Scary Pediatrician Appt

[Anonymous]

We had my son’s 6 month appt today and while some of it was good, the reflux part was depressing. During the appt, Jackson spit up 4 times. He has started solids- cereal and some fruits and veggies. He is tolerating them fine, but he spits up the fruits and vegetables and stains EVERYTHING! He is really spitting up more than ever. On the brighter side, he is growing like crazy (19 pounds) and seem pretty happy but for the recent teething. Still, our pediatrician said that his reflux is worse than most of the refluxers in her practice and that she cannot guarantee that he will outgrow it. She said that she is surprised that he has not experienced some improvement at this stage since he is sitting up, crawling and pulling himself up. She just seemed very down on the situation. She said that he is physically advanced for his age and therefore, she would expect more improvement in his reflux situation. From what I have read here, a lot of babies do not see a dramatic improvement once they sit up or crawl. Is that true? Is it a terrible sign that he is spitting up so much at this age and stage of development. I am so tired of chasing him around with a towel and our carpets look terrible. Any advice or insight?

[Anonymous]

Well, I can only say from our experience, but when Ben started sitting, his reflux was definitely worse and the solid foods only made the puke more disgusting. Now, he didn’t start crawling until closer to 10 months, so his spitting had pretty much subsided by then, but he was rolling around and scooting for a long time before that, and our carpets were also disgusting. I started just giving up on treating each individual stain and once he stopped spitting, we just go the carpets professionally cleaned.

I will say too, that right around the 7 month mark, his reflux was dramatically worse. Then by around 8-9 months, it suddenly got TONS better. So, hopefully Jackson will start to improve soon.

Hang in there. Don’t let the doc.’s negativity get you down.

[Anonymous]

I have to agree with Naomi, Dagney and Ben always seemed to be on similar tracks, and I’ve heard many others here say how bad 6-8 months were, but magically around 8-9 the spit up just stopped. That’s what happened with us, one day I just realized that she hadn’t spit up for a few days, it was WONDERFUL!! Don’t get too upset. It sounds like most babies, luckily, don’t have reflux like this, so when the old stand-by meds, theories, and excuses don’t work, the docs are confused and may seem helpless. Hang in there!! dfb052008-03-13 20:24:08

[Anonymous]

Kaelyn’s spitting was pretty bad until about 9 months when it slowed down a little. It stayed substantial until over a year. Somewhere around 14 months we suddenly realized that we had gone over a week with no spit up. She’s doing great now (except for her allergies), so it’s totally possible to recover late.

[Anonymous]

I would personally try not to worry about it too much. Many peds and docs don’t know too much about reflux and they give information that is false. Studies have actually shown that reflux peaks between 4-6 months when it is at it’s worst, and typically declines somewhere between 9-12 months. If he’s growing and is generally content on the prevacid, then I’d take your doctor’s opinion with a grain of salt- the severity of his reflux and whether or not he’ll outgrow it is not related to the number of times he vomits. So try not to worry.

About the stained carpets… it is annoying. We pretty much had to cover up the rugs and carpets with comforters and blankets, then we wiped those up and threw them in the wash at the end of the day or after a serious soiling. We also invested in a good cleaner. Hang in there.

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