I have been married to Russ for 15 years, and I have 4 children: Quinton age 10, Jackson age 8, Shiloh age 5, and Branson age 2.
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11 thoughts on “READ COMMENTS HERE!”
Thank you for taking the time to type out your story and journey! I’d love it if you’d add a link somewhere to the forum where I ‘know’ you from because I, just like you, really love helping and can’t help sharing information! Knowldedge is power! ~laura a.k.a. “hellbennt”
The link to the forum Laura is talking about is http://www.infantreflux.org/forum/. I love this site! Laura is an extremely knowledgeable mom that helps a lot of other moms with their reflux babies!
first off i want to say THANK YOU for writing this blog. in the midst of what seems like the millionth night of i just can’t take this anymore (lack of sleep, crying baby up all night etc) while googling on my iphone holding my son who i couldnt put down b/c he was in so much pain i happened to see your response to someone on some question on a reflux forum. i noticed your answer and clicked on your link to your blog. i cannot tell you how thankful i am you wrote your entire story with all the details. our story is similiar minus the blood in the stools. i am not sure exactly where to start. i too on my own finally figured out i had to eliminate every single ounce of dairy and soy in my diet while breastfeeding to get my son to quit spitting up. until the age of 6 mo he slept in a moving swing b/c he would spit up or make choking noises gagging if i laid him down at all. finally at 6 mo is when i switched him to nutramigen b/c i just oculdnt take eating that way anymore and amazingly he seemed SO much better. wheni started introducing foods is when things got really bad again. rice cereal results in crying, gassiness, total lack of nighttime sleep unless being held. carrots made him throw up. squash made him throw up. i finally quit foods. then everytime i would try any purreed baby food i would give up after a few days and go back to just nutramigen and he would improve a ton. finally at 10 mo i thought he just has to be eating something (btw my son is 98% for weight and height so people find it really hard to believe hes had all these issues). i began with sweet potatoes and at first he seemed fine. it eventually got to where we spent an entire 8 weeks where i couldnt even put him in his crib. he would just cry. i had to hold him all night long sitting upright. i attributed it to teething and just continued on with foods. then finally i had a moment where i realized i think its the food. so i quit all food and just went to nutramigen and he returned to normal. i fInally threw a fit until his pediatrician put him on prevacid. he kept telling me “he was spoiled and just wanted mommy at night.” after prevacid he started falling asleep every time the car was moving and taking a decent nap every day for the first time ever and sleeping ok at night. in his crib but waking 1-3 times a night for a bottle. that contined until july 2012 and he was about 16 mo old. the only food during this time he seemed to handle well was pears – pureed and an organic cheerio from whole foods (the only finger food i could find with very few ingredients). any time i have added any other food in – he either is up screaming, crying, gassy, arching his back, refusing to lay down….etc… he often throws up after eating a new food.
the crazy thing is this. he has been blood tested and he does not show any signs of allergies. i have taken him in twice again a few days ago we went and i started crying b/c i am just so frustrated. he has been to a pediatric gastroenterologist. who said that i just need to wait it out until he outgrows this. i took him in a second time a few months after the first visit to tell him nothing had improved and to beg him for some advice.
GOOD NEWS: i started him on the digestive health mid july and he has been off of his prevacid since then!!! i have been giving him 1 pill twice a day. i have seen no negative changes since doing that and i am so happy about that. SO THANK YOU! thank you for sharing this. i told our allergist the other day about it and i was so excited, he looked at me blankly and said i dont really see how that would help. (didnt really surprise me at all his response). the only true help i have received in this crazy journey has been from other mom’s stories. and only one dr. ever agreed that soy could be part of the problem.
