We think Amelia has reflux. We are not sure how serious it is, but we know she spits up quite often and seems to have regurgitation happening after feedings. It seems from the literature we’ve read so far that lots of babies have reflux because their gastro systems are not fully developed when they are born. Fewer babies have the more serious kind that requires treatment with drugs or surgery. Up until yesterday, we were pretty confident she was experiencing the less serious kind (a little fussy sometimes while feeding, reflux when she burped or sometimes once in a while independent of feedings, and a few times where she spit up most or all of her meal). But, she didn’t really cry about it and everything else seemed great so we weren’t worried.
Yesterday she definitely was crying in pain while having reflux, and at one point she was having it with great frequency. It is tough to try to soothe a baby for whom you can’t do anything to help the pain/discomfort. Recommendations include keeping her more upright, burping more frequently, moving her gently, and other things that we’ve been doing for the past few weeks. Until now it seems to have worked, or at least helped. Anyway, you just feel so badly that you can’t fix her pain. There are drugs that are pretty routinely prescribed nowadays to treat the more serious version, GERD. We’re not psyched about giving a baby drugs, so we are going to monitor the situation and see if it continues to worsen, remains steady or gets better. Most babies eventually outgrow reflux/GERD.
She’s such a good baby that in between regurgitation episodes yesterday when it wasn’t hurting her she was smiling, trying to show us that she was ok despite it all. We see the doctor next Thursday so we’ll have a better idea of options then. And luckily so far it hasn’t been a factor at night, except the occasional spit up while she is sleeping. Last night she slept 9-11:30 pm and then again until 3:30 am and then again until 6:30 am.
In other news, I went for a second run yesterday late afternoon. 40 minutes, no walking, somewhat hilly terrain (but not the mountain, yet). It felt good. Now Sonia & I are thinking we might just train for a marathon. Crazy? Yes. But, why not?