Our baby boy has gastroesophageal reflux (GER), a condition that seems to be more and more common these days; it’s possible that in the the past it was confused with colic, a truly horrendous condition for babies and parents alike. GER is nothing like colic; it is distressing, but it is also treatable. We struggled for a couple of months with the medications until our doctor finally put us on a combination of Pepcid (no coke, pepsid), to heal any ulcers in the esophagus, and Prevacid, to diminish the production of excess acid in the stomach.
Treatment, though, is no substitute for a cure. The medical regime (dose him 20 minutes before the first and last meals of the day), the extra time involved in feeding (he has to be help upright for at least 20 minutes after the meal, lest the contents of his stomach “bubble up” in an unfunny urp), and the reduced volume of each meal (he can rarely take a full 120 mL –4 ounces for you non-SI people) have combined to make us hyperconscious of each meal he takes and manages to hold onto. Not to mention tired. We’re jealous of all the other babies, who blithely throw back 180 mL or more at a sitting.
Last week, his food intake was especially low. His energy level was pretty low, as well. And the Friday night of Labor Day weekend, we found out why: in addition to the cold symptoms he’d been displaying all week, Eric was also enjoying the irruption of his lower incisors! So the weekend was long, and the past week has been long as well (Marcella caught the cold that Eric first gave me, then kept to enjoy himself for a while longer). But last night, things seem to have changed.
With Marcella down, good old Dad gets to attend to every night-time feeding. And last night, there were a lot of them. Midnight. 2:30 a.m. 4:50 a.m. 6:40 a.m. 8 a.m. 9:20 a.m. 10:30 a.m. This boy’s gastronomic rapacity knows no satiety. And his dad, while tired, is quite pleased about it. At long last, the appetite seems to be where it belongs, and he can grow grow grow!
While it might be too soon to call this change a cure, it certainly is a nice change, and we’ll hope it continues.
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