AND i have been taking it twice a day and it is helping a ton with my heartburn as well. i have also noticed i am able to eat things again that used to make me feel funny and sometimes get heartburn, onions, banannnas are two things!!!
so around the same time i started the digestive health i decided to give the alkaline water a try. the lady i got it from started him out on 7 mixed with 8.5. then quickly had me start giving him 8.5. i was giving him only that water. and then getting it every two days. i personally had my heartburn go away. but i noticed he got so fussy. they kept saying it was making him detox. but he was so irritable and restless and not sleeping well. so my big question is, was he being given to high of an alkaline water. i guess i would like more advice on what you did with your boys on that.
i decided i am going to give it another try. i am so hesitant to purchase a machine, b/c i am so scared it wont help him, but there is a big part of me that keeps thinking what if it does. i grew up drinking reverse osmosis and that is what i have been giving my little guy since he was six months and what i was drinking while nursing him.
1) at the age of 18mo-2yrs how many of the digestive health did you give a day? and did you give a whole one at a time or did you spread it out during the day?
2) when you started with the alkaline water with your boys, what level did you start on? and how long did you stay on that level? i have heard differing opinions. i was told by two kangen people to start and move up in a few days.
3) after starting the two things did you ever have reflux flare ups with the boys? just curious
also one other question, have you heard of NAET? if so any opinions? i was so desperate i took him into a dr on saturday that practices it. he was tested and showed he was allergic to most foods. they treat a person for the allergen and then it should make the person no longer allergic. they treated him for eggs. then he had to avoid them for 25 hours and then after i gave him some. he loved them of course. poor little guy has eaten so few things he goes crazy with excitement when he gets something new. so for two days he seemed fine with them. and the first night he slept all nigtht which he has only probably done 6-10 times since he was born, and the second night he woke 1x. but then today he threw up after eating them.
he doesnt throw up very often. but it seems like maybe 1x a month on average and its usually after a new food. for example in april we tried oranges and started throwing up for days then. any thoughts on that? and did your boys do that too?
you also have given me huge hope as well for a third child not being this way. i dont feel i am done with kids but honestly dont think i can go through this again if its going to be this way. my first was hard (didnt sleep well for the first 8 mo and i think had silent reflux) but my second has been a nightmare in the eating and sleeping department. so thank you again for doing this blogged. you have helped me a lot!!!!
Hi Katie! Thanks so much for taking the time to write all that out and post it here. I want to answer each question in detail but will create a page just for your story. Would you mind copying and pasting this post on that page? I’d rather answer the questions over there because I think more people read it there than here! 🙂 https://help4acidreflux.wordpress.com/katies-story/
Martha, I’m so happy I found your blog. I had IBS symptoms for about 5 years and they just continued to get worse. I had bought digestive enzymes but never took them routinely. I bought the enzymes you suggested and have been taking them diligently for almost 2 weeks. My symptoms have gotten 90% better. I’m so grateful to you. I’ve always had reflux issues – since I was a child- and I think they are helping with that as well, but I haven’t stopped taken OTC meds for it – but I will try that soon. I don’t usually post comments but I just can’t believe how much better I feel, and I really wanted to say thanks.
Thank you Karen for taking the time to comment on here! It really means a lot to me! I am SO glad that you have found help with the Digestive Health!!! 🙂 I’d recommend that you go slow in weaning yourself off the OTC meds if they are something you take on a daily basis. Your system might not like it if you stop cold turkey.
Every time someone tells me “thank you”, it makes me feel so good inside and sometimes brings tears to my eyes! I know the feeling of relief! I have told Shan (owner of Core Health Products) thank you countless times but it just doesn’t seem like enough to say the simple words “thank you”! He truly brought “new life” to our home.
Also when I hear people say that the Digestive Health helps them, it makes my time spent on forums SO worth it! And it inspires me to write more. There are many people that think probiotics and enzymes are just too simple of a fix for them. 😦 And I just love it when someone is willing to give them a try. Thank you for being one of those willing people!!!
