And the Pediatrician Says..
October 7th, 2009 by ariana
In the complete OPPOSITE scenario to when you take your car to the mechanic and it operates perfectly, Jasper picked yesterday – the day we visit the pediatrician – to get his first ever stomach bug. Poor little guy must have pooped 12 times! Not being a veteran of this PARTICULAR scenario, I was worried he’d poop all night waking us both up numerous times.. thankfully he managed to save one big one for this morning when I got him out of bed. But I digress..
Jasper weighed 22.4 lbs, which is up from 21.9 at his last visit at 12 months and keeps him firmly in 25th% according to our pedi’s chart (which is a bit higher than those I’ve seen online which place him closer to 20th%). So as the pedi put it, whatever nutrients he IS getting from my milk (mostly) and a bit of food here and there is satisfying his caloric requirements if not nutritional diversity.
His take on it was that eventually, my milk will dry up and/or Jasper will wean himself and naturally start to make up for the caloric deficit by eating more foods.
When I brought up the red esophagus and my discussion with the ENT, he said that the fact that Jasper WILL eat goldfish and cheerios would seem to indicate that it’s not an anatomical issue. I told him I’d thought of that, but my theory was that some foods Jasper deems exciting enough to be a bit uncomfortable for, but the other not so exciting things just aren’t worth it to him. Luckily our pediatrician is so collaborative and we basically brainstormed together and came up with the plan that we would try him back on prevacid for up to a month to see if the situation improves any.
I think it’s a good plan, but I still have lingering doubts weather prevacid is an effective drug for Jasper given that he was scoped by the ENT once while on prevacid and still had mild redness. I’m not sure what to do about that one since it seems that both my pediatrician and his GI doc are reluctant to try different medication.
My other question to him was weather or not I should let Jasper snack to his heart’s content vs. holding out in hopes that his hunger would build toward an actual meal and he thought he shouldn’t be snacking on filler foods. Not sure how I feel about that either because it doesn’t seem to be working!
In other medical(ish) news, I forgot to mention that we ran into my lactation consultant at the pumpkin patch of all places (told you it was crowded, the whole county seemed to be there!)
She asked me how things were going and I told her not great. I haven’t blogged about it too much (but I want to mention it now because there is a HUGE lack of information about this problem on the internet) but my let down has become elusive again, but this time it’s been going on for a month or so. Usually when I’ve gone through periods of disappearing or delayed let down it’s come back to normal after a few days. I hadn’t called her because this is an issue that there doesn’t seem to be much help for, my normal method of taking domperidone to “top off” my supply wasn’t working.
She told me that she has been using oxytocin nasal spray for this issue with another client with success, so I’m really excited to try it. For example I haven’t been able to let down for Jasper’s before bed nursing session in 3 weeks now, which means that I’ve had to put him to bed with no milk and then go pump for a few minutes (which strangely enough I CAN let down more easily for) and then go back and get him out of bed to nurse him.
I should probably just cut out the evening nursing session, I think my supply is really low then, but for some reason it just SEEMS like before bed is such a natural time for nursing (plus I’m reluctant to cut out ANY sessions until he starts eating better!) Most people drop that session or morning sessions last right? I suppose I could cut out the 4pm feeding, but then he’s going from 12 – 7 with no milk because he’s still not taking it in the sippy.. any tips on how to get him to do that? He gets SOOOOO mad when he realizes there is anything but water in there – even juice or something sweet makes him angry!
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Ali such good info, as usual! Thank you. That makes so much sense.. also, I honestly don’t know if it’s because his reflux is acting up severely, or because it’s a weird new thing he’s doing himself but he’s making a crazy swallowing sound that is just like when he had silent reflux, but he is doing it so often now I think he may just be playing with his mouth if that makes any sense?
Sherean, better thank god! It only lasted 2 days and yes, poor guy got diaper rash too (his first one.) It’s getting much better now though, just a mild redness.
How’s his stomach virus? Hunter had that a few months ago and it lasted 7 whole days and very long nights. There were two days in a row that we counted something like 20 poopy diapers. No sooner would we change him when he would need another. I tried EVERYTHING to prevent the diaper rash I was warned he would get, to no avail. That made him even more miserable. How’s Jasper doing now?
He still has reflux, too, and is still on the Prevacid.
No tips to offer you, just a whole lot of sympathy on both counts. Poor little Jasper. Give him big hugs from your blogging buddies.
