Alex Update- Almost Nine Months!

My little boy will be nine months on Sunday! He's gotten so big (23 1/2 pounds!) and is still quite the handful. Since my post in May, there's been a lot going on in his little life. Alex went to his first wedding! It was an outdoor wedding in Ranger and it was HOT but he did so well and he really loved the mariachi band!

Here he is at the wedding, very unhappy about the heat.
We only got to stay for about an hour of the reception,
but we had a lovely time.

Alex's GERD is still there. He's had some flare ups, but we've been able to keep on top of most of it. About two weeks ago, I took him in to see the doctor as he had had a terrible reflux weekend and was already maxed out on his meds. Turns out he had a virus that had caused him to start wheezing again. Doc put him on prednisone and sent us on our way. Well, fast forward to the following Thursday night and Alex starts clicking in his sleep. Totally weird, right? We call the doc and he confirms, it's totally weird. The doc could hear the click over the phone but had no idea what it could have been. So we go back to the doc the next day. Guess what? Pneumonia!

What in the what? Yeah, he got pneumonia in the middle of summer without ever acting sick. Sigh. When they do his bloodwork at his one year check, the doc plans to also look for possible causes of him always being sick with such big things. Oh how I'd love for Alex to just have the sniffles.

Like I said, Alex is still as happy as can be. He apparently didn't get the email saying you should act sick when something's wrong. Since my last post though, we've had two exciting, happy developments!

Alex is going to be a big brother!
Number Two is due 2/3/2014

And he's crawling now!

Update on Alex

I got a video of one of Alex's pain episodes, a very mild one, but it was enough that at Alex's six month well visit the doc confirmed that what we were seeing was reflux pain. Here's the video:

What you're seeing is a very mild Sandifer's episode. The pain in his esophagus makes him want to stretch his throat out. Alex will generally sleep through these episodes and wakes up a happy boy in the morning. I will say that him sleeping through these episodes is the only saving grace. It makes it a lot easier to deal with his pain as it seems he doesn't remember it in the morning.

Lately his episodes have gotten worse. He's arching a lot more in them and is crying out. I spoke with the nurse today as we were worried he was having night terrors. That was her first guess as well. The doc however believes it to be his GERD. We're upping his meds tonight to see if that can stop his pain episodes.

Another issue we discussed was that the side of Alex's head was kinda flat. It wasn't too obvious and we had tried everything we could think of short of flipping his head with a spatula in his sleep. (Family joke, kinda.) The doc tested his range of motion and found that he was a little resistant. This is called Torticollis and is rather common among babies in general, but very common among babies with GERD. This article gives a great explanation of torticollis and the relationship to GERD.

Alex started physical therapy the week after his well visit. The therapist said his case was very mild but there was enough of a difference in his head diagonals (measurements of the skull diagonally across the head to form an X) that he would benefit from some stretching and PT. Alex hates the stretches, but in just a week she noticed a great difference in how his neck moved.

Even with all of this going on, Alex is a bright and happy little boy who recently fell in love with blueberries and zucchini. He may have a few extra appointments and we might be on a first name basis with our pharmacist (I also taught his kids in Sunday School), but he is none the wiser. He's snuggled in his swing napping right now. He had a little episode a few minutes ago, but it didn't even phase him.

Alex after enjoying his blueberries!

If your little one has infant reflux/GERD, I feel ya. It's more than just a laundry problem for a lot of families. Feel free to share your experience below!

A Mother's Day Wish

Some of you may recall when I wrote about Alex's feeding issues I mentioned that he struggled to keep his food down. Others of you have watched my Facebook posts about Alex's reflux. They diagnosed Alex with infant acid reflux at his two month well baby visit and upgraded it to GERD in March.

If you're not familiar, here's some info on infant reflux and GERD. (Alex has ten of the GERD symptoms listed.)

We started doing all the "behavioral" treatments, thickened feeds, keeping upright after meals, no time flat on his back, loose clothes, etc, around his first birthday. We tried the special "reflux" version of Enfamil at his 2 month check, it didn't do any good. (Just a side note: the Enfamil AR is slightly pink in color. If it doesn't stop your baby's reflux, you will have slightly pink stains on everything. You've been warned.) Then, Alex got started on Zantac. Yep, they make baby Zantac, it's even mint flavored.

The Zantac worked for a little while. About two weeks before Alex's four month visit his reflux symptoms started slowly coming back. By his well check, they were getting pretty strong again. The doctor increased his dose and said that would take care of it. Another week or two go by and I start questioning if I remembered to give Alex his meds. By the way he was acting and how much he was puking, I could have been squirting rain water in his mouth.

I call the doc and they switch him to Prevacid. It really seems to help, but after about two weeks he still seems grumpy to me. The doc assures me that he's fine. (He also says that I have too much empathy, but that's a different post.) I tell myself that the meds might just need a little longer. That was the end of March.

Around mid-April, Alex starts whining in his sleep again. He doesn't wake up, but he whines and arches his back. My first thought is that it's his reflux acting up again. Philip calms me down. We don't know that it's reflux yet. It could be teething or bad dreams. We agree to just keep an eye on him. By the end of the month he's more fussy, his still arching his back in his sleep, he's spitting more (and occasionally puking), he's fussing at his food and some of his spit-up is yellow. Now we know. This is reflux.

It was time to renew Alex's prescription. His six month visit is only a week and half away so we don't really feel we need another appointment just yet. When we call in the script we ask for an increased dose. They doubled the dose and we are to report back at the well baby visit. And that brings you to now.

Alex has only been on the increased dose for two days so there's no way to tell yet if it's going to work. He doesn't seem to be spitting as much, but he's still showing some signs of pain. If I could have anything in the world for Mother's Day, I'd want him to healthy. I'd want him to take a nap and sleep peacefully. I'd want him to play on the floor without his tummy hurting or rolling into a pool of his own spit-up. Maybe, by Sunday he'll be feeling better.

Alex made this at daycare for Mother's Day. :)

Do you have a GERD or reflux baby? How do you cope with their pain?