Aurora ("Rosie") was born 3 days after her due date after a normal and uncomplicated pregnancy. She was born healthy and the only problem we had was getting her to drink her formula (Enfamil) and keep it down, which happened after about 24 hours and we were sent home.
When Rosie was around a week old she got a really bad cold (tests came back negative for RSV, although her ped felt that's what it was coming to). After a week or so she started getting better, but her congestion never went away and during the day she was never happy. All my little girl did was cry, all day, every day. After doing some research I suspected reflux, and after doing everything I could at home (smaller, more frequent feeds, keeping her upright, etc) and seeing no improvement, I took her to her doctor who put her on zantac.
Over the course of several months, we were on several different reflux meds and high doses and still nothing helped. Rosie was just miserable, I was exhausted and heartbroken that nothing I did helped her...it was a terrible time. I spent so much time just crying with her.
Her pediatrician told me to put some rice cereal in her bottles to help with the reflux. She had already had some problems with 'regularity' so I decided to try oatmeal instead. Now mind you, Rosie has SILENT reflux, meaning she NEVER spit up. But a few hours after every bottle of oatmeal she would projectile vomit everywhere. I had used Gerber brand, which is notorious for cross contamination of dairy/soy, so we tried an organic brand. Same thing. Switched to organic Barley. Same thing. No more cereal for her.
When she was around 4 months old she was on 60mg a day of prevacid and still no change. I decided to try a product called Caracream Max. It was a buffer solution for PPI's I got from the University of Missouri. It was a Godsend. For the first time in her little life, Rosie got some relief. From her reflux. And this relief allowed me to see that something else was very wrong.
With her reflux, Rosie would scream all day and finally pass out at night and sleep halfway decently. When we got the reflux under control, she started waking up every 45 minutes at night screaming in pain. It was most definitely her stomach bothering her. Over the course of her reflux hell we had tried almost every formula there was, even the hypoallergenic ones (Nutramigen and Alimentum) where the dairy and soy proteins were broken down. This did not help her. I assumed she had MSPI (milk soy protein intolerance).
Also around this time we decided to try solids. Since she obviously didn't tolerate oats and barley, and I wanted to stay away legumes (soy family) we started with carrots. Again, a few hours after her meal, she would projectile vomit.
We ended up seeing a GI who wanted to have her scoped for EE (Eosinophilic Esophogitis). So when she was 5 months old we drove over 2 hours away for the procedure. Luckily the scope came back clear. Unfortunately, the GI didn't much care to proceed from there. He told me if she had MSPI the Alimentum formula she was on should be doing the trick. Well clearly it wasn't. So again, I was left to figure it out for myself.
I decided to put her on an elemental formula. Where as the Nutramigen and Alimentum formulas, the proteins are partially broken down for easier digestion, in an elemental formula, the proteins are completely broken down to their basic amino acids. We had a brand new baby!! For the first time I got to know my daughter and bond with her!!
I feel as if I was robbed of Aurora's infancy. She is my second child and my only little girl and my last baby. I had so looked forward to cherishing and savoring those precious moments of her being a newborn and infant and drinking her in. Instead those sweet bonding times were replaced with screaming and pain and exhaustion. I completely missed out on that. But after 6 months at least I had my little girl I could finally start to get to know, and what a spunky little thing she was.
Unfortunately, our journey was only beginning.
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