The last few weeks have been pretty amazing here at the house. Right after we returned from Disney, Annie just became a different baby. The fussiness began to go away and she became this smiling, cooing baby. We figured she was hit by a little bit of the Disney magic, some pixie dust, or maybe even the magical kiss she received from Belle in the castle?

Probably not.....

At her 4 month appointment, I shared how she had started to decline in her eating (actually she's never been a big eater). There were times it was so hard to get 2 oz in her. Our ped asked us how the zantac was going to which I told her that we had stopped because when we came in once for a weight check "Dr. X" told us to stop using it because she "didn't have reflux if she was sleeping at night in her flat crib." Upon hearing this, my ped rolled her eyes and said, "This is probably why she isn't eating well." She checked the dosing and since Annie had gained so much weight, the dose we had been giving her weeks earlier was so small it was doing nothing for her. So she upped her dose - and we started giving her the zantac again the day before we left for Disney.

By the time we came home - one week - she was seriously a different baby. We just never really thought of reflux because most of the time when babies have reflux they are vomiting or spitting up. So, most likely, she has what is called silent reflux. Babies bring up the stomach acids, but swallow them back down - so really, it's been called worse than just reflux because it burns on the way up and on the way down.

We can't give her the zantac just by itself. It takes awful, and she vomits it (and the rest of her stomach contents) up every time we try. So we have to put it in her bottle - and lately have been making smaller bottles so that she takes all the meds.

All this makes sense. We had an extremely fussy, crying baby for the first 4 months of her life. She has this cough we hear esp. when she is sleeping at night, she arches her back when feeding, fusses during feedings, has 'wet burps', gets hiccups almost after every feed, and her breath can smell awful. (the latter has gotten much better once on the meds). Also I've heard that babies with silent reflux also have low muscle tone/control in their upper bodies, which we've noticed with her as well.

I'm definitely in the camp that believes that reflux is HIGHLY overdiagnosed. Lucy was on reflux meds, and I definitely do not believe that she had reflux. So when our ped first suggested the zantac for Annie, I was very skeptical - and that's also why we didn't really give it to her as often as we should have. We changed her formula like 3 times, thinking that she was allergic to milk protein. Poor thing was just in pain the whole time.

Annabelle is still having some trouble with it for sure. We're going to keep an eye on her and make sure that the medication is working well for her. But if you remember, please pray that she hasn't had any damage to her esophogus the past few months and that it resolves itself soon. (most babies get better after they can sit up - around 6ish months).

For the first time - last night she slept from 7pm - 6:50 am!