What was I thinking? Help!

[Anonymous]

So it’s been over two months since I’ve had any dairy, wheat/gluten, citrus, nuts or soy. Blake has been doing a lot better, although he still seems to be in pain once in a while, and has an occasional vomiting episode. Well, yesterday we ordered pizza and cheesy breadsticks. For some reason, I could not control myself and I ate the pizza and the breadsticks. Basically, I had everything that I am not supposed to have…tomato sauce, bread/crust, and cheese. I had a complete moment of weakness, and there is nothing I could do to take it back.

Blake went to sleep around 7:30 p.m., right after the pizza arrived. I knew that he would wake up in an hour or two and want to nurse. I would be feeding him everything that makes him sick. For some reason, Blake slept until 2:30 a.m. (a miracle in itself). He woke up to nurse and I was feeling so guilty. He refuses to drink out of a bottle so I couldn’t give him pumped milk or the sample formula from the GI. I anticipated him waking up in a few hours in complete pain. I felt like a terrible mother. How could I do that to my baby? Why was I so selfish and why couldn’t I resist the temptation?

Well, it’s now 10:00 a.m. and Blake is happy as can be. He is not gassy, no vomiting, no crying in pain. He is just smiling and playing in his bouncy seat.

So what does this mean? Is he over his reflux? How could he ingest all of those things and be completely fine? I would assume that he would feel some discomfort by now (not that I want him to be in pain). He’s on Nexium, so maybe he doesn’t feel the pain? I just don’t get it. Help!

[hellbennt]

hmmm…

thoughts: did you start the diet out of sheer desperation or was it because of stools (mucousy, or occult blood, or green, etc) or bcse of frequent, stinky bad gas or bcse of straining & grunting when passing a stool and the stool was as described above?

if you started the diet and didn’t see any improvement via baby’s stools, it could ‘just’ be that baby isn’t mspi and ‘just’ has severe GERD…OR if you saw behavioral changes from the diet- not vomitting- but actual shrieking/howling/fussiness- if these things changed from diet then I would say it (diet) was ‘working’

you can now either cut all foods back out OR you can now try having these foods in your diet. if going this route, I would choose ONE thing at a time like dairy and start w/ ‘hidden’ dairy for 2 weeks- start having things with dairy in them as an ingredient. if this is disastrous, then cut it out completely again…

[Anonymous]

I saw the title of your post & thought this might be a post I could help w/ since I thought I remembered your screenname=TED 🙂

I completely agree w/ everything Laura said & just had a few things to add.

My guess is either: a) he’s just not AS sensitive now since he’s a bit older or b) it will be a delayed reaction – like today or tomorrow.

Also, another thought is that you didn’t have a ton of the offenders, but I don’t know since I don’t know how much you ate.

Don’t feel guilty – we all have our moments of weakness. It seems like when I do I just can’t stop myself…I just keep eating the ‘bad’ food (& paying for it later)- ugh.

I don’t remember Blake’s exact symptoms to begin with (ie: reflux only, green, mucousy stools only, both) but another thought is that now that he’s a bit older he might still react to offenders in your diet w/ reflux pain (but since he’s medicated doesn’t feel it) but no longer intestinal pain (or not as much). This is the case w/ us now – my son gets intestinal + reflux pain from things he ingests directly, but only reflux pain from my diet.

HTH some & keep us updated!

[Anonymous]

Laura and Erin,

Thanks for your insight and suggestions. Erin, you were right about the delayed reaction. About an hour after I posted my original message, Blake had explosive diarrhea that seriously flew out of him like water out of a fire hydrant. It smelled so terrible that I can’t begin to describe it. Then, he proceeded to cry in pain for about six hours. There was nothing I could do to make him feel better. He’s doing better today, but still a little unhappy/irritated. Interestingly, he hasn’t thrown up in three days (the longest stretch ever).

I started the diet because the GI told me to do it (after telling her that Blake cried all day, arched his back, didn’t sleep and was throwing up more than 10 times per day). She doesn’t want me to add anything back in until he’s six moths old. We tried adding soy lecithin a few weeks ago, but he started throwing up 3-4 times per day, so she told me to stop. She said that she doesn’t want me to start adding anything else because she wants to give Blake’s stomach a change to get stronger (so he can handle it).

Let’s just say that I am back on my diet, and I have no desire to eat pizza for a very long time.

[Anonymous]

Ah, bummer… but @ least you know now & it’s plenty motivation to stick w/ your diet.

I definitely agree w/ the GI – I wouldn’t add in anything (since the things you’re avoiding are ‘biggies’) until at least 6 months. Honestly, I wouldn’t add anything in until you have some consistency with naps & nighttime sleep- that way you’ll have a ‘baseline’ to compare to when you trial new foods. Make sense?

As Laura mentioned (I think in another post I read of yours) I wouldn’t necessarily go by the # of throw ups/day to judge if a food works or not… reflux babies will have good days & bad days & his valve might also be maturing a bit so he might have more silent reflux. You can manage reflux pain with meds (ideally of course) but can’t manage intestinal pain w/ anything other than diet modification. That’s great if he spits up less if you eat your “right” things but I wouldn’t blame the food on the spits right away. Instead, I would note his stinky gas, diapers (color, mucous, etc) & squirming/straining. To me the reflux pain & intestinal pain looks diff’t.

I hope that makes some sense.

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