Since she was born Everly has had a very difficult keeping her food down. She was always spitting up. There very first night was terrifying for Jason and I, we could hear her gagging and were constantly helping her. We did call the nurse to double check everything was okay. We were told its normal and that if she does choke we were shown what to do. We both already knew what to do as we’ve both had some form of first aid training at some point.
Apparently, there is such a thing as “happy spitters” where a child will be spitting up, but there are still thriving. Which means they are gaining weight, not choking, not get liquid in their lungs from spitting up/vomiting, and are not projectile vomiting. All around they are still happy babies.
Everly is a very happy baby, but something just felt wrong to me. After every time she ate she was spitting up large amounts of what she had just taken in, sometimes she would not vomit until hours later. She often arched her back and would be grumpy if you went to burp her or touch her tummy. I was terrified to drive with her by myself because she often spat up or vomited when in her car seat. We always have had one of us sit in the back with her since day one. We ended up taking her back to the hospital New Years Eve because she was bringing up so much again and again. We were there for hours waiting to see a doctor, when we finally did we were told not to worry, nothing is wrong. However the pediatrician requested I see her again at her own office with Everly the next week. That appointment the pediatrician said Everly was doing well because she was gaining weight.
Sure she is, she likes to eat, but she also has lots come back out. When your daughter is choking because its coming out her mouth and nose, I’m sorry but that is not fine. My Mommy radar was going off, my daughter was not okay. At night I could hear her gagging and spitting up. Countless times I was getting up to check on her, and to help her.
Everly is fed both breast milk and formula. I simply do not make enough for her so we have had to supplement with formula. With Everly being partially bottle fed we have a collection of different bottles, thankfully most were either given to us as gifts or we had received them for free from Nestle or other companies. The pediatrician from the hospital suggested another formula for us to use, Nestle Good Start, it has helped a little but Everly still struggles. She has also been getting infant probiotics to try and help her more.
We ended up switching bottles after a lot of late night research to Dr Browns. Its a bottle that is supposed to help with colic, spitting up, gas, and burping. We did notice a difference when switching to these, however she was still having problems.
There is a check list of things to try before seeing a Doctor about what is going on with your munchkin. We had gotten to the point where we were at the bottom of that list and wishing there was more to try.
Last week after another round of crying from seeing my daughter choking and my gut telling me something was wrong I booked a Doctors appointment for her. Yesterday was our appointment. The doctor was running a bit behind, Everly had eaten before we left our house about an hour or so earlier. I had already mentioned to the Doctor at Everly’s first visit a month earlier that this was something I was concerned about. Almost on cue with the Doctor asking to see her she vomited. Everly has now been put on a very small dose of medicine to try and help her reflux. She has to take it twice a day. We are just starting with trying it for a month to see if it makes a difference. Everly hates the taste of the stuff. We’re praying it helps her. Its heart breaking to see your little one in pain and know that Mommy and Daddy cannot fix it.