Mama Guest Post: On following your ‘Mommy Gut’

By Kristy Brown

Colic, Reflux, Allergies, and Asthma.

Those are the names of our first four children. My fifth child is John Lleyton. I’m kidding, of course, but I do have to say that I finally feel — after almost three years — like I’m getting to know the REAL John Lleyton.

I’m going to describe all the battles we’ve fought and are still fighting by placing them in categories. It feels like I’m abbreviating the issues, but this is the quickest way I can address very common issues that other mothers are experiencing.

(For an expanded version, please visit gkbrown.blogspot.com and click the John Lleyton page on our blog. It’s constantly under construction!)

First I want to acknowledge that our battles, I know, are small compared to those fought by others, and I want those mommies to know that this may not compare to what you’re going through. I just hope to help at least one fellow mama out there by sharing my personal experience.

• Colic: As an infant, even in the hospital, JL cried all the time. The most common question I get asked is “When did you know he had colic?” Upon having him, my “mommy gut” told me something was wrong. I thought I had swaddled him too tight and broken a rib. He wouldn’t even stop crying to feed. HE. CRIED. ALL. THE TIME. During the first 8 weeks, he cried 22 hours a day. It lessened to 10 hours at night for about two to three months and then tapered off to 3-5 hours at night for a while. By 12 months of age, we were finally past the colic. At four weeks of age, I took him to the doc and they told me it was colic. There is a specific definition for colic and it isn’t just “a cranky baby”….believe me.

• Reflux: At the same four-week doctor’s visit, we were told our baby had severe reflux. He virtually spit up everything he ate. We were told to sit him upright for 1 hour after each feeding. It helped, but he still spit up and cried in pain all the time. He clawed at his face, ears, and throat every time he ate and after eating. At four months, we went back to the doctor and they discovered he had ulcerated his throat and nose. We tried the medication called Prevacid, which he still takes. At almost 3 years old, he still refluxes on Prevacid, so we’re working through what is actually causing his reflux. As a baby, he slept upright and I took a class (in conjunction with my job as a speech pathologist) for babies with reflux. THIS WORKED WONDERS. I now consult with mothers whose babies are having issues with reflux.

• Allergies: I’m addressing allergies next because they actually cause John Lleyton’s asthma issues. (We’ll talk asthma in the next paragraph.) With the suggestion of our ENT (JL had tubes at the age of 8 months after 7 ear infections in 3 months while on meds) we went to an allergist. Allergy tests are really not conclusive at the age of 2, but his allergies were so severe that we were told we really should see an allergist. We went and the testing showed an allergy to pigweed and maple trees. But the doc is not convinced because JL stays flared up year-round and his flare ups mimic food allergies. We had been trying an organic diet and health issues started turning around. When we put him on a fully organic diet, he went four months straight without a flare up. He goes back to the allergist on August 1st for another allergy test at the age of 3.

• Asthma: John Lleyton was diagnosed with asthma at 12 months. By this time he had already had pneumonia, RSV, bronchitis many times, and the list goes on. We were prescribed a nebulizer which we used A LOT for the next year. I kept thinking we needed to be under a specialist’s supervision since we were using it so much, but no one ever referred us to one. So I took matters into my own hands and went to see a pulmonologist. BEST DECISION EVER. A strict asthma routine (nebulizer treatments daily) has given us some freedom. He still can’t dance or run without having an attack, but at least we’re not having to do rescue treatments.

I think the best decisions we ever made were:

• Being followed by a pulmonologist and an allergist

• Changing to an organic diet (See expanded version on our blog.)

• FOLLOWING THE ‘MOMMY GUT’.  It’s just what has worked best for us.

  

Now in the beginning of this post, I said John Lleyton was my fifth child. That’s because I feel like I’m just now getting to know the REAL John Lleyton. Not the child doped up on steroids which caused him to pull out his hair and have nose bleeds. Not the child who vomited all the time, coughed himself to sleep, or always had stomach cramps. I’m seeing a very happy, healthy child who’s able to talk about his day at school rather than where he hurts or itches, or who is always wondering where the bathroom is in case he needs to throw up or ‘have diarrhea’. I’m liking who I see.  🙂