Anyone else dealing with GERD/DGE?
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shnoots
Posts: 82 Member
Please tell me someone has some good advice for how to deal with either of these.
We went to my son's pediatrician about a month ago and he completely blew me off. Told me to just keep trying rice cereal and that he'd grow out of it. It's been 2 months of my son is consistently eating less and less food.
For the last 3 weeks he's refused to drink entirely. I have to wait until he's a sleep and work the bottle in while he's nursing (purely for comfort - there's almost no food coming out of these boobs). I'm at my wits end here. He's consuming 13 oz on a normal day and 24 on a terrific one. I should mention he's 4.5 months old and weighs around 17 pounds so he should be getting so much more.
I've introduced food recently just to try and get him to eat something. He likes solids, but isn't eating enough to really make up for the lack of formula he's getting. He's constipated probably 70% of the time and there's been blood and mucus showing up in his stool. I've tried changing formulas with absolutely zero success.
He has an appointment in 3 days with the same doctor and if he refuses to take me seriously I plan to cry if I have to. In the meantime, any advice?
We went to my son's pediatrician about a month ago and he completely blew me off. Told me to just keep trying rice cereal and that he'd grow out of it. It's been 2 months of my son is consistently eating less and less food.
For the last 3 weeks he's refused to drink entirely. I have to wait until he's a sleep and work the bottle in while he's nursing (purely for comfort - there's almost no food coming out of these boobs). I'm at my wits end here. He's consuming 13 oz on a normal day and 24 on a terrific one. I should mention he's 4.5 months old and weighs around 17 pounds so he should be getting so much more.
I've introduced food recently just to try and get him to eat something. He likes solids, but isn't eating enough to really make up for the lack of formula he's getting. He's constipated probably 70% of the time and there's been blood and mucus showing up in his stool. I've tried changing formulas with absolutely zero success.
He has an appointment in 3 days with the same doctor and if he refuses to take me seriously I plan to cry if I have to. In the meantime, any advice?
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My dad is a pediatrician, and with my kids he's on my back to never let our local pediatrician blow me off. If I told him all this, I can almost guarantee that he'd tell me not to wait until Monday if possible. If your pediatrician has weekend hours, insist on being seen. Ours does not, but the health system has this thing called "Peds Plus," which is a clinic at the hospital where the pediatricians in the system rotate. It's basically so parents have a choice other than the ER but doctors don't have to keep their offices open on the weekends. Do you have something like that by you?
I'd call the on-call doctor and push him/her. Mucus in stool isn't necessarily bad, but blood should be taken pretty seriously (not that he's in serious danger). He should be eating more formula than 13ish ounces each day at this age. He may need some medication to make his stomach feel better so that he can eat.
Long story short, don't let your pediatrician blow you off. Your instincts that something else needs to be done are most likely right!
ETA that if you still don't get your pediatrician to take you seriously, you should either switch doctors in the practice or switch practices entirely. Do NOT let them ignore you! You're not being a crazy, protective mother or a hypochondriac, I promise!0 -
He's on medicaid which means he's limited on available doctors. I tried to switch him to a pediatrician that was highly recommended to us, but her case load was full. No one around here has weekend hours that I know of, and even if they did there's the caseload issue again. What's insane is that the doctor he's with right now is LOVED by everyone you mention him to. I can't see why. I really can't. To make it worse, when he blew us off, he was being job shadowed by a young wanna-be pedi. I can't see not being at the top of your game if you're being followed around by people who are supposed to be learning from you...0
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Honestly I would have called by now, not waited for his monthly appointment. Not eating enough, constipated, blood in stool... I'm sure you mean well but these kinds of issues can turn serious so next time don't be afraid to be proactive and call the doctor, and if you don't like him, a different doctor.0
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How is he doing?0
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How is he doing?
I was wondering the same
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I swear his pediatrician must be bi-polar. He was all ears this time. He even seemed sympathetic! He gave us a can of nutrimagen lgg, a zantac prescription, and made us an appointment with a gastroenterologist. It's a complete turnaround from his previous behavior. I have to wonder if it had anything to do with me dragging my husband to the appointment with me, which makes me a bit sad. We go see the specialist in 2 weeks and hopefully there's nothing seriously wrong. I'm hoping to zantac and new formula fix our issues.
On a side note: Why is formula so disgusting? The nutrimagen is 47% corn syrup solids. -_- How is that baby food?
The longer I do this whole parenting thing, the more I'm discovering some inconvenient truths. The two biggest: Your placenta would probably kill you if it was best for the baby, and formula is designed solely to just keep babies alive until they're old enough to eat proper food. Difficult stuff, I tell you.0 -
On a side note: Why is formula so disgusting? The nutrimagen is 47% corn syrup solids. -_- How is that baby food?
