Specialist

The last few weeks Evie hasn't been having too much trouble with reflux. She still spits up a lot and coughs, but it doesn't seem to be causing her pain. I went to her specialist appointment anyway, though, in the hopes of finding something to help. It was the most unhelpful appointment possible.

I explained that it has been a few weeks since she screamed while eating, but that she does spit up hours after meals, and that she coughs and gets red eyes and such. Their conclusion was pretty much that she has reflux. Really? *sigh*.

A few weeks ago she had a strange colored spit-up, and my mom saved the thing she spit up on. I saw something in her formula that looked the same color, so I figured it was just a fleck of food coloring. Well the doctor said it looked like blood and we needed to check her stools and that I "Shouldn't feed her that because formula is clear!". I don't know what formula she was referring to, but it is most certainly not clear. She also wanted us to get blood work done to make sure she's not anemic. Is she serious? So we went home and my mom poured peroxide on the spit-up stain. There was no catalase, so it was not blood. I'm going to do the stool sample, but I'm not putting my 4 month old through blood work. And they said not to start her on cereal, despite everything I've EVER read saying reflux babies should start cereal at 4 months because it helps keep their food down.

I really feel like we got nothing accomplished and I wasted 3 entire hours in the doctor's office. I already knew she had reflux. The only things they offered were to put her back on Prevacid but split the dose up and give it to her dissolved in water. Well what they don't tell you is it's impossible to dissolve the damn thing in water, or get it all up in a syringe. So I'm going to crush it on my finger and give it to her that way. And they said if the spit-up doesn't get better she needs an x-ray.

I have to discuss with Andy, but I've pretty much decided that I'm not going back there. I'm going to continue to work with the pediatrician, and tell them I want to try rice cereal and see if it helps the spitting. Hopefully they will agree. What a waste of time. At least now I know, and maybe the Prevacid will do the trick.