What foods did you find agrv reflux
My LO is 6 mos we trailed sweet potatoes squash carrots and pears
Sweet potatoes now are becoming iffy
I think but then again she is naw at her hand 24-7 she developed eczema like patches on her head coincidentally since starting solids
Poops are fine
Except Reisling carrots I noticed spec of blood so I stopped right away
Squash seems to be better
Grace started taking Klaire Lab Probiotic
I’m a bit hesitant to try that one you talked about since she is so sensitive even being in Elecare for 4.5 mos/ though the bubbles don’t help either
Ha ! Trialing carrots not Reisling lol
BTW my daughter did NAET
Tested sensitive to vegetable oils
Palm oil is in a lot of the natural products
I have yet to find a wash/soap that diesnt
make her eczema flare
I wondered what kind of “new” carrot there was out there. 🙂
I feel like when my boys were babies I knew SO little and there was SO much more I could’ve done for them. My pediatrician was of basically no help to me either. When Quinton was 12 weeks old and I told him that a friend suggested that my little one had MSPI (Milk/Soy Protein Intolerance) he was very glad I had found an answer. And said he was ready to contact the GI as he didn’t know what to do anymore.
I went forward knowing that I would have to figure out things on my own. But I really had no where to go as my family’s and friend’s baby all seemed healthy and happy and I didn’t have Internet. So I iavoided all dairy and soy, gave my boys Prevacid and they drank Nutramigen. They were still often miserable for sure at night. I thought it was just something I had to accept. I didn’t know about all the other meds we could’ve tried nor that there was formulas that were broken down even more than Nutramigen. Nor did I know that my boys could have been reacting to foods other than soy or dairy. When I took them both to a pediatric GI she said “They look healthy to me”. And recommended I read a book titled “Colic Solved” written by a different pediatric GI. It was a very good book but I was very unimpressed with the lack of help my GI gave me. 😦
So as to what foods that bothered my children, other than dairy and soy I did figure out that foods like hot dogs and lunch meat were TERRIBLE for them. And of course pop was really bad too. Now I think that there was most likely other foods that bothered them too. I wish I could offer you more help on what foods to avoid but if you will go to http://www.infantreflux.org/forum/default.asp you can find a lot of info about elimination diets and also the TED (Total Elimination Diet). At the top right corner of that site there is a search button and be sure to look back further than the last 6 months to get the best and most information.
As far as the probiotics I can see where you’re coming form on your little girl being so sensitive to so much stuff. I would still recommend though that you try giving your little girl some plant based enzymes. I know that many children who are sensitive to a lot of foods have been able to tolerate the Digestive Health that we use but you can do a search on digestive enzymes that are made particularly for children if you want. Enzymes are really important when food is not being tolerated well as they are the key to being able to properly break down foods. Even though Grace is drinking Elecare (with the proteins completely broken down, right?) she probably was nursed or had a different kinds of formula first. When someone doesn’t have the enzymes to break down the proteins then the proteins will not get digested and therefore will stay in the body and can be harmful. So by taking enzymes now it could help get rid of the possible build up of undigested protein.
Often times when little ones aren’t tolerating foods well they will not show up as an allergy on most types of allergy testing. I think this is because they are not a true allergy but rather the inability to break down the food.
Does your little girl do ok with the probiotics? I know you said they were from Klaire Labs but what kind of probiotics are they? Often times when we are low on probiotics we are low on many kinds and when taking a supplement they work best when there are at least 10 different strains in them.
As far as soap… have you tried Cetaphil? My oldest has terrible excema too and that is what we used for him.
Please remember that I am not a doctor and I am just stated what is my experience and what I THINK is correct. I am not intending to diagnose or treat anyone.
Yeah I tried the cetaphil lotion not realizing that it had macadamia but oil which prob agrv the eczema
I have vanicream just haven’t figured out why it’s flaring etc
Weird but great thing is she’s sleeping 11 hours so the issues are temporary but again solids are very little
Hot dogs and lunch meat bother them?