The longer I do this whole parenting thing, the more I'm discovering some inconvenient truths. The two biggest: Your placenta would probably kill you if it was best for the baby, and formula is designed solely to just keep babies alive until they're old enough to eat proper food. Difficult stuff, I tell you.
That particular brand is for babies who are allergic to milk protein. The corn syrup solids are just for calories and take the place of milk solids in regular formula. It still has all the added minerals and vitamins that regular formula has. It doesn't seem that outlandish to me, for a formula. Corn just happens to be a very cheap source of calories.
I'm glad the doctor is listening to you now!0 -
On a side note: Why is formula so disgusting? The nutrimagen is 47% corn syrup solids. -_- How is that baby food?
The longer I do this whole parenting thing, the more I'm discovering some inconvenient truths. The two biggest: Your placenta would probably kill you if it was best for the baby, and formula is designed solely to just keep babies alive until they're old enough to eat proper food. Difficult stuff, I tell you.
That particular brand is for babies who are allergic to milk protein. The corn syrup solids are just for calories and take the place of milk solids in regular formula. It still has all the added minerals and vitamins that regular formula has. It doesn't seem that outlandish to me, for a formula. Corn just happens to be a very cheap source of calories.
I'm glad the doctor is listening to you now!
It's not just the nutramigen though. Even dairy based ones are ridiculous. The first two ingredients are always either "whey and corn" or "whey and oil." It just doesn't sound like food to me. At least not food I want to feed my kid.
I have an issue with trying to feed Oliver food that I wouldn't eat if you paid me. It just seems unethical. Yea, he has no idea how horrible it is because his palate is immature, but still...I think the "I'd never eat that" factor is what really bothers me. I won't feed him any more pureed peas or peaches for the same reason XD0 -
Ugh, and now that it's not 1 a.m. I can remember the biggest issue I had with it
It's like giving bags of white rice to hungry people. Yes it's better than nothing, but it's a cheap commodity that has little (read that as: no) intrinsic value. It's a bag of calories with some added nutrients designed to keep them alive. Which is something that just bothers me.0 -
Is it possible to get donor milk? I know a few women (2 "in real life" and 1 on this site) who are donating their breast milk to babies who need it.0
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I'm glad you're on track to making him feel better! I'm also glad your pediatrician opened his ears. Maybe it was reinforcement, maybe it was persistence, but I'm hoping he never fails to take you seriously again.
I agree that formula is kind of crappy, but it's the best we can do in lieu of breastmilk. If you feel that strongly about it, I second Jenny's suggestion of donor breastmilk. I know some ladies near me who donate locally, so if you contact LLL, they might be able to help you find someone.
In the alternative, are there any organic formulas that are better than the typical stuff, like Earth's Best?0 -
I see your point. I guess I was just pointing out it's hard to imagine what else they'd use. I mean formula is formula so it's gonna be some kind of filler anyways.
How old is he exactly? Does h have an actual allergy or intolerance to dairy and is that why they're recommending this formula? I know this sounds crazy but my mom recently told me that since I wasn't tolerating either of the two formulas back in the day (yay communism!), I was being fed cow's milk from 2 months. And I was fine, no allergies as a result or anything. I know that's not popular these days but just thought I'd share. Oh and I grew tall and am healthy so it didn't mess me up or anything.0 -
Is it possible to get donor milk? I know a few women (2 "in real life" and 1 on this site) who are donating their breast milk to babies who need it.
I keep a look out with Eats on Feets and Only the Breast, but the women are always either at opposite ends of my state while I'm smack dab in the middle, or they're out of state completely.In the alternative, are there any organic formulas that are better than the typical stuff, like Earth's Best?
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There definitely are, but we're currently on WIC which won't pay for anything other than Gerber unless you have a prescription. if I could afford formula in the first place I'd just buy breast milk. >.<Does h have an actual allergy or intolerance to dairy and is that why they're recommending this formula? I know this sounds crazy but my mom recently told me that since I wasn't tolerating either of the two formulas back in the day (yay communism!), I was being fed cow's milk from 2 months. And I was fine, no allergies as a result or anything. I know that's not popular these days but just thought I'd share. Oh and I grew tall and am healthy so it didn't mess me up or anything.
When he was younger it caused some seriously disturbing lethargy and vomiting, and recently I've been making him some baby ice cream as a reward for tolerating the heat and it's made him fairly gassy. I've looked into making homemade formula with goat's milk since it's easier to digest, but it's pretty pricey. That's really the only thing I miss about working (other than stimulating adult conversation) - money.
Thank you guys for commenting. i know for the first couple days after I posted this topic I was freaking out because it kind of got ignored.0
