I have one cranky baby on my hands this afternoon. Oh my goodness. After about 7 hours away from home today Rhys has had enough. We had his swallow study this morning, and then his appointment for his vaccines/synagis shot this afternoon. The swallow study showed nothing really, except that he is an inefficient eater. Duh, what have we been saying all along?!? No reflux showed up while he was taking the bottle with contrast, and he attacked it (probably because he was starving from only taking 10 ounces yesterday and not eating much this morning). But, as soon as we hit the lobby he started doing his typical refusal to eat his regular milk. The speech pathologist was not present to witness the test, but the doctor filled her in over the phone. She then wanted to talk to me and suggested speech therapy to work on the eating. We have a therapy consult scheduled tomorrow so I am going to ask about that. We need to get that ball rolling!
Rhys also got his 6 month and synagis shots today. The poor boy is not feeling well this afternoon. :( This was a new doctor in the high risk clinic and I really liked her. She told me she took care of Rhys once while he was in the NICU (they rotate in the NICU on occasion) and she has seen him eat and remembers how hard it is and feels our frustration. THANK YOU! Cody and I have been saying all along that something else besides reflux is going on and this isn't normal - we felt like a doctor needed to see what was going on. We were really close to video taping it to show them what we got through most every time he eats. Even if he outgrows his current problem his weight gain is very important right now, he has to gain weight to grow out of it, and he needs to be gaining more weight than he currently is. He is on the minimal side of the range they want and it takes a Herculean effort on our part to just get that. I am so glad this doctor is familiar with Rhys in this capacity. She said that Prevacid takes 2-4 weeks to see the maximum benefit so she wants to see us back in two weeks to see if it has gotten any better. She is very concerned about him getting enough to eat based on what I told her today. If the Prevacid doesn't work there are several other options, including a temporary feeding tube if necessary (sounds worse than it is). Cody and I are to the point we would welcome that if it made it easier and less of an ordeal for Rhys. We just want our little man to gain weight and grow so we can get past this stage. She also suggested trying to give him small amount of cereal twice a day even though he is still a bit young. Not as a substitute for milk, but possibly could help with the reflux. So, once he's over his shot nastiness we will try the cereal and see if he's interested. He weighed 9lbs 12oz naked today, so he's gained a few ounces. At least we're not losing weight. We just want to know what the heck is going on. We can and will continue to deal with it, I just want to make sure it isn't something more serious that needs attention because we all know these preemies don't need help developing complications. :o)
Other than that she said he looks great. He has good head control and is doing what he should be. I ran into my OB on the way out of the hospital. He hadn't seen Rhys in months and said he looked really good. Oh, how preemie moms love to hear that!
Rhys also got his 6 month and synagis shots today. The poor boy is not feeling well this afternoon. :( This was a new doctor in the high risk clinic and I really liked her. She told me she took care of Rhys once while he was in the NICU (they rotate in the NICU on occasion) and she has seen him eat and remembers how hard it is and feels our frustration. THANK YOU! Cody and I have been saying all along that something else besides reflux is going on and this isn't normal - we felt like a doctor needed to see what was going on. We were really close to video taping it to show them what we got through most every time he eats. Even if he outgrows his current problem his weight gain is very important right now, he has to gain weight to grow out of it, and he needs to be gaining more weight than he currently is. He is on the minimal side of the range they want and it takes a Herculean effort on our part to just get that. I am so glad this doctor is familiar with Rhys in this capacity. She said that Prevacid takes 2-4 weeks to see the maximum benefit so she wants to see us back in two weeks to see if it has gotten any better. She is very concerned about him getting enough to eat based on what I told her today. If the Prevacid doesn't work there are several other options, including a temporary feeding tube if necessary (sounds worse than it is). Cody and I are to the point we would welcome that if it made it easier and less of an ordeal for Rhys. We just want our little man to gain weight and grow so we can get past this stage. She also suggested trying to give him small amount of cereal twice a day even though he is still a bit young. Not as a substitute for milk, but possibly could help with the reflux. So, once he's over his shot nastiness we will try the cereal and see if he's interested. He weighed 9lbs 12oz naked today, so he's gained a few ounces. At least we're not losing weight. We just want to know what the heck is going on. We can and will continue to deal with it, I just want to make sure it isn't something more serious that needs attention because we all know these preemies don't need help developing complications. :o)
Other than that she said he looks great. He has good head control and is doing what he should be. I ran into my OB on the way out of the hospital. He hadn't seen Rhys in months and said he looked really good. Oh, how preemie moms love to hear that!
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