Every Mommy out there knows that one of the worst experiences is seeing your child in pain. As much as you don't like pain yourself, you would rather have the pain yourself rather than watch your child hurt. With that said, I'm sad to say that Leeland was diagnosed with GERD today. GERD stands for Gastro-Esophaggeal Reflux Disease. Without using all of the fancy dancy medical terms it is basically caused when the junction between the stomach and esophagus is underdeveloped in some babies. At the lower end of your esophagus there is a band of muscles that tightens after you eat to keep your food down. In babies who have GERD, those muscles relax rather than tighten and the food comes back up along with acid from the stomach causing irratation, pain and sort of a form of heartburn.
Some symptoms of GERD in infants are:
-Sudden fussiness that's inconsolable
-Arching their back during feedings
-Excessive spitting up and vommiting
-Erratic feeding patterns and fussiness during some or all feedings
-Slow weigh gain
-Poor sleeping habits
-Excessive drooling
-Gagging or choking
Sometimes:
-Chronic coughing
-Frequent red or sore throat
-Frequent ear infections
How do you treat it?:
-Feed the baby in a more upright position
-Put cereal in the babies bottles
-Wedge the crib mattress so the baby sleeps in a more inclined position
-Frequently burp the baby
-Avoid overfeeding and feed smaller more frequent meals
-And some pediatricians will perscribe an antacid
Now that everyone is thoroughly educated about infant acid reflux, you now know what we have been dealing with. Frequent fussiness, LOADS of drool and Mommy is doing LOTS of laundry from spit up.... Leeland's laundry and Mommy's. I had acid reflux when I was pregnant and I just remember being absolutely miserable, so I really do hate to see Leeland hurt. However if he were going to be diagnosed with something, there are worse things out there, so this isn't all too bad. Also an added bonus is that supposedly it won't stick around forever. In most babies it only sticks around until age 1 or 2. And I read that it peaks at 4 months, which is how old Leeland is, so we're dealing with the worst of it now.... I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! :D
A little peek into our nest-- watch us have fun, grow, and time fly by.
Nate is on Baby Zantac from his pediatrician and it seems to be working well. He was at the worst around 3.5-4 months and it's getting better and better! Keep your head up! :)
ReplyDeleteThat is really good to hear! He's never been this bad before. I'm not sure if it just progressed because of his age or because we just introduced veggies and well, who doesn't have a little heartburn from certain veggies!? haha.
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