The Brute Force Approach

You know how it goes... The copier's broken. You've tried everything you can think of to fix it, but nothing's working. What's your gut instinct? Kick the thing! Office Space it! (If that's not what came to mind, you are lying to yourself. Quit being so self-righteous!) When intellect fails, bring on the brute force.

I've talked about Quinn's reflux in previous posts. It started out in early August and has gotten progressively worse. She's still not a spitter, but the heartburn it causes her is no joke. Almost every day from about 11-5 Quinn screams. It's one big game of screaming broken up by one or two short naps and a handful of distractions. We've tried so much, stuff for the reflux and anything else it could be, and nothing seems to work. Thickening bottles, Zantac, Prevacid, Levsin, Mylicon, sitting up for 30 minutes after feedings, I've stopped eating obvious dairy... We've taken everything a week at a time--gave it a chance to work. It's the logical thing to do. If we changed too many things at a time we wouldn't know what worked. I know the answer now - none of that did. She's still screaming and crying almost daily. It breaks my heart to watch, and I can only imagine how she feels.

I've had it. Today, after (another) appointment with her doctor, Nathan and I decided on a new path. Screw logic. Bring on the brute force. Now, to be clear, I am not planning on kicking my child. That would be mean. But I'm tired of taking it one thing at a time and watching her suffer while we try to make a lucky guess. I'm done with it. So, I'm still not eating obvious dairy, we are doubling (and possibly QUADRUPLING) the amount of rice cereal in her bottle, we are doubling her dose of Prevacid, and giving tylenol for pain if her fits continue to get bad. I don't care if I don't know exactly what worked right now, I just want it to work. We're throwing everything we've got at it. We can back stuff off later to see what causes a change in behavior and isolate what works that way. No need for her to suffer. And the ped gave us 2 cans of Alimentum to throw into the mix if none of that works. We'll find a way to make her feel better.

My kids are kind of reflux freaks. One of the easier ways to pinpoint reflux in a baby is poor weight gain. Not my kids. 95% or better for weight. Quinn weighed 16lbs 3oz today. She's not hurting for pounds, that's for sure. I am very thankful for that. I don't know if I could handle it if it was more than pain. 3, 4, 5 hours a day of screaming is hard enough. Trust me, I've spent enough time curled up on the floor next to her crying right along with her.

I actually looked in Rory's baby book today and Quinn is following her growth curve almost exactly. Of course, that's about where the similarities end (so far). Rory was the restless one. She started rolling back to belly before she turned three months old and was rolling both ways before she turned four months. She was up on all fours by 5 months, crawling and pulling up at 7 months and walking at 10 months. She hated sitting still. Still does. Quinn could care less. She turned 4 months old today and finally got up the gusto to roll *most* of the way over (back to belly). Silly kid.

Wow. It got late and I wrote a lot. But I'll end with two last thoughts:

1) Soy milk is disgusting.
2) I'd kill for some cheese right now.