"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." -Winston Churchill

Thursday, February 27, 2014

What Fresh Hell? (Or Life with a Reflux Baby)

As we continue to play catch-up of Baby J's early life....

So, Baby J and I had found what worked for us and we were doing great with the SNS! And then the spit-up came, and with it, a very fretful, inconsolable baby. He was not a happy boy. Days were spent holding, nursing, cleaning up spit up, crying with him. His poops were greenish and mucous-y. What was making my baby so unhappy?

I decided (grudgingly, but also desperately) to start on an elimination diet. But how would I know what he was reacting to in donor milk? Again, low milk supply was a slap in the face. I started seeking donor milk without the common allergens, but it wasn't always easy to come by. I stopped eating dairy, eggs, gluten, and coffee. Eventually, his poops became normal breastmilk poops, even with donor milk that contained what I was avoiding.

It took me a while to realize that I myself probably have a leaky gut and that was the reason he was reacting to the foods I ate but not the donor milk.

But still, Baby J was a difficult nut to crack. He still cried much more than my other babies had. I was exhausted. He'd been wearing an amber necklace since he was a month old, and I decided to try a hazelwood necklace, too. Within an hour, he was a markedly happier baby. I'm a hazelwood believer.
I also started him dairy-free probiotics, and that's helped him immensely, too. Slowly, the happy and charming Baby J is starting to emerge.

These short paragraphs simply can't do justice to the hell that was our life for the first several months, but the little guy is teething and I just don't have the strength to relive it all. Maybe someday. But I'd rather just forget it.

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