Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Colicky

This past week has been especially exhausting. Matthew is now three weeks old and was super content for the first two weeks, but then when we started giving him more formula and supplementing with less breast milk, we noticed a huge change in our baby.

The first time this happened, it involved him crying for an hour straight. This is not like my child at all. My baby sleeps well and is only fussy for diaper changes, baths, and when he's hungry. He was also turning bright red and clenching his whole body. Of course, I realized that it was his stomach bothering him so we took him to the pediatrician who told us to switch formula. Done.

A week went by and we were on a sensitive formula and started to have increasingly more problems. Again, the pediatrician wanted to see us and said that we should try switching to a different formula again. If symptoms did not improve in 3-5 days, try soy formula, watch for 3-5 days, and if it doesn't work, then we would have to use the super expensive hypoallergenic formula. Lovely.

After talking it over with one of my best friends in California, we decided on another "gentle" formula before switching to soy. I also took him to my wonderful chiropractor for a much needed adjustment and between the two, he was back to his calm, not fussy self! We also decided to try probiotics and gripe water and everything together seems to work for him.

Of course, it just can't be that easy all the time so we are now also dealing with reflux in addition to the tummy troubles he's having. The pediatrician wants to see us tomorrow and after today's fussiness I'm definitely going to be making an appointment tomorrow.

It hurts to see your baby in pain and not being able to feel comfortable and the best place for him right now is on my chest. Of course, I can't be holding him 24/7 and sleep safely with him there so we went to the store and got a lesson on baby wearing and purchased a wrap today.

In the meantime while he's so uncomfortable, I feel like this is the best and safest option for him to be able to snuggle up next to me and for me to be able to keep him safe if I need to sleep in the rocking chair/recliner in his room with him on me.

 We're praying that our little boy will feel better soon, but know that colic generally clears up around three months on it's own so at least there's an end in sight!

2 comments:

Vanessa Miller said...

My daughter didn't handle regular formula well either. We put her on a soy formula and never had any issues again with stomach pain or reflux. Good luck!

Sarah said...

i love baby wearing! poor bebe :( hope all is well soon!