I haven't posted much since Evan's been born, and I haven't posted at all about the new baby. This was mainly due to the fact that for the first 9 weeks of his life, Evan was a holy terror! He cried and screamed almost 100% of the time he was awake, and we were spending all of that time just trying to get him to go back to sleep! I was miserable, Robert was barely coping and we were just barely surviving life with a colicky newborn and Colby, now 18 months old.
Almost two weeks ago, my mom brought over a book called "Colic Solved" written by a pediatric gastroenterologist which suggested that "colic" was not a diagnosis, but merely a concept, and that babies do not cry ad nauseum for no reason. There are two main reasons that babies "have colic": reflux and/or a milk protein allergy - not breast milk, but cow's milk, or dairy that can be transferred from the mother to the baby via breastmilk.
I had heard that giving up dairy might help Evan's fussiness, but since 1) the facts as they were presented to me weren't adding up and 2) Evan's pediatrician told me not to "sacrifice myself" and it wouldn't help matters anyway (more on this doctor's recommendations later), I had decided against it. After reading this book, specifically the chapter on milk protein allergy, I decided to try it again!
Five days into my non-dairy diet, my mom and I travelled with Evan to Keller for me to help host my best friend's baby shower. During that trip Evan was, I couldn't believe it, getting worse! By the time we returned home, I had called for an appointment to talk about reflux with the doctor, convinced it must be that, too, since the elimination of dairy clearly wasn't helping matters. This past Wednesday, the doctor listened to me, prescribed Prevacid and ordered an upper GI series for Evan. Also, on Wednesday, I noticed Evan's demeanor had significantly improved, though I wasn't ready to call it anything but an "off" day. I couldn't schedule the upper GI series until Friday, so I didn't give him the Prevacid, since it suppresses reflux - I didn't want a lack of reflux in the series to be muddled with a real lack of reflux or a reaction simply to the medication.
Friday rolled around, and I had the series scheduled for 8:30 that morning, and Evan's 2 month appointment scheduled for 10:30. While I was waiting for the procedure, I read up on it, discovering that the series doesn't really tell you the severity of reflux, like my doctor had suggested (more on that later) but routes the digestive system using barium to determine if there are any anatomy-related issues contributing to the reflux. The series showed that everything was in place and that yes, my son had reflux. The fact that reflux showed up during the procedure was not conclusive to act on it though, as all babies have some degree of reflux, and yes, I already knew that! So we wait for an hour to go to Evan's 2 month appointment.
He measured 22 inches (same as Colby did at 2 months) but 13 lbs 1 oz! The doctor mentioned that was the 9th percentile for height but the 70th percentile for weight. He then said, because of the discrepancy in percentiles, we needed to watch them, but if at 4 months it didn't resolve itself, we would need to put him on a diet. That's right, a diet - for a four month old! I very politely said "He's breastfed, and I was unaware that babies, especially breastfed babies, needed to be put on diets." He explained that we would put cereal in Evan's milk since cereal is only 9 cal/oz and breastmilk is 20 cal/oz. Inside, I was fuming! I resolved never to go back to this doctor. This was the last straw ina long line of advice he had given or somethings he's said that I disagreed on:
1) For both Colby and Evan, he tried to convince me that they had lost over 10% of their birthweight in the hospital - based on his assumption that an ounce was 1/10 of a pound. How do you graduate medical school without knowing that an ounce is 1/16 of a pound?!
2) He was convinced that at 15 months, with the discrepancies in Colby's weight and height percentiles that COLBY needed to be put on a diet of limited carbs. We don't feed Colby junkfood EVER, so I don't even know what we would limit or HOW we would cease to feed him!
3) He was convinced that my giving up dairy had nothing to do with an improvement in Evan's demeanour and was an "unnecessary self-sacrifice" Whatever. That is just clearly not true.
4) He did NOT tell me the true meaning of the upper GI series that he ordered for Evan - whether that was because he didn't know it, or didn't think I was smart enough to understand, or that I was merely a worried parent that needed to be placated by mistruths, it doesn't matter. I don't need my doctor to lie to me.
5) He is considering putting a FOUR MONTH OLD on a DIET! Enough said.
I'm done with this man, and will be finding a new pediatrician as soon as possible.
I only started Prevacid on Friday, and Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday have seen a significant improvement in Evan's demeanor. Do not tell me that eliminating dairy has had no effect. I am a true believer at this point! I love my happy baby!
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