Thank you Zantac

Anyone out there ever had acid reflux? Well you know how miserable it is, the burning, the coughing, the discomfort, downing a Costco bottle of Tums every week month...

If you remember I had a similar post while I was pregnant. If you want to relive my complaints you can click here. But this is about another little human being who was miserable and we didn't really know it. We had a concern about a noise Josie was making and it was continuing to get more frequent. It was the noise that all babies make, its called "strider." It is when they breathe in really quick and it makes kind of a gasping squeak. She was making it more frequent and sometimes it would take her a bit to regulate her breathing again. So the doc sent us to a swallow therapist (I had never heard of it either) and after an evaluation we found out Josie has been suffering from pretty bad acid reflux. Not the worst case since she has been gaining weight just fine but she was showing all the textbook signs. A lot of signs that I would not have known were connected.

lots of hard swallowing followed by watery eyes
dry cough
arching back (made tummy time difficult)
holding shoulders back
spit-up out her nose at least once a day usually more
hiccups (after every feeding still)
drooling (soak the whole onesie kind)
strider (all through out the day and during feedings)
really squirmy and noisy while nursing (the complaining kind)
wheezing
congestion

She was taking it all like a champ though. She definitely didn't complain as much as I did...

Nick and I are both a fan of trying to solve things the natural way before medication, so a lot of food went out the window but there was no change with my sweet girl. We learned that infants suffer from un treated acid reflux have a really high rate of asthma and allergies. It can also cause permanent damage to the esophagus causing the child to have problems the rest of their life. But most of the time the reflux goes away by 9 months or before. So why risk permanent damage when most likely the short term treatment is better than the long term risk of no treatment. So on to the meds! We were also told that it can take a while to figure out which meds will work and sometimes you will have to change after awhile or try two at a time (sounds like my problem while pregnant). Finally, after realizing my own belief of not medicating our baby was getting in the way of her comfort. Plus, I medicated myself for reflux and was much happier. So we are on our first set of trial meds and I must say, it was the best choice we could have made. She has been on them for three days now and from night one she slept 7 hours, night two 8 hours, and night three 8 hours. She doesn't wake up crying as often and will put herself to sleep without rocking. She doesn't act uncomfortable while laying down and rather than screaming during tummy time she actually rolled over. Needless to say I am so thankful for all the professionals out there who know a heck of a lot more than I do.

We are all now a bit more Joyful in the Parkert house!