Monday, June 15, 2009

Rough few days

Well just when we thought things were settling in to a new normal a surprise popped up. Miss Peanut has developed these coughing fits during bottle feedings. Why? Well we don't know and neither does the doctor. There are a couple theories floating around and we are looking in to all of them.

First, we switched her to soy formula thinking in might have been a milk tolerance issue. She has had this raspy breathing thing going on so we figured we would try it and see if the soy would help. The raspy breathing seems to be getting better but the coughing is still there.

We took her to our doctor this morning and no ear infection present,lungs are clear and overall she seemed fine. The doctor would like us to visit the feeding clinic for an evaluation since the coughing is at its worst during her bottle feedings. It could be nothing or it may be reflux (minus the excessive spitting up and vomiting, she doesn't do either of those things so if it is reflux it isn't severe but still annoying for Peanut).

She is teething which is definitely affecting her mood and her eating so it could be that. There are so many possibilities and not a lot of answers right now and that is tough. As a Mom, I hate that my baby girl is uncomfortable and I can't just snap my fingers and fix it. It got so bad last night that she went to bed without a bottle. She was just screaming and refusing to eat so we didn't want to force her so we calmed her down and put her to bed. She slept for over 10 hours straight.

Today it took three different bottles/sippy cups to get 7 ounces of formula in her in an hour time span. She would drink a little and then scream so we took a break. We tried again and she drank some more and then screamed. On the third and what I determined last try and back to the bottles we used in Ethiopia, she coughed less and finished the last 5 ounces without throwing a single fit.

The hardest part is that this is recent. She was doing so well and overall she still is. She eats her solids really well with little to no coughing and she is gaining weight so that is all good news. We just need to get some answers for this coughing thing so we can focus on the fun stuff.

4 comments:

Jess Pedersen said...

I'm so sorry you're going through this! Isaac had the raspy thing too, so we reduced his bottles from 6-7 oz to 4oz every 4 hours and it's basically gone. Sometimes I hear it right after he eats, but it goes away quickly....unlike before when we were feeding him more. Not sure if that helps...but I feel for you! I know how hard it is to figure this all out!

mama becca said...

i just found you from joy's blog... congrats on your new baby girl!!!
we had this exact same problem with our second child, pete (he's three now). when he was a few months old he started this... the doctor was spot-on to diagnose bad reflux (he had mostly the raspy voice/coughing symptoms). He was put on baby reflux medicine (i think it was zantac or prilosec) and after a day he was almost totally better!!! definitely check that out... hope that helps a bit!
becca

Eastiopians said...

Hope it gets better soon! Keep us posted.

Leah said...

Scary...at least it's not a poop issue :). I'm praying for you and little peanut.

L