Reflux: Not Just a Laundry Problem

It has been such a tough few weeks at our house. Our baby girl has been diagnosed with reflux and colic, and we are just beat, physically and emotionally.  It took a while for me to figure out what was wrong with Cora, but once I started reading about reflux, there was no doubt in my mind that she had it.  We took her to the doctor and, instead of waiting for a diagnosis, I basically said, "Our daughter has reflux.  How can we fix it?"

I have always thought of reflux being just a spit-up problem.  It sounded mostly like an inconvenience.  I had no idea how much pain and discomfort was involved for both babies and parents.  Here are the symptoms we have been dealing with for about a month now:

Gagging: Cora often gags when we give her a pacifier or when my milk lets down forcefully.  She also sometimes gags or coughs / chokes while lying flat on her back.

"Bobble head eating":  This is the best way I can think to describe some of her feedings.  When her stomach is upset or she is really uncomfortable with severe gas and indigestion, she arches her back, bobs on and off my breast, and does everything except actively suck.  I remember Brennan doing this a few times, especially when he was distracted by life around four months, but it wasn't as painful as this.

Eating frequently:  Since birth Cora has wanted to eat every two hours.  Three hours is unusual, and every few days we go for four hours, but that is very rare.  This, of course, means I am awake constantly.  If Cora eats at 1 AM, she finishes eating and gets a diaper change, sometimes cries from discomfort, and finally gets back to sleep at 2:00 (or later), only to want to eat again at 3:00.

Small feedings:  Cora rarely "finishes" a feeding.  She will eat on just one side and then reject eating any more when I know there is still milk to offer her on that side.  This is likely because it hurts to suck or because eating less food causes less pain.  (This explains why she is usually hungry again 1.5 - 2 hours later.)

Crying suddenly and constantly:  This one is one of the hardest symptoms for us to deal with, and this one is attributed as much to her colic as to the reflux.  Most of the time, if Cora is awake, she is unhappy.  We rarely see her content for more than ten minutes at a time, unless she is sleeping.  When she cries it is often an ear-piercing scream, and she is inconsolable.  It is incredibly difficult to see our child be so miserable.

Hiccups:  Cora has been a chronic hiccuper since day one.  It isn't uncommon for her to have hiccups half a dozen times in a day.

Horrible sleep habits: It is hard for her to sleep on her back because it makes the reflux worse.  Her favorite sleep position is on her stomach, propped up on our chest at a slight angle.  She will also sleep in her swing if it is in motion, and she sometimes likes the car seat, especially if we are on the go. 

Holding her breath:  Sometimes when Cora gags she takes a few seconds to catch her breath and breathe normally again.  This scares the daylights out of me every time, even though it is short-lived.

Congestion:  For a while we noticed that Cora always seemed to have a phlegmy, congested throat at night which would improve during the day. This is because she was trying to sleep on her back at night and the reflux was causing stuff to come up into her throat.

There are only a few signs of reflux that Cora doesn't have, but they are the most common and the very reason I didn't figure out her problem sooner.  Babies with reflux often spit up constantly, and because of this they have slow weight loss.  Cora weighed in last week at 10 pounds, 13 ounces!  She is growing just beautifully!  She does spit up occasionally (and a few times it has been abnormal, projectile-style), but for the most part she isn't a horrible spitter-upper. 

Cora is now on Prevacid once a day, and although we have seen improvement, many of her symptoms persist.  We may have to look at altering the dosage, and after that we may have to test her for allergies / intolerances to my diet and milk.  It is exhausting and taxing in every way.  She is constantly uncomfortable, and we are constantly sleep-deprived and frustrated.  Brennan gets pushed aside a lot as we deal with a screaming baby, and we are more than annoyed with the sleep situation.  At this point with Brennan he was about ready to move to his crib and start sleeping through the night.  Cora may be in our room for several more months so that I can feed her often enough, monitor the gagging, and soothe her through bouts of severe stomach pain.  Although it won't last forever, several months sounds like an eternity.

One small, bright light in the midst of all of this is that Jim and I have been rewarded with Cora's first smiles.  They are infrequent and often illusive, but they are beautiful and worth all the work.  Someday we will have a happy daughter who will laugh and smile on a whim, making all of this a distant memory.  I look forward to that day.