Reflux

Reflux is going to be the death of me. For whatever reason, eating has always been the biggest stressor for me when it comes to my kids. With Elodie I feel like it's magnified times a million because it triggers a lot of the yucky feelings and worries I had for her in the NICU. About two and half weeks ago, just before Thanksgiving, Elodie began refusing to eat her regular 3.5-4 ounces per bottle. She would suck down 2 ounces and then just stop. Nothing I did would get her to eat more. I talked with the pediatrician and she asked me to bring her in. The doctor was fairly certain that she is struggling with reflux, and I tend to agree. When Elodie had her feeding evaluation in early October, the SLP warned me that with silent reflux some babies will simply stop eating at 3 months or so. She explained that up until that age eating is kind of a reflex, but once that reflex goes away they will start to refuse to eat because it doesn't feel good. We started her on the generic version of Prilosec almost two weeks ago and I still see little improvement. Prior to her eating strike she was consuming between 17-19 ounces per day. Now it's a struggle to get 14 ounces in within 24 hours. It's making me completely crazy. I worry about her enough to begin with, but now I have fears of dehydration, constipation, brain growth, weight gain, and overall development related to her feeding. I also have a lingering fear that eventually people will talk about a gastronomy tube again. We were so happy and relieved that we avoided that in the NICU, and felt so hopeful that it was a good sign for her development. I really hate watching her regress. I think she was getting close to the 10th percentile in weight, and now she is just backsliding. It is so depressing.

Does anybody have encouraging stories to share about their experience with GERD? Or does anyone simply want to commiserate? Thanks for listening, as always!