The Baylor Family Blog

On Tuesday, I brought this cutie to see her GI Specialist. We survived our nearly three month weight and finally go to meet the doctor, instead of seeing the P.A. The doctor was happy with Abi’s weight (12.5 pounds), so we are going back to the normal concentration of formula (instead of the higher calorie version). She also told us that 2-5% of babies on Prevacid (medicine for acid reflux) have abdominal pain and diarrhea. Since Abi has exhibited these symptoms for months, she recommended decreasing the medication or starting a new one. Our choice. After talking to Matt, we decided to completely stop Abi’s reflux medication to see how she responds. Abi had been super fussy prior to our visit (we theorized she was either teething…the easy answer to all fusses…or was getting over her GI bug). Ironically, within 24 hours, her fussiness was nearly gone. I’m not ready to say for sure, as things change all the time, but it seems Abi may have been having the “rare” side effects from her Prevacid, causing her some discomfort. Interesting. If her reflux exacerbates, we will re-start her meds, but for now, she seems to be doing fine without them.

The other issue we talked about was the introduction of foods. I’ve started wondering if its possible that our kids have both had very immature GI tracts, explaining why they just can’t seem to tolerate hardly any food during their first year. The doctor said that is likely, but their response is more or less demonstrated as an allergic reaction to the foods. Because of Abi’s sensitivity to rice cereal, which is unusual, she is referring Abi to an allergist for allergy testing. Though allergy testing will show us if Abi has any very strong immediate reactions to food, it won’t show us the foods that Abi will have a delayed non-anaphylactic reaction to. So far, all of Abi’s reactions have been delayed, so the allergy testing won’t solve all of our problems! It will however, take some of the pressure off of watching for serious reactions to foods. Her allergy testing is scheduled for Wednesday morning at a clinic in town.

Matt and I found an organic baby oatmeal with a probiotic that has no dairy or soy in it that we are going to introduce to her soon. Since her GI tract has struggled, we are hoping the probiotic may increase the possibility that her body may tolerate it. From that point on, we will introduce one new food every two weeks. We will go extra slow, watching for delayed reactions.  Our hope is that we will be able to find at least 3-5 foods that we can give her consistently during the next several months to help her survive this developmental milestone without any delays.

Our hope and prayer is that 5-6 months from now, Abi, like her older brother, will outgrow all these GI/allergy issues and be able to eat anything and everything.