Ben was born by c-section Dec 24th. Our little Christmas present! He was 7lb 12oz at birth. From the start he had difficulty latching on. He would suck a little then scream and push away at my breast. Needless to say, all the nurses on the floor thought that they knew some little trick to help him to nurse, mainly the opinion was that I was doing something wrong, not a good experience. The lactation consultant was gone due to the holiday. Unfortunately, Ben became slightly jaundiced and dropped to 7lb 1 oz by the time we left, and we began supplementing him with formula. We went home on a Saturday, and the home health nurse came by Sunday and brought us a pump. Ben's difficulty nursing continued, so I pumped for six weeks and fed him through a bottle. He cried a lot at night for hours, and of course the doctor said it was colic, and that he was gassy. I personally don't believe that babies just cry for no reason. So at six weeks when Ben began refusing to eat even from the bottle, I began looking online for answers. I began to learn about GERD, and he practically had all the symptoms of Silent Reflux. He never spit up, but he had the back arching, the screaming, smelled like acid, etc... We've all been there. So I went into the ped. basically telling him that Ben had GERD. First we had to go through all the different formulas, and Ben was abruptly taken off breast milk. I kept pumping for eight weeks, and stored the milk. The change in formula didn't make much difference, and so the doc put him on Zantac. It seemed to help initially, but Ben has always been difficult to feed. At around four months, his ped changed him to Prevacid, hoping that it would work better. Again, it seemed to help initially, but now we are struggling again to feed. Unfortunately, Ben has had other things like thrush and Hand Foot and Mouth virus, which makes them feel like not eating anyway, so its hard to know when its the reflux and when its something else. I start every feeding with him in my arms, and he can usually get a couple of ounces down in my lap. Seems like after the first time he burps things get more difficult. He then goes to his bouncy seat with the vibrations on, which usually helps for another ounce or two on a good day. If I'm really desperate, I will use a syringe and squirt it into his mouth. Sometimes this works very well, sometimes he just doesn't want to eat. I'm lucky to get 27 ounces down him. He's six months old and weighs 16 lbs 6 ounces at his last visit, which puts him on the scale at the 25th percentile. His pediatrition keeps saying to hang in there, that he will grow out of it. He did recommend that we see an occupational therapist. At this point, we are scheduled to see an occupational therapist at the children's hospital to see about a swallowing study. I would really like for Ben to see a GI specialist, but his pediatritian is not inclined to get us in immediately because Ben has been gaining weight. So we made the appointment ourselves, but the first available appointment is in August. I would like to have some formal testing to see what exactly is going on, just so that we are better informed. Ben has a second cousin that had GERD and ended up with a fundoplasty, I hope that we don't end up there.
We love Benjamin so much! It breaks my heart that he has such a tough time eating. It is frustrating, and lately I've been having a real hard time with it. I know it could be worse. He is such a happy baby otherwise! I'm so glad that there is at least support on line. It helps a lot. I sympathize with everyone here!

Hi Michelle!

Feeding is definitely the hardest thing with these little guys! Your breast-feeding saga sounds so much like mine was. Our first son, Brandon, was claustrophobic. He hated being held in close, so breast feeding was a no go. Two weeks of the "pump and feed kill the parents plan" was as long as we lasted. When Evan was born, he wouldn't latch. The "expert" nurses and midwives tried everything possible, but thought that I was doing something wrong, so they brought in the dreaded pump. That only lasted two days this time. My husband helped me to decide that enough was enough when he offered to go get the cabbage.

I, too, am glad that there is reflux support available on-line.

Hi Michelle and welcome!

I can also relate to the b/f problems, I spent three months nursing, then bottle feeding, then expressing...all three at each feeding every day. Then when she was three months old, they stuck in an NG tube and tube feeding was also added to our daily feeding regimen...sigh...talk about torture.

Anyway, I don't know that any more formal testing is going to give you any more answers than you already have. It's fairly clear that he has reflux and even more likely if his cousin had the fundo...it is genetic. That doesn't mean his will be that severe though. Perhaps, instead of, or in addition to, the OT a feeding therapist would be able to help some?

We had an occupational therapist come in to help with the feeding aversion. She taught us a couple of neat tricks that helped Evan get past his oral aversion, things like using a spin brush on his hand while feeding him. Many other ideas (a children's music video being the favourite one around here!) have been mentioned somewhere on the boards. It often helps if we sing to Evan while he's eating. When the gagging gets really bad, we gently brush his temples and cheeks in a downward motion with our fingers. (That's one that we just figured out on our own.)