Trial and Error

Feeding this baby is a series of "lets try this" and then seeing what happens. Our visit to the GI doctor this week has us discontinuing his medications, but trying some other things to get the barfy baby under control. I was quite happy with our interaction with the doctor this time. While I still think she is a bit "diagnostic test" happy at times, she is also really good in her personal interactions with Gabriel. She's always happy to see him and he smiles and giggles at her; and that's important, too.

Anyway, she was happy to hear prune juice was working for us and we put the barium enema on hold for now. We are also discontinuing the Prilosec since we didn't really see a decrease in the frequency of the vomiting. When I brought up blender diets, she was completely on board. They recognize that kids who are on blenderized diets seem to do better, and seem to want to make it the end goal to transition him over to that kind of diet soon. She would like to get him to the point of solids only during the day and supplementing with a formula night drip overnight.

The dietician, however, wants him to stay on mostly formula until he's a year corrected age -- four months down the road -- to make sure he's getting all the vitamins he needs. I explained that with the amount of reflux we're dealing with, I can't keep him on only formula for that much longer because I can't increase the feed volumes from where they are now. We are compromising with a new formula recipe. We are also trialing a completely new formula as well; he's going to try Similac Alimentum starting tonight. During the day, when I make his formula for the whole day, I will substitute 4oz. of water for a 4oz. jar of veggie or fruit baby food. If he tolerates the solids well, we may be able to increase the amounts. I also asked if probiotics would be something he could try, and she recommended a couple different types.

So, the new plan of action is:
-start new formula and add in baby food during the day
-add probiotics if still throwing up a lot
-if probiotics/new formula aren't working, try apple cider vinegar treatment

We have things to try, and that's a good thing since I don't have to feel like we're just standing on the sidelines watching him throw up.

Today started out a little rough in that he threw up over half his breakfast and his noon meal. It makes me nervous about having stopped the Prilosec. Maybe it was helping? But his afternoon and evening meals he held down with no signs of discomfort, so maybe I'm just oversensitive. I also discovered that formula+baby food clogs the pump, so we're back to manually pushing the food in with a syringe. Not a big deal, but it means we can't walk away and do something else while the baby is being fed.

I hope that we find the right combination for him soon! Oh, and he's getting his third tooth. :)