GERD
If you don't know the meaning of this word... it is time to learn. GERD, or simply *reflux* is probably one of the most difficult parts of raising a baby. I never had reflux baby until now. My first three babies were lovely sleepers, only waking in the middle of the night twice until they were about 4 months old and then were sleeping through the night.
My journey with Jakob has been a terribly bumpy road, although it started as any other road would, smooth and euphoric. At about 4 weeks old I started noticing how, different he was and how much he needed me... always wanting to be held, and did NOT want to lay down even for a nap. There were several days where he slept 20 minutes every 4 hours and made sure I only slept 20 minutes every four hours as well. When I realized something was wrong was when he woke me in the night choking and thrashing... he could not breath and if I hadn't been co-sleeping with him I would have slept through it and he would not be here with us today. The day after he had woken me up thrashing, he had an unusual amount of spit up, he spat up about twice after every single feeding, with or without burps.
At 6 weeks JD threw up with every single feeding, and at least twice between feedings. I found myself doing about three loads of laundry per day of just me and JD's clothing and receiving blankets. He would wake up at least 3 times at night choking, and screaming. There had been several days where he had almost lost his voice. Our evenings were chalked full of frustration, Jakob screaming, and taking turns walking him around the house.
At 12 weeks we finally took Jakob into the doctor. Ah, this is when my fears were confirmed... Jakob has Gastro-Esophageal Reflux Disease... Otherwise known as GERD. Now that I knew what he had, maybe there was a home something or other I could do to help him. I refuse to medicate unless all other avenues have been tried.
Trial and error my friends... I started giving him fennel and dill seed tea... just a little bit... it did help but not a whole lot. It got all his burps and farts out so he was a little more comfortable... but it seems that the larger he gets, the worse the reflux. Once he hit about four months old I started giving him a little bit of solids... just a little... to see if it would help. It really did for a few weeks... Avacado is a wonderful first food by the way, it has good fats in it... unlike anything else you might find... a human being can survive off of avacado's entirely... so I know I am not giving him empty calories, and he sleeps for about four hours. But, as he gets older and bigger and requires more food the reflux gets worse.
As a breastfeeding mother, I have had to change my diet drastically for the sake of my sons reflux. this is a small list of foods that I cannot have for as long as I am breastfeeding.
- eggs
-tomatoes or tomato sauce
-processed foods of any kind
-fried foods
-more than 1 glass of orange juice
-cheese
-dairy
-beans
-wheat
-chocolate
This is just the beginning. these are the foods I have noticed trigger his reflux after I eat them.... now he has reflux all the time, but when I eat these foods he becomes a puking machine. Neither he or I get enough sleep at all. We can be up 3-20 times in a night and sometimes we both just give up on sleeping. Countless nights on the couch dozing propped up with him on my chest have taught me to avoid so many different foods. Now I have to check the ingredients on everything that goes into my body.
Recently my partner and I have decided to give our little man medication (we are both anti-med). The medication does not seem to be helping, we are on night four of his screaming fits. By screaming fit I mean his eyes are still closed and he is thrashing in his sleep screaming. This will happen for about a half hour after every single time he eats, and I think it causes me just as much pain as it does for him, but my pain is emotional because I cannot make it better for him. I have had many people suggest putting him on formula, but there are three problems with that, first of all, he wont take a bottle, secondly, formula although it might work for other people... it's shite.... and third I do NOT want to lose the bond that only breastfeeding can provide. From what I understand, formula is actually the very last thing you want to give a reflux baby, it stays in their system longer, and its harder to digest, meaning its in babies tummy longer which means worse reflux issues for longer periods of time. I realize solids might do the exact same thing but solids sit in the stomach... they dont tend to come up like a fluid does.
-Apr 11/12
We took JD off the meds. they do not seem to be helping him at all, and both me and my partner feel better for it. As I stated before we do not like medicating. Tomorrow we will be picking up papaya enzymes, and we will be mixing that with fennel seed tea and his solid foods. Hopefully we can see a difference with these changes.
-Apr 15/12
A sudden and harsh realization has hit me today as I was doing some research on home remedies for treating reflux... earlier in my post I stated that my son thrashes at night... this is only partially true... his back and neck arch and stiffen jerkily and he screams a blood curdling scream... this is actually Sandifers syndrome... they are seizures related to GERD... still doing more research.
No comments:
Post a Comment