Month 2 with Pax

I've been off the blogging radar for almost a month.  This past month with Pax has been tough.  Somewhere around one month of age Pax developed severe infant reflux.  Because he was refluxing silently with virtually no spit up, it made it tricky to pinpoint.  At first I thought he might be just gassy but when the telltale back arching began every time he nursed, the culprit became more obvious.  We knew that he was a terrible sleeper, but we suddenly began to understand why.

I took him to his pediatrician a week after his one month appointment.  He ordered an upper gi barium swallow test and fluoroscopy, and reflux was confirmed when Pax refluxed even the chalky white barium during the study.  Since then we've been through a couple of rounds of medications, and he is currently on the strongest medications he can receive for his diagnosis at the maximum dose. I give Pax medicine every six hours, and I have to pump exclusively and thicken every bottle he eats.  We've made progress, but it's been slow with a lot of trial and error.

Pax asleep in his nap nanny anchored in the co-sleeper mini beside our bed.  This is the only way we can get him to sleep safely and happily at night.

***Disclaimer: The Nap Nanny company is clear that you should only use this item on the floor.  We have chosen to do this against Nap Nanny's recommendations while our son is small and unable to get out of his Nap Nanny.  I am not recommending the use of a Nap Nanny in a cosleeper for anyone else.  It's simply our personal choice.  We use it this way because I want him to be extra close so I can hear him clearly in the middle of the night if he starts wheezing from reflux.***

Unfortunately, his reflux is still severe, even with medications, and we are having to tweak his treatment plan again for the third time.  At this point, we are going to continue his medications, and we are going to have to incorporate 5-6 meals of rice cereal into his diet every day while we decrease the number of bottles he receives.  Though he has been less fussy with adding rice cereal to his bottles, Pax is still waking up some nights wheezing, coughing, and congested, so the only way to treat the reflux at night now is to make sure he gets less liquid to reflux.  At four months, we will begin full solids (veggies, fruits, etc.) to make his diet mostly food- not milk.  Pax's pediatrician said he will not outgrow his reflux, but it will be much more manageable once his diet is mostly solids.

At this point, I will happily follow whatever plan we need to do to get our son healthy and happy again.  Thankfully, Pax's weight is great, and he is responding like a champ to rice cereal and thickened bottles.  Pray with us that this new plan works and that we will get our sweet boy's reflux under control soon.