Silent Reflux

Monday, August 27, 2012

I've been meaning to blog again and blog more but it's been hard to find time! Which I guess is expected when you have a newborn :) But the main reason I haven't been able to blog is that Mason hasn't really been sleeping the past week-ish. Thursday last week was REALLY bad. He just kept crying and crying and seemed inconsolable. It was heartbreaking. And frustrating. I had no idea what was wrong. I felt like I was doing something wrong because I couldn't make him feel better. I finally called the pediatrician after talking to a few people because I figured either he was sick or maybe his formula was upsetting him. Now his crying wasn't just crying, it was screaming, like someone was hurting him. I would try to pat him on the back, thinking he had to burp or had gas and that's what was hurting him, and he would climb up my shoulder and dig his nails into my shoulder and neck, like he was in so much pain. It was awful. So, I called and made an appointment with the pediatrician and luckily, they had an opening on Friday. I told Seth, who was at work, that we were able to get an appointment on Friday (which was his Friday to work) and he said he would be there. At first I was confused because I knew he had to work, but he asked his boss if he could have the day off (thankfully he has an amazing job and an amazing boss and is able to just ask off the day before and his boss lets him). He knew how bad Mason was feeling and how hard it was for me, so he took initiative to take the day off. He is a lifesaver.

Also, THANKFULLY, I had been talking to my friend Brooke and she gave me some insight. It started with me asking about something completely different, her answering that question and then just randomly asking about the symptoms that Mason had. Her son, Carter, had had the same problem. Turns out Mason has silent reflux, which is extremely painful. It's where he spits up, but instead of spitting it out, he swallows it. So it hurts going up...and back down. Poor boy. I can only imagine. I know how painful it is when you just throw up, let alone it being acid reflux. So we went to the pediatrician on Friday, and I had printed an article that Brooke had sent me and highlighted his symptoms - gulping with a painful look on his face, wet sounding burps, coughing, frequent hiccups, sudden bursts of painful crying, poor sleep habits, poor eating habits, arching of the back and neck after eating, excessive fussiness and crying, wants to be held all the time. I was afraid the pediatrician wouldn't believe me since it's silent and he's not spitting up a lot, but once I mentioned the arching of the back, he immediately agreed and prescribed Zantac. Thank goodness!

But the good news is now : he weighs 10 lbs 5 oz (little chunky monkey!), he is on Zantac which seems to be helping and he has new formula, which he is getting used to and seems to like. But the best news of all : no more screaming and crying in pain! Just regular crying lol :) My baby is almost fully back to his regular happy baby self!

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