Thursday, May 8, 2014

Feeding Struggles

Yesterday I briefly mentioned the problems we have had the past 4 weeks with Elizabeth and eating, so I figured today I would write about it a little more!

At Beth's one month appointment our pediatrician prescribed Zantac to help with her reflux, it helped a lot she was still spitting up but didn't seem like she was in as much pain as before. 2 weeks later we went back in because Elizabeth was spitting up forcefully and out of her nose and mouth and choking.. all the scary things! At that appointment we were told to stop breastfeeding and switch to formula.

My heart broke.. I struggled with the fact that I could not breast feed Madison and switching to formula then was really hard for me, as I have spent 9 months determined to breast feed her. The fact that I was able to feed Elizabeth for 6.5 weeks meant the world to me. I was so happy that I was able to give her something no one else could. She was benefitting from something so special.  For a few minutes I was a little down because it was going so well and now to just stop was going to be tough.. emotionally and physically for me.

It took me about 5 min to realize this isn't about it... it is about what is best for Beth!  Although they always say "breast is best" that is NOT always the case.

We originally thought Beth just needed something heavier in her stomach so she couldn't reflux as easily as she had been, but after a week we realized it wasn't working and she was still spitting up violently and really wasn't keeping much of anything down. With that it was back to the doctors.. where we learnt that she really wasn't getting much food into her because she had lost 4oz in the week. A few different things were thrown around mainly "pyloric stenosis" which I mentioned yesterday and Beth DOESN'T have it! Our pediatrician was ready to put Beth on Prevacid or another medication similar to that when she came back into the room with a new formula Nutramigen, it is babies with a milk protein allergy or intolerance.

Within 24 hours we noticed a HUGE change, Beth was happy when she finished eating, she wasn't spitting up and she wasn't in pain, or uncomfortable! So far we have been using this formula for a little over a week and we couldn't be happier.

As sad as I was about having to stop breastfeeding, I know that it would have been extremely difficult to treat her milk protein intolerance had we continued breastfeeding.. I would have had to give up all diary products and those that know me well know that I love cheese :)

So for now.. we are taking it day by day and hopefully we don't have anymore issues!

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