Acid Reflux

On Father's Day, the Gemma we knew disappeared. She had a terrible projectile vomiting incident at church, and things started going downhill with her eating since then. For nearly two weeks, she has alternated between vomiting up nearly all of what she's eaten or just refusing to eat much at all. Whereas she had been taking 3-4 ounces every 3 hours very consistently, she started only taking about 2-2.5, and it was practically torture to get that much in her. We debated taking her to the pediatrician. Each time she would have a bad feeding, we would think about taking her, but then she would have a couple of good feedings and we would decide that she didn't need to go.

Finally, yesterday, I reached the breaking point. I thought that Gemma was doing much better. At her 8:30 am feeding, she gulped down 4 whole ounces and it stayed in her! I was so happy! We went for a walk and she was alert and doing great. At 11 am, she was already acting hungry again, which I took as a good sign. We sat down with another 4 oz. bottle. It started off fine, but it wasn't long before she was screaming off and on as she ate, and then finally she was refusing the bottle altogether. Then she started choking and gagging, and suddenly, she vomited up what appeared to be pretty much everything she had eaten the whole day. I got her, me, and the chair all cleaned up, and she was smiling and giggling and feeling much happier. Then she started acting hungry again, so I tried to feed her, but every time the bottle went in her mouth, she would scrunch up her face, start gagging, and spit it back out. I finally just put the bottle away but she continued to smack her lips and stick her whole fist in her mouth. Of course, this made me feel terrible. I could tell she was hungry, but she either wouldn't eat, or threw up anything she did eat. This is what has been happening off and on every day for the past two weeks.

Staring at my poor little girl as she acted hungry but not being able to do anything about it made me feel like the worst mom ever, so I broke down and called the pediatrician. They got us in right away yesterday afternoon. Our pediatrician, Dr. Traynham, was fantastic. He listened very intently to all of the symptoms and agreed that it sounded like something more serious than simple infant spitting up. He thinks that she is suffering from acid reflux, so he prescribed prevacid. As much as I hate to be giving my baby medication already at 8 weeks old, we are hopeful that the medicine will take away the pain she is clearly experiencing at feedings and that she will be able to start eating enough again, and keeping it down.

The good news is that she weighed 10 lbs. exactly as of yesterday, so her weight was not a concern. However, it seemed likely that her weight would become a concern if she continued in this pattern of poor feeding. Hopefully she will respond well to the prevacid and start feeling like herself again soon.