It is bizarre, I left Maya with my parents and she was as good as gold with her feediing. When she has a good day, I think great Maya is doing well and I am over the top worrying about her. Then she has another day like today where she cries madly for the bottle and drinks 1.5oz before refusing it, although I try then to spoon the rest down with baby rice. Does everyone else have this or do you think this is a sign of undermedication if you have good and bad days constantly?

I think we have all gone mad trying to figure out why our little refluxer seems good one day and horrible another....the "reflux roller coaster".

We all have good and bad days, it goes with the territory for sure. As Jean says, "the reflux rollercoaster". What you have to look at is overall intake. For instance, Iain ate a few crackers for breakfast and threw food as his lunch. I will see how dinner goes, but typically he does have one good meal a day. This is light years ahead of where we were in early October so I am still very happy with his eating and not a basket case as I was when he would literally skip a week of feeding at a time.... (he was a prior complete non eater until he was 14 months of age.)

Look at what may be causing the bad day. Often it is a cold, virus, whatever that is causing the issue and reflux is just more intense during illnesses. Iain has a really snotty nose today so I will put it down to that for now. He is on antibiotics for strep currently so I also have that going against us. Regardless, I am still counting it as a good day when he will play with food and get something down when he is sick. When I have no signs of illness I really watch for reflux signs which is hard with Iain as he is a silent refluxer, so I look for his comfort levels and backarching as he is champion for arching when he is refluxing badly.

Bear in mind we as parents see the worst with our kids. If she had a great day with your parents enjoy the break of worrying for that one day! If she is reverting back with you then ask what is different? Sometimes it is behavioural or becomes that way. We are in a feeding skills program now with a psychologist as Iain now has the skills to eat and we have to simply convince him to do it.

Keep a log of her intake and you may be surprised that she is intaking better than you think. Forgive me, I can not recall if she has weight issues or not.:oops: If she does, then I can certainly empathize with your worries! Do you keep a log?

I agree. I doubt it's a medication thing. There are just good days and bad days -- more bad days, of course. Daniel would sometimes do better with a change of scenery or a new technique or new faces, and I'd think, "Great! That's just what he needed." Then he'd go back to his old ways. :-?

sarah just finished a span of good days- about 3 days. I got so excited. I was thinking wow maybe we turned the corner. then yesterday she completely changed and I had to sleep feed every single feed. Today is bad as well. I am trying to think of any changes but I can't think of anything and she is not acting sick. So we definitely see the good and the bad.
karie

Thanks for your comments. I suppose where I am coming from is that a person I know said that when they visited their GI, he helped them to get to the position where their baby was "normal" and it made be wonder if it was possible to get Maya totally normal. Maya is doing much better than she was, but when she has a bad day all the doubts set in and I wonder can we up her meds/introduce zantac/another motility drug. My current GI says this would not make any difference and that he will not increase her meds so I would need to get another GI to do this, hence the potential second opinion. But I do not want to subject Maya to a second opinion/another medication change unless it is absolutely necessary so if she goes another couple of days and feeds adequately as she is currently doing then I think I will leave the second opinion for now and trust my GI. It is good to know that everyone has good and bad days. What upsets me is that no-one explains to me what to expect. For example my GI is sympathetic when I say that 6-7 feeds a day is a lot and to work towards a longer space between feeding. What they don't explain/actually understand is that it is easier said than done with a DGE/refluxy baby!!!

When Noah was younger, a new setting helped many times. Now, its a disaster. But, anyways, I used to quickly pack up the diaper bag and Noah on the worst days and head to the mall for the day (1.5 hour drive) just to cheer him up, get him rested, and have him eat. I got to shop as a bonus! Unfortunately, he still loves to go places, but only sips here and there when we are out and about.

Sarah, have you thought about a referral to an OT or dietician? The OT and I had a love/hate relationship, but she worked wonders with Iain. I found that she did not keep me informed enough of what to expect and sugar coated things a bit much (things like he will be eating like a toddler in 6 months, then 10 months, now another year... **shaking head**) Bottom line, I did find her to be a great source of information on actually getting Iain to eat in those early days of diagnosis. A good OT will be well versed with GERD and DGE and will have great tips for you.

Iain has GERD, DGE (although never formally addressed with meds), and GERD related asthma. We did small but frequent meals for him as well since they do not empty out in time for another meal. This is why I think Iain when he eats has only one good meal a day or every second day.

Do you keep a log of her intake and behaviour? That could be instrumental in having this GI understand what you are dealing with on a daily basis. When is your next appointment? Keep a log now until then and be sure to fax it over to the office prior to your visit so that the GI can view it and be ready for discussion at your visit. If you need a hand for a sample log there is one on the boards. If you can not find it let me know and I will get the link for you (if I slip out of this reply I will lose my post!).

As far as "normal" goes every child is different. Just because your friend had success does not mean that she is dealing with the exact same issues or responses as you have with your DD. The question is whether or not you trust your GI and feel that they are listening to you and dealing with the issues. My ped is fantastic now and I would not change a thing even though I have tossed around getting a second opinion several times in the past. She is dealing with things in a way that I feel is good and we are progressing. If we were not progressing I would feel differently.

Not to be a downer, but feeding issues take time to resolve. This is the bane of my existence right now and has been since Iain was 11 days old. We are not at the end of the tunnel yet and we realize we may never be, but we HAVE progressed and are in a much happier place now. In time, so will you. Look to progress and if you keep a log you will see changes and progression when you look back. Conversely, if there is a pattern that shows you are heading in the wrong direction, you will catch it faster when you log it. Often we as parents are so exhausted we do not see things right away other than the here and now.

Also, like Maggie and Becky we found a bit of success with Iain when we changed venues. We never had any success at all regardless of what we did prior to his meds and diagnosis but now we do thanks to prevacid.