Hey! Heard about your blog and decided to check it out. Glad you are getting this all checked out. Wanted to tell you something regarding the dr. not being concerned bc Jasper eats goldfish and cheerios… One of the therapists we used to see told me that she’s convinced AJ’s feeding issues grew out of “silent reflux”. So because we didn’t know he had it, he was uncomfortable and therefore, eliminated many foods. I wasn’t sure if that was the case, bc he seemed to refusing so many foods without even trying them, how could he know they made him uncomfortable? Anyway, this therapists said that AJ had a “classic reflux diet”. Basically, he found the foods that were bland enough to not bother his reflux and those were the ones that were safe to eat. So it may be that Goldfish and Cheerios are bland and are not bothering Jasper as much as other foods. Or it could be that they are yummy snacks, like you mentioned. But wanted to tell you about the “reflux diet”, bc maybe it applies?
Poor Jasper! It’s so sad that they can’t tell us what’s wrong!
I KNOW we were supposed to entirely give up the bottle just after a year, but I don’t at night. I give my son Jake about 8 oz. milk in a bottle with a #2 nipple. It slows his drinking down, and soothes him to sleep, with little or no fuss after going to bed. I don’t know if you’ve ever used a bottle w/ Jasper (and might not be a good time to introduce it if you haven’t!)…just wanted to share what works for us!
Also, we’ve never given him juice, so he doesn’t know what he’s missing!
Yea for Jasper gaining weight! As far as the sippy, I think some of the prior comments about trying a different type of sippy for milk might work. Hope the Prevacid helps, too!!
The challenges just never end for you, do they? I hope Jasper is feeling better… and I hope the Prevacid does some good, as well as the nasal spray. Glad to hear he’s gaining weight… that should take a big load off of your mind. How long are you hoping to continue breastfeeding? If you’re really not ready to drop a feed, then I wouldn’t. Good luck with all of it! ((hugs))
Have you tried diluting milk with water in the sippy cup? That way it tastes watery, but has some nutrients. I do that with prune juice for Mia’s constipation issues.
Just wondering why you’re not exclusively pumping and bottle feeding- is it a comfort issue, or just a bonding one? It seems to me that would solve some of the problems you’ve mentioned above, along with the hitting problem during feedings. I’m not familiar with the whole “let down” thing yet, so I could be totally speaking out of turn.
I had similar issues with eating when I was a toddler- I would only take milk and chocolate ;-) So, it very well could be a fussiness issue, don’t you think?
I also read somewhere that you shouldn’t give a baby a sippy cup but a cup with a straw instead- something about potential dental issues?
We had a major problem with Jack and the sippy, he just refused it. He would make a sour face no matter what was in there. I even tried different sippys and he still wouldn’t take it. (on a sidenote, I stopped nursing him at 10 1/2 months due to a major decrease in my supply.) So, he would take a bottle with formula and now milk. Our pedi assured me that he would drink out of a cup if we quit cold turkey. I thought that was a little harsh, so I just decreased his bottles. And, bought the Nuby cup. He loves it! It is the right one for him. And, it is harder to spill (doesn’t have a valve either.) Now, he just has his bottle right before bed. I am reluctant to take that one away because he still will not drink milk from his cup and he is teething with a cold! AHHH! So, maybe try that cup if you haven’t already… it is BPA free with a silicone top. Hope the Prevacid helps Jasper!
SMiles!
Michelle
What did the pedi say about letting him eat snacks to his heart content?
I would say give the Pevacid a few weeks. He might take better to it now that he’s a bit older. If in a month there’s no change (in the redness at least) then ask for something else.
In terms of eating, how does Jasper like frozen foods? If you were to freeze juice, or milk, would he lick it like a pop-cycle? Just an idea of how to get something else in him.
Maybe also try a different type cup for juice/milk vs. that for water. Perhaps a different mechanism will help him associate water vs. other liquid? For example, if you use a straw sippy for one, try just a spout one for the other? I’m totally talking out of my rear here, but other than $4 from Target for a new sippy, what have you got to loose?
I’m so sorry that you’re having to figure all of this out. At least your pedi seems to be in your corner, which is always nice. What’s the plan of action then — trying out the meds for another month?
I wish I had some good advice…hmmm, what about the sippy? What kind does he use? Maybe offering milk in a different kind would work? Wes seems to really get a kick out of his Nuby straw one, fwiw!