If think the organic would be fine for MSPI
Oh dear this whole thing just sucks
I’m google queen who should prob have my own med degree
Help for Acid Reflux, Heartburn, GERD, Indigestion, IBS, Gastroparesis, and Many Other Digestive Issues 
Thank you for taking the time to type out your story and journey! I’d love it if you’d add a link somewhere to the forum where I ‘know’ you from because I, just like you, really love helping and can’t help sharing information! Knowldedge is power! ~laura a.k.a. “hellbennt”
The link to the forum Laura is talking about is http://www.infantreflux.org/forum/. I love this site! Laura is an extremely knowledgeable mom that helps a lot of other moms with their reflux babies!
first off i want to say THANK YOU for writing this blog. in the midst of what seems like the millionth night of i just can’t take this anymore (lack of sleep, crying baby up all night etc) while googling on my iphone holding my son who i couldnt put down b/c he was in so much pain i happened to see your response to someone on some question on a reflux forum. i noticed your answer and clicked on your link to your blog. i cannot tell you how thankful i am you wrote your entire story with all the details. our story is similiar minus the blood in the stools. i am not sure exactly where to start. i too on my own finally figured out i had to eliminate every single ounce of dairy and soy in my diet while breastfeeding to get my son to quit spitting up. until the age of 6 mo he slept in a moving swing b/c he would spit up or make choking noises gagging if i laid him down at all. finally at 6 mo is when i switched him to nutramigen b/c i just oculdnt take eating that way anymore and amazingly he seemed SO much better. wheni started introducing foods is when things got really bad again. rice cereal results in crying, gassiness, total lack of nighttime sleep unless being held. carrots made him throw up. squash made him throw up. i finally quit foods. then everytime i would try any purreed baby food i would give up after a few days and go back to just nutramigen and he would improve a ton. finally at 10 mo i thought he just has to be eating something (btw my son is 98% for weight and height so people find it really hard to believe hes had all these issues). i began with sweet potatoes and at first he seemed fine. it eventually got to where we spent an entire 8 weeks where i couldnt even put him in his crib. he would just cry. i had to hold him all night long sitting upright. i attributed it to teething and just continued on with foods. then finally i had a moment where i realized i think its the food. so i quit all food and just went to nutramigen and he returned to normal. i fInally threw a fit until his pediatrician put him on prevacid. he kept telling me “he was spoiled and just wanted mommy at night.” after prevacid he started falling asleep every time the car was moving and taking a decent nap every day for the first time ever and sleeping ok at night. in his crib but waking 1-3 times a night for a bottle. that contined until july 2012 and he was about 16 mo old. the only food during this time he seemed to handle well was pears – pureed and an organic cheerio from whole foods (the only finger food i could find with very few ingredients). any time i have added any other food in – he either is up screaming, crying, gassy, arching his back, refusing to lay down….etc… he often throws up after eating a new food.
the crazy thing is this. he has been blood tested and he does not show any signs of allergies. i have taken him in twice again a few days ago we went and i started crying b/c i am just so frustrated. he has been to a pediatric gastroenterologist. who said that i just need to wait it out until he outgrows this. i took him in a second time a few months after the first visit to tell him nothing had improved and to beg him for some advice.
GOOD NEWS: i started him on the digestive health mid july and he has been off of his prevacid since then!!! i have been giving him 1 pill twice a day. i have seen no negative changes since doing that and i am so happy about that. SO THANK YOU! thank you for sharing this. i told our allergist the other day about it and i was so excited, he looked at me blankly and said i dont really see how that would help. (didnt really surprise me at all his response). the only true help i have received in this crazy journey has been from other mom’s stories. and only one dr. ever agreed that soy could be part of the problem.
AND i have been taking it twice a day and it is helping a ton with my heartburn as well. i have also noticed i am able to eat things again that used to make me feel funny and sometimes get heartburn, onions, banannnas are two things!!!
so around the same time i started the digestive health i decided to give the alkaline water a try. the lady i got it from started him out on 7 mixed with 8.5. then quickly had me start giving him 8.5. i was giving him only that water. and then getting it every two days. i personally had my heartburn go away. but i noticed he got so fussy. they kept saying it was making him detox. but he was so irritable and restless and not sleeping well. so my big question is, was he being given to high of an alkaline water. i guess i would like more advice on what you did with your boys on that.
i decided i am going to give it another try. i am so hesitant to purchase a machine, b/c i am so scared it wont help him, but there is a big part of me that keeps thinking what if it does. i grew up drinking reverse osmosis and that is what i have been giving my little guy since he was six months and what i was drinking while nursing him.
