Poor Baby

(And poor Mommy and Daddy.)

The week after we increased Robby's reflux meds, all of his symptoms started getting worse again.  It was then we realized the Zantac just wasn't working for him anymore (it's common for Zantac to stop working).  I brought him into the doctor to make sure nothing else was going on as he just screams so much of the day and won't sleep at night.  The doctor decided to have us try Prevacid (the solutabs that dissolve in his mouth).  We tried it for a few days... but Robby just kept getting worse and worse.  He was screaming so frequently and forcefully... he was clearly in pain.  After doing some research, I realied that the form of Prevacid we were using has an inactive ingredient derived from MILK.  Robby has a dairy allergy.  So he was reacting horribly to the meds.  We stopped the meds and after all this, have come to realize his dairy allergy is more than just straight dairy- he has milk protein intolerance.  This is the inability to digest the proteins found in cow's milk- for Robby, it causes reflux, fussiness while eating, rash on his cheeks (and now tummy), colic-like behavior, mucousy poop, and horrible sleeping habits.

Our options from here are for me to completely eliminate all milk protein (and possibly soy protein as well, many babies that don't tolerate milk proteins also can't tolerate soy proteins.  so far I haven't noticed anything with soy for Robby, but I haven't had much of it).  This means totally changing my diet as most foods have milk proteins.  Not only would that be difficult for me (but if it's what he will do best with then that of course isn't an issue), but if I accidentally eat something with the allergens in it he will react to that (not as badly as he is now though). 

Or we can try a hypo-allergenic formula that has the proteins already partially broken down so it's not so hard on his GI system- this would be consistent with no chance of him accidentally getting allergens in his system.  The problem here is that there is no guarantee he'll do well on the formula because it does still contain traces of milk proteins (they're just partially broken down), it's CRAZY expensive, and many babies have a hard time taking it because it has an awful taste.

Unfortunately, there is no way to know which is best for Robby.  Some babies do better with the breast milk from the altered diet, and some do better going onto the formula.  And it would take a couple weeks to even see the effects from either as the proteins have to leave both mine and Robby's systems.

For now, I plan to alter my diet and continue breastfeeding Robby and see how he does with that.  In the meantime, I may have to supplement with some formula as my supply has significantly decreased from the stress and lack of sleep.

Wish us luck!
Carrie

3 Months and Growing

Growing we are!  At 3 and 1/2 months, our "little" baby weighs over 14 pounds!  He's still in 3-6 month clothing and size 2 diapers, but we don't think he will be for very long.

For a while, Robby was doing great.  Just before he turned 3 months (the week after his reaction to the shots), Robby was not a happy guy.  He spent most of the day screaming (our poor sitter) and still would not let me put him down at night.  We decided to go ahead and try reflux medications to see if that made a difference for him.  And boy did it ever. Apparently our little guy has got some pretty painful reflux going on.  Within days of starting the meds, exactly on Robby's 3 month 'birthday', we got an awesome gift......  Robby slept in his pack 'n play all night long!!  From 9pm- 9am, eating at 3am and 6:30am.  It was wonderful!  He continued to do pretty well sleeping at night for the next couple weeks.  Naps on the otherhand... still were a battle.  This kid just wants to party and then gets so overtired he doesn't know what to do with himself!  We started trying 'Interval Training'- which is letting him cry for 5 minutes, then going in and calming him down, letting him cry for 6 minutes, then going in and calming him down, etc.  Do this for at most 20 minutes at his age.  This would work every now and then, but overall, he would become so upset nothing would calm him down unfortunately.  We're still working on napping...!

A few weeks after we started the reflux meds, he took some major steps backwards and was back to fussing all day, not wanting to be put down at night, waking up fussy in the middle of the night, etc.  We ended up increasing his meds (it's very weight sensitive and clearly he's getting bigger by the week) which again made a big difference.  Just in time for us to go home for his Baptism!  His Baptsim weekend was wonderful.  He did so good in the church- just started fussing as he was getting tired.  But mommy walked around and rocked him and he eventually passed right out!  We got to see our families over the weekend and everyone got to see how big Robby's getting!

Robby's really been getting interactive and aware of what's going on around him.  He loves to catch Mommy's attention and start talking- trying to get me to talk back to him, sometimes even at 3am!  He loves to watch the fan and starts smiling when we turn it on.  He also continues to love the light-up star that plays music on his play mat.  He likes to shove his whole fist in his mouth and suck on it- but he still loves his paci too!  He's rolled from tummy to back once- but it was while laying on a couch cushion on the ground (it had enough give that it gave him a bit of help).  He can't quite do it on solid ground yet, but he's really been trying!  He's also been trying to get his feet- you can see him trying to lift his feet and legs up but can't get them up high enough!

I'll leave you with some more pictures....
Carrie :)