Monday, October 15, 2012
Texas Children's Pediatric Associates Conroe
My baby is FOUR MONTHS old! It is hard to believe he already FOUR MONTHS. Yet at the same time I cannot believe it has ONLY BEEN FOUR MONTHS! It seems so much longer sometimes. My poor family has been through SO MUCH in the last FOUR MONTHS! I think Baby Luke is doing REALLY well considering all the change that has taken place. Between the move and his reflux he has done really well these FOUR MONTHS of life!
We went into the see Dr. Quarles today for Baby Luke's 4 Month Well-Baby Check. This was more of a follow-up for his reflux really. We had been patients of Dr. Pullium but she moved to Colorado in late August so we were forced to "Shop around" for another pediatrician. We went with Dr. Prohodia at first because she was available to see us on short notice when Luke's reflux got to be at its worst. She is very young and I liked her. She diagnosed Luke with GERD (Reflux) on August 30th and gave us some medication and advice to try to keep it under control. Since then Luke has had good days and bad days. I had changed Luke and Natalie over to DR. Prohodia as the PCP in September but after Dr. Pullium left the computer automatically put Dr. Quarles as our PCP so we ended up seeing her yesterday! This was alarming at first but turned out to be wonderful.
Luke has been on Nutramigen for the past 10 days and I have seen great improvements. He has been spitting up much less and in less volume and he is also taking the bottle much better (even from strangers). In the evening hours he is much less fussy and even laughs and plays more than the day time. During the past 10 days he has smiled for daddy just as soon as he gets home. This makes daddy so very happy. For most of his life Luke has screamed between the hours of 6-8 and he has begun to grow out of this and with the help of the Nutramigen he has been even more happy during these hours.
When we went in to see the Dr yesterday she answered a lot of my questions about reflux and medication but did not give me a definite path to take from here. She said that even though Luke seems to be doing better on the Nutramigen formula, he may still be able to breast feed if I cut out 4 of the major foods that effect reflux. These foods include milk, eggs, nuts and soy. I ha already cut out mill from my diet but not to the extremes she wanted me to. Absolutely NONE!!! She told me to look at labels for ingredients and if it had milk or eggs AT ALL don't eat it. I don't really eat these foods themselves very often but wow... EVERYTHING, I MEAN EVERYTHING I eat has milk or eggs in it. I love cheese and put it on most everything. I am not a great breakfast eater but I love raisin bran and of course that requires milk. Salad dressings, bread, tortillas, you name it... It has one of the four "No-No" foods. I guess I will be going on some form of Atkins. Man... I HATE THAT DIET! I would rather go back on HCG!
She gave me some advice about using the expressed milk I had been pumping in the freezer and also some expert opinion on Reflux but she did NOT tell me directly what to do. I am indecisive so I wanted this but I understand why she could not tell me what to do. She basically told me that I could switch to Nutramigen if I wanted to but she thinks overall Luke is just a "Happy Spitter" and is going to spit up no matter what. She also gave me the classic line "You have a LAUNDRY problem... not a medical problem". This made me feel better for Luke but a little discouraged for me. I wanted to know that the Nutramigen was the perfect fix and all would be well. Dr. Quarles doubled the medication of Zantac to 1.1 ML twice a day! After it was all over she sent us home to do yet another experiment. She said "If I were you, I would use all the milk in the freezer and breast feed him until you go back to work (10 days). If at that point pumping isn't an option or you still feel he is spitting up more with just breast milk, go back to Nutramigen. I just don't want to recommend an unneeded added expense." I greatly appreciate that aspect of it but I really wanted her TO TELL ME WHAT TO DO!
Since Monday, I have decided to take her advice and go with the "PULL YOUR HAIR OUT" diet and try to get Luke to breast feed again! That was always a wonderful bonding time for both of us! Maybe that is JUST WHAT I NEED before I go back to work! I am going to start him on the breast again on Friday so that way I will have 2-3 days to get all the "toxins" out of my system!
I don't know what will come of this experiment but I just want Baby Luke to feel better and not spit up as much! I know God will show me the path I need to take!
God is good... ALL THE TIME!
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