:hairpull:Well, I've been thickening Asher's bottles since yesterday and he has not had any scary choking and apnea episodes since. Now the problem is that he will only take an ounce or two then completely refuses to take any more! What am I supposed to do now?????? Apparently thickening is helping the formula to stay down, but slowing his emptying so much more!:banghead:

How much cereal are you using per ounce? Glad to hear that its helping!

:hairpull:Apparently thickening is helping the formula to stay down, but slowing his emptying so much more!:banghead:


Yeah,
I noticed Eric's digestion slowed as well. sigh, but his breathing or I guess I should say lack of breathing was so scary before I thickened. I sat and thought long and hard about it and decided I rather have him have slower digestion than to stop breathing so many times every day.

You just have to figure out what's the lesser of the two evils for you.

Maybe you could try just a few bottles thickened (like if you notice certain times when he aspirates/chokes more) and the rest regular. Eric was way unpredictable so I thickened every bottle.

For a while I tried 2oz regular and then offering the thickened afterward, but it didn't work. He still didn't eat as much as he should. And he still choked and quit breathing.

Thickening for us was a damned if you do and damned if you don't situation, but eventually he didn't choke on liquids anymore or aspirate after eating (well at least not near as bad) and I stopped thickening all together. around 5 months old.

If you do decide to keep thickening, and there comes a time when you stop, don't do it cold turkey like me. Do it gradually. Eric went through a 4lb weight loss and stopping cold turkey may have played a big part in it (lot's going on at the time, so it's hard to tell for sure).

If you're certain about him having DGE maybe it's not such a good idea. I don't know. It's such a tough decision to make.

Good Luck with what ever you decide to do. Maybe this link might help you

http://www.reflux.org/reflux/webdoc01.nsf/(vwWebPage)/Thicken.htm?OpenDocument

Just what Minnie said, its figuring the less of two evils. Does he take any DGE meds to aid him emptying?

No motility meds yet, we will be discussing them on Wed. with his GI

Let us know what he says, because that may help :iconbigg:

Neither the ped or our GI or the dietician think we should thicken or concentrate Gavin's formula to increase calories because he has DGE--BUT he doesn't have choking epidoes that threaten his breathing. Doing either one of these makes it harder to digest and as you experienced, makes them fuller quicker and for longer amounts of time. It may be that using both the thickening and a motility med may be best for him. We are hoping that just a motility med will help Gavin increase his intake.

I think Minnie said it perfectly, you have to pick the lesser of two evils for him.

Sorry, I can be of absolutely no use here. We found out at the age of 14 months that Iain was a GERDling. They told us to thicken his formula and it made things much worse for Iain, but he was not on solids at all then either.

Minnie has a great handle on it and I would concur with that.:iconbigg:

Be sure to let us know what works for Asher.

I haven't thickened sarah's milk due to her DGE. But I don't know what I would do if she was having breathing issues. Sarah will eat will for the first 80mls the stop and it is a struggle to get her to take more. Her therapist thinks she feels full at 80 due to her DGE then stops. Erythromycin worked well for us for alittle while. We are going to try cisapride next.

Hey Amy,
How's it going?
I was just thinking about you.
(((BIG HUG)))

Thanks for asking Minnie. Well, the new feeding plan for Asher (See post in updates forum) is not going very well. He has had a whopping 6 ounces all day so far and the first feeding this morning was 2 ounces after not eating since midnight last night. I will continue trying this every 3 hrs for only 30 min untill tomarrow afternoon and then I'll call his GI and see what she says. I'm going to insist on either testing for DGE or starting with Erythromycin before resorting to Reglan. That is a last resort as far as I'm concerned, and I will let her know that tomarrow.

This sounds all too familiar. :( I'm so sorry he isn't eating well there's nothing worse than not being able to feed your baby. Well, except seeing your baby in pain, that's definitely the worst!

So are you still doing the thickened feeds?

Eric drank about half of what he "normally" would drink while I was thickening. (this is when times were good)

How are the bowels moving. Eric's constipation played a huge role in his lack of interest in eating. Once he became regular he ate so well, it was weird and hard to keep up with because his little tummy couldn't handle the volume he was willing to eat.

I agree with you on the reglan. It's a scary thing when you give your child something that crosses the blood/brain barrier.

I sent a fax the the pedi office about Eric's constipation and demanded that they do something to help besides tell me to give him an ounce of karo in every bottle. and their answer was "let's try reglan"
Hard to believe these were the same people who didn't think Eric had reflux to began with!

Well out of complete desperation I filled the rx and tried it. That whole day (yes, only one day LOL) I was a paranoid mess. It made Eric very.... well the only way I can describe it is angry, very angry.

But on the other hand I've talked to lot's of mother's who say that reglan really helped their little one.


Oops! I'm sorry I rambled. I must just be in one of those moods today.

Things WILL get better Amy. I know it seems so hopeless right now, but it really will get better for the both of you. Right now you're in the thick of the fight. The hardest part. When you make it through all this you'll be able to conquer the world! Or at least feel like conquering something! LOL

Eric's eating was terrible (12 to 16oz a day to only 6 to 8oz a day) and now he eats, and likes to eat. I honestly never thought I'd see the day.
I have faith that it will happen for you and Asher too.

Take care
and I hope you and the GI can come up with something together that works for him.

Minnie, Thank you for the encouragement. Knowing that things will get better is what keeps me going. I just wonder when...if it's not one thing it's another with this poor little guy. He has been through so much in his 6 months (actually, since before he was even born) we just need a break. By the way, his poops are always loose and often mucousy. We are still thickening since his scary choking & difficulty breathing during reflux episodes seems much better with thickened feeds...the lesser of evils I suppose.