Monday, September 17, 2007

A messy problem

One sign you are mom:
I have spent most of my day (and weekend) pondering baby vomit. I'm sure there are better things to be doing with my brain, but this is the most glaring issue in our house these days. Some babies drool, some babies spit-up - Owen is neither of these babies. He has a reflux problem that produces high quality vomiting - often multiple times a day. For a while, this was just a messy reality of life in our household: we have burp clothes in every room and permanently attached to the baby, Owen's shirts are in a permanently "soggy" state, and our laundry basket is always full.

However, the messy problem has now become a painful problem for Owen. All this vomiting is taking a toll on his throat. Now, every vomit is followed by discomfort and crying - which (of course) gets his tummy churning and causes more vomit. Nice cycle.

We are pondering putting him on some medication to reduce the acidity in his tummy. It won't stop the vomiting, but might make it less painful. It's a tough decision - I'm not a big fan of medicating a baby and baby zantac is kind of "trendy drug" to try for colicky kids. On the other hand, he's clearly uncomfortable and it hurts me to see him crying in pain. I think we'll give the meds a try for a few days and see if it helps.

In the meantime, we're trying to reduce the reflux problem by adjusting my diet. Dairy is the most likely culprit, so I'm on a lactose free diet. For Owen's sake, I hope this works. For my sake, I hope it doesn't - I haven't had any CHEESE for a WHOLE WEEK!

6 comments:

Shannon said...

Good luck! I don't think I could go w/o cheese for a whole week.

Anonymous said...

Hey Alissa and Scott,
So glad your Mom sent this to me so I could check up on all of you. This can be a tough time but...........babies grow so fast and then they leave home (think I'm missing C & T?). Enjoy and hurry home to share that beautiful boy.
Hugs to you all,
Susan

Kim said...

Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. I hate it when babies are hurting. I hope you will be able to figure out something that works. I'll think of you when I eat cheese. :)

Cyn T said...

Alissa & Scott:
Thanks to your Mom for sharing. I love hearing about what we can expect hopefully in the not too distant future. It is such a cliche that time passes quickly but seems like just yesterday that you were all that age. Each stage passes so fast. Enjoy every one of them.
Cindy T

Sara said...

I know of several parents and babies who are much happier having had their reflux treated with meds. That said, I completely understand the hesitation for drugs. THAT said, I don't know if I could live without cheese...good luck!! Auntie S.

Colleen said...

Poor baby!! Sorry about the lack of cheese...and milk, that would kill me! We did reflux in three of our boys to varying degrees. Luke is actually the first not to have it! We used Zantac for two and it helped a ton, (although Josh was much better once he started solids so we got to take it away fast) but it didn't work for Ben so we had to try something else that was pink, I can't remember the name, but it was much tastier than Zantac (which tastes horrible to me) and worked much better. Good luck!