New here – at wits end

Hi all,

I’ve been reading for a while, but never posted. My 41/2 month old son was diagnosed with reflux at 3 weeks and started taking ranitidine at 6 weeks. Ranitidine made a big difference – he is no longer in pain. In addition to the reflux, our major concern is his weight. He was born at 8’15, then lost over a pound when my milk didn’t come in, gained back, started refluxing like crazy and has never done well since. He just hit the 13 lb mark last week at 4 months old! (His length and head are ok and he’s hitting all of his milestones). He often has mucousy poops (no blood) and has a come-and-go rash all over his tummy and back.

Here’s what we’ve tried:

1) he’s been tested by blood and skin pricks for every possible food allergy with all normal results.
2) I went off dairy/soy for 2 months with no major results. It seems that he is sensitive to butter and nuts, but even when I was completely dairy free, he still had some mucousy stool.
3) For a week, I pumped all of his milk and fed it to him by bottle to ensure that he was getting enough milk. I got 24-28 ozs. per day so that doesn’t seem to be the issue.
4) This week, I’m pumping all my milk to maintain supply while he goes on a one week trial of Alimentium. I’m hating it – it smells horrible, he seems very gassy, he’s still refluxing, but not in such large quantities and his diapers still have some mucous. [I’m cutting dairy/soy/nuts at this point to so that I can start BFing again if the docs say its ok.]

We have not had any GI studies done. I’m seeing the ped again on Tuesday and am wondering if I should ask for some. My baby is very active and energetic, but I’m so worried about his weight. Thoughts?