, sometimes multiple times a day. On top of that, he's not sleeping well, rarely taking much of a nap and waking up throughout the night. It's a vicious cycle we can't seem to get out of. He eats, goes to sleep, wakes up to throw up, goes back to sleep, wakes up because he's hungry, etc. Everyone says I should just let him "cry it out" when he wakes up at night, but if I do that he just throws up. And when he does throw up, then then next time he wakes up I know he's hungry so I feel guilty not feeding him. It's not like my little runt has any extra meat on his bones! So Colton and I have turned into sleep-deprived, stressed-out zombies! I keep reminding myself that it could be a lot worse. Even though I'm not sure exactly what's going on with him, at this point I'm grateful that it's just a lack of sleep and dealing with throw up. I feel silly that I get so frustrated about it when he doesn't have cancer, or a major disease or disorder. Now if we can just figure out what's going on and get it taken care of!
After all that complaining, it's refreshing to look at these pictures. He really is a happy, easy going little boy all of the time, except when it's time to sleep!
At his 15 month check-up, Colton weighed 16 lbs 8 oz and was 28 inches long. He's still not even near the growth charts, and I think that's part of the reason I worry so much about him not keeping any food down. He's still wearing 3-6 month clothes, and I'm getting ready to put him in 6-9 month pajamas as he's getting too long for the others. He just moved in to size 3 diapers.
Update 01/02/13: Shortly after writing this post, I was able to get Colton into the doctor for some testing. We decided the best route was to start him on some acid reflux medication and see if that helped rather than put him through more invasive testing right off the bat. For about a week and a half I didn't see any improvement. Just as I was getting pretty frustrated and ready to head back in, a little switch was flipped and he was like a new person. No throwing up, and all the sudden sleeping through the night and napping during the day! Unfortunately, that only lasted about 3 weeks. He gradually started throwing up again, and his sleep schedule was all screwed up. Back to the doctor.
We decided we probably ought to check out some other possibilities just to play it safe that this wasn't something more serious than reflux. So I took him to the hospital for a swallow evaluation test. Basically he was supposed to drink a barium solution (nasty I've heard) and while he's drinking it, they put him under a machine that shows how the solution is going through his system and if there's a lot of acid traveling through. Supposedly not a big deal, but Colton didn't really think so. The second we stepped into the hospital, he got nervous and started fussing. Then we walked into the radiology room and he freaked out. I figured we could make it work, and then the radiologist informed me that because I'm pregnant I couldn't stay in the room with him. So I had to pass him off to the nurses. NOT a good idea. He screamed hysterically, wouldn't drink the solution, and they couldn't even get him to lay on the table to take the pictures. So they brought him back out to me, I got him calmed down just enough to drink a tiny bit of the solution, then they hurried back into the radiology room and had to pin him down long enough to get a picture. We did this about 5 times and finally got enough info to call it good. It wasn't a fun experience, and they didn't really get as good of pictures as we would have liked, but they were able to see enough to rule out any major problems. No blocked or twisted intestines, all organs in place and functioning, etc. They were also able to see enough acid flow to conclude that he does have some reflux.
So back to the doctor again. The first medication we'd given him was Zantac, mostly because it comes in a generic brand (so it's cheaper) and it's an oral medication so it's easy to give to him. This medication isn't as effective as the alternative though. So we decided to switch him over to Prevacid - 4 times more expensive since it's not generic and my insurance won't pay for the name brands. Grrrr....... But, after switching him to the Prevacid, he's doing better again. Even after traveling for the holidays, he's sleeping much better than he was previously, and only occasionally throwing up. I'm feeling much better about things, and we're hoping that he outgrows the reflux eventually!
1 comment:
Nothing wrong with getting frustrated, not getting a good night's sleep is a big deal. I think I would be crying about it every night. Hope his medicine keeps working for him! That hospital experience sounds terrible.
Post a Comment