1) at the age of 18mo-2yrs how many of the digestive health did you give a day? and did you give a whole one at a time or did you spread it out during the day?
2) when you started with the alkaline water with your boys, what level did you start on? and how long did you stay on that level? i have heard differing opinions. i was told by two kangen people to start and move up in a few days.
3) after starting the two things did you ever have reflux flare ups with the boys? just curious
also one other question, have you heard of NAET? if so any opinions? i was so desperate i took him into a dr on saturday that practices it. he was tested and showed he was allergic to most foods. they treat a person for the allergen and then it should make the person no longer allergic. they treated him for eggs. then he had to avoid them for 25 hours and then after i gave him some. he loved them of course. poor little guy has eaten so few things he goes crazy with excitement when he gets something new. so for two days he seemed fine with them. and the first night he slept all nigtht which he has only probably done 6-10 times since he was born, and the second night he woke 1x. but then today he threw up after eating them.
he doesnt throw up very often. but it seems like maybe 1x a month on average and its usually after a new food. for example in april we tried oranges and started throwing up for days then. any thoughts on that? and did your boys do that too?
you also have given me huge hope as well for a third child not being this way. i dont feel i am done with kids but honestly dont think i can go through this again if its going to be this way. my first was hard (didnt sleep well for the first 8 mo and i think had silent reflux) but my second has been a nightmare in the eating and sleeping department. so thank you again for doing this blogged. you have helped me a lot!!!!
Hi Katie! Thanks so much for taking the time to write all that out and post it here. I want to answer each question in detail but will create a page just for your story. Would you mind copying and pasting this post on that page? I’d rather answer the questions over there because I think more people read it there than here! 🙂 https://help4acidreflux.wordpress.com/katies-story/
Martha, I’m so happy I found your blog. I had IBS symptoms for about 5 years and they just continued to get worse. I had bought digestive enzymes but never took them routinely. I bought the enzymes you suggested and have been taking them diligently for almost 2 weeks. My symptoms have gotten 90% better. I’m so grateful to you. I’ve always had reflux issues – since I was a child- and I think they are helping with that as well, but I haven’t stopped taken OTC meds for it – but I will try that soon. I don’t usually post comments but I just can’t believe how much better I feel, and I really wanted to say thanks.
Karen
Thank you Karen for taking the time to comment on here! It really means a lot to me! I am SO glad that you have found help with the Digestive Health!!! 🙂 I’d recommend that you go slow in weaning yourself off the OTC meds if they are something you take on a daily basis. Your system might not like it if you stop cold turkey.
Every time someone tells me “thank you”, it makes me feel so good inside and sometimes brings tears to my eyes! I know the feeling of relief! I have told Shan (owner of Core Health Products) thank you countless times but it just doesn’t seem like enough to say the simple words “thank you”! He truly brought “new life” to our home.
Also when I hear people say that the Digestive Health helps them, it makes my time spent on forums SO worth it! And it inspires me to write more. There are many people that think probiotics and enzymes are just too simple of a fix for them. 😦 And I just love it when someone is willing to give them a try. Thank you for being one of those willing people!!!
Feel free to ask any questions you would have!
What foods did you find agrv reflux
My LO is 6 mos we trailed sweet potatoes squash carrots and pears
Sweet potatoes now are becoming iffy
I think but then again she is naw at her hand 24-7 she developed eczema like patches on her head coincidentally since starting solids
Poops are fine
Except Reisling carrots I noticed spec of blood so I stopped right away
Squash seems to be better
Grace started taking Klaire Lab Probiotic
I’m a bit hesitant to try that one you talked about since she is so sensitive even being in Elecare for 4.5 mos/ though the bubbles don’t help either
Any solids tips; my GI and PED are NO
Help
Ha ! Trialing carrots not Reisling lol
BTW my daughter did NAET
Tested sensitive to vegetable oils
Palm oil is in a lot of the natural products
I have yet to find a wash/soap that diesnt
make her eczema flare
Hi Christine!
