Mia was diagnosed with GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disorder) at her 1 month wellness visit. When I talk to people I just say that she has reflux, because that is what most people understand. Pretty much all babies have reflux to a certain extent. "Spitting up" is a common occurrence with babies and is completely normal, unless it causes severe pain.
That is where GERD comes in, Mia was having extreme pain with her reflux. It took me awhile to connect the dots, since Mia was having "silent" reflux. Silent reflux does not usually result in spitting up. The stomach acid comes up, burns (especially with GERD), and goes back down. I can seriously count on my hand the number of times Mia has actually "spit up."
So let's rewind to when Mia was a newborn before she was diagnosed with GERD. These are the things that were happening:
- Mia would cry bloody murder and arch her back in the middle of her nursing
- Mia would sometimes refuse to nurse/eat, even though she was obviously hungry
- Mia would cough when she was laying down flat
- Mia would nurse all the time in short sessions
It did not dawn on me that reflux was the issue until she started coughing when I laid her down flat. The only reason why I knew that was a sign was from my experience as a pediatric nurse.
After that realization, I started making adjustments that I knew would help her.
- I put pillows under her crib mattress to elevate the head of the bed
- We started putting her down to sleep in the swing to keep her head elevated
- I stopped bicycling her legs during nursing sessions
- I kept her upright for at least 30 minutes after nursing
- We did small, frequent feeds (Mia had already started this as a protective mechanism, she would nurse every 1.5-2 hours all day long until she was 9 months!)
So Mia was started on Zantac. Within days, Mia was a new baby. She no longer cried while nursing. She no longer showed any signs of pain while nursing. And she definitely never turned down a nursing session while hungry again.
We had to go up on her dose a couple of times from her growing (it is dosed by weight). I would know she was growing out of a dose when she would do her pain cry after eating. We also had to go up on her dose when she started crawling and becoming more active.
When she bounces or jumps, she will have choking episodes. That is when her silent relux is acting up. During a choking episode she starts coughing, gagging and her eyes water up...it's really hard to watch. We sit her up and pat her back (I don't want to say hit, but we are forceful to help her cough it up).
Everything had been going really well until Mia was about 11 months, when I gave her a small piece of a chicken tender for the first time. It was the first time she had anything fried and the next day her breathe smelled sour, like a pickle. I thought it was odd and goggled it. I found out that it could be a symptom of GERD. That night while nursing, she suddenly sat up and put herself in the burping position. I thought that was also odd and when I pulled her off to see her face she had milk running down her nose. Needless to say, she has never had a chicken tender again!
We were supposed to have been able to stop the Zantac when Mia turned 1, but with the chicken tender incident, our pediatrician wants to keep Mia on it for a while longer. If Mia is not able to wean off it by her 15 month appointment, our pediatrician will refer us to a GI doctor.
Usually a baby can wean off medication once the sphincter between the stomach and the esophagus gets stronger preventing the reflux in the first place. I do not want to take Mia to a GI doctor. I do not want my baby to have invasive procedures to determine what the cause of her reflux is. So I am trying another route in hopes to help Mia wean off her Zantac successfully. I have started taking Mia to a chiropractor.
I have heard of chiropractic care being used to treat GERD, but was holding out hope that Mia's sphincter would become stronger. We were also unsure if we could afford a chiropractor since funds are tight right now. It turns out a chiropractor can be very budget friendly and will accept insurance or a flexible spending account for payment.
This article from Dallas Moms blog talks more about pediatric chiropractic adjustments and recommends some chiropractors in Dallas. We went to go see Dr. Adorable for a consultation. He and his staff are extremely nice and were very gentle with Mia. Unfortunately our insurance was out of network, so we started calling around to chiropractors that were in-network.
I was referred to Flanery family chiropractic and wellness center. We decided to go with Dr. Flanery. Mia seems to respond better to women doctors and I felt like Dr. Flanery's practice was more family based rather than sports injury/accident based.
On our first appointment, Dr. Flanery went over Mia's history including my pregnancy/labor. I felt like she was very thorough and offered some new suggestions to help manage her reflux at home, including using gripe water. The adjustments Mia received were very gentle and the gripe water helps settle her tummy and allows her to get a more restful sleep at night.
Mia also has issues with constipation that worsened with the start of iron and chiropractic care should help with that as well. There was no surprise when Dr. Flanery found issues and adjusted areas that triggered reflux and constipation. However I was surprised when she found a third area that triggers ear infections and allergies.
Mia's nose had been running non-stop all week. At first I thought she had a cold, but it kept lingering and she was not acting sick. I was starting to think she might have seasonal allergies. After she was adjusted, her nose dried up the next day.
We are in our second week of Mia's chiropractic visits. She seems to really enjoy her adjustments and we have weaned off the Zantac. So far Mia has not shown any signs of reflux or had any chocking episodes. Yay! Fingers crossed that this clears up Mia's reflux!
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| Mia ready to go to the chiropractor |
Do you guys use a chiropractor? Any testimonials that you would be willing to share?
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