Olivia had her follow up doctor's appointment this morning. She now weighs 11 pounds, 11 ounces. She was 10 pounds, 8 ounces at her appointment two an a half weeks ago. She was in the 80th percentile then and is now in the 82nd percentile. The nurse practitioner said she's trucking along at almost the same rate and all is good with that.
The spitting up has decreased since our last appointment--both in amount and force. That is, unless I ate dairy. Which we now know is not going to work. The screaming has decreased some, but it still sprouts its ugly head now and then.
Since I stopped eating dairy and Olivia went on prevacid at almost the same time, it's hard to say if the spitting up is better because of the medication or if it's better because I eliminated dairy. The nurse practitioner said that since I did see such a difference in the times that I ate dairy, that she probably is lactose intolerant to some degree. She may not even have acid reflux or need the medication. We are going to keep going as we are for now. Olivia's two month appointment is on the 25th. A few days before then I am going to stop the medicine (it takes 3 days to get out of her system). We can see what happens and talk to our pediatrician about it then--whether we need to go back on the medication or just be done with it. Either way, she said most babies can stop taking the meds around 3 months and be fine.
The NP said I just have to stay away from obvious dairies at this point. Olivia could have a milk allergy (as opposed to being lactose intolerant), but we haven't seen any of those signs and they won't test for that until she is bigger. I will have to take calcium supplements (for me) and also probiotic supplements (that will transfer to Olivia through the milk, but will also benefit me). She said I can also eat things that may have dairy cooked in them--for example, if a cake has milk in it or whatever. The 350 degrees of the oven will bake off anything that could possibly be an issue.
I asked how long babies are normally lactose intolerant. Unfortunately, I didn't get a set in stone answer like I would have liked. She said it's not likely to be long term unless in runs in the family, which it does not. She said around 8 or 9 months we'll introduce cheese to her and she how she tolerates it. Then we might add yogurt a little later if she does well. You get the idea. If she does not tolerate it, then we'll try again in six months. We'll keep going like that until we think she can tolerate it. She said some kids don't grow out of it until 4 or 5. UGH! I'm hoping that is not the case. My gut says it's just a baby thing and that she'll be fine by the time she's ready for cow's milk. Who knows though.
She then did a quick physical check on Olivia. She said her stomach was really tight and asked if she had just eaten. She had (probably 20 minutes earlier). The NP said that babies stomachs do get tight, but that even so Olivia's seemed to be more tight than it should have been. I notice that her stomach gets like that a lot. I try to pump her legs or rub her belly. We also live on gas drops. The NP recommended once again that we take her to the chiropractor, especially since she was having gut issues like that. We hadn't necessarily ruled it out, but it's usually not covered under insurance so we weren't in a rush to go either. I guess we need to look into it anyway. This also could be why we may have random screaming times.
Olivia has been doing really well lately, so we might have just gotten it all figured out. Knock on wood. I am avoiding dairy the best I can, giving her the meds, using gas drops and gripe water when necessary, and looking forward to moving on from this phase. :)
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