I wondered what kind of “new” carrot there was out there. 🙂
I feel like when my boys were babies I knew SO little and there was SO much more I could’ve done for them. My pediatrician was of basically no help to me either. When Quinton was 12 weeks old and I told him that a friend suggested that my little one had MSPI (Milk/Soy Protein Intolerance) he was very glad I had found an answer. And said he was ready to contact the GI as he didn’t know what to do anymore.
I went forward knowing that I would have to figure out things on my own. But I really had no where to go as my family’s and friend’s baby all seemed healthy and happy and I didn’t have Internet. So I iavoided all dairy and soy, gave my boys Prevacid and they drank Nutramigen. They were still often miserable for sure at night. I thought it was just something I had to accept. I didn’t know about all the other meds we could’ve tried nor that there was formulas that were broken down even more than Nutramigen. Nor did I know that my boys could have been reacting to foods other than soy or dairy. When I took them both to a pediatric GI she said “They look healthy to me”. And recommended I read a book titled “Colic Solved” written by a different pediatric GI. It was a very good book but I was very unimpressed with the lack of help my GI gave me. 😦
So as to what foods that bothered my children, other than dairy and soy I did figure out that foods like hot dogs and lunch meat were TERRIBLE for them. And of course pop was really bad too. Now I think that there was most likely other foods that bothered them too. I wish I could offer you more help on what foods to avoid but if you will go to http://www.infantreflux.org/forum/default.asp you can find a lot of info about elimination diets and also the TED (Total Elimination Diet). At the top right corner of that site there is a search button and be sure to look back further than the last 6 months to get the best and most information.
There is a diet called the GAPS diet and it is intended to heal the gut. Google “GAPS” and you will find a lot of info about it. I ordered the book about it and found it very interesting. Also just today I found a blog that tells what they found to help when the GAPS diet didn’t. http://nourishingourchildren.wordpress.com/2012/12/26/if-gaps-hasnt-work-for-you-or-yours-read-this/#comment-2024
As far as the probiotics I can see where you’re coming form on your little girl being so sensitive to so much stuff. I would still recommend though that you try giving your little girl some plant based enzymes. I know that many children who are sensitive to a lot of foods have been able to tolerate the Digestive Health that we use but you can do a search on digestive enzymes that are made particularly for children if you want. Enzymes are really important when food is not being tolerated well as they are the key to being able to properly break down foods. Even though Grace is drinking Elecare (with the proteins completely broken down, right?) she probably was nursed or had a different kinds of formula first. When someone doesn’t have the enzymes to break down the proteins then the proteins will not get digested and therefore will stay in the body and can be harmful. So by taking enzymes now it could help get rid of the possible build up of undigested protein.
Often times when little ones aren’t tolerating foods well they will not show up as an allergy on most types of allergy testing. I think this is because they are not a true allergy but rather the inability to break down the food.
Does your little girl do ok with the probiotics? I know you said they were from Klaire Labs but what kind of probiotics are they? Often times when we are low on probiotics we are low on many kinds and when taking a supplement they work best when there are at least 10 different strains in them.
As far as soap… have you tried Cetaphil? My oldest has terrible excema too and that is what we used for him.
Please remember that I am not a doctor and I am just stated what is my experience and what I THINK is correct. I am not intending to diagnose or treat anyone.
Thanks for asking your questions!
Yeah I tried the cetaphil lotion not realizing that it had macadamia but oil which prob agrv the eczema
I have vanicream just haven’t figured out why it’s flaring etc
Weird but great thing is she’s sleeping 11 hours so the issues are temporary but again solids are very little
Hot dogs and lunch meat bother them?
If think the organic would be fine for MSPI
Oh dear this whole thing just sucks
I’m google queen who should prob have my own med degree
Well, I’m really really glad your little one is getting some good sleep. 🙂
I never tried organic hot dogs or lunch meat on my boys so I don’t know if they would’ve been ok with that or not.