Colic and then some... ugh

At about a week and a half old, Bentley started being super fussy and crying a lot, more than a typical baby.  Over the next few weeks, it got worse and worse until it was impossible to listen to him crying and being so sad and in pain all the time.  His pediatrician took a chest x-ray to rule out any abnormalities but it looked fine, so he said it was probably just colic ("he's gaining weight and looks and sounds healthy, just wait it out for a few more months"), but we still tried to do whatever we could anyway- I went off dairy and lots of other foods, we tried him on a couple different formulas, we thickened his milk/formula, got a second opinion, etc. to see if we could get an answer to why he was like this.  Even after doing everything we could, nothing made it go away, though the formula helped a little.  The round-the-clock screaming is so hard to deal with, especially when there is nothing you can do!  I kept having the feeling that something was wrong because I am his hyperactive mother and because he always sounds like he is in so much pain.  I didn't know what it was, but I knew there was something wrong, more than just colic.

I was right.  A few weeks ago, Bentley vomited a good sized amount of dark blood.  Of course, we freaked out and the doc told us to come right in.  He sent us to the hospital for an upper GI test where B had to drink Barium, some nasty white stuff that looked like paint, and we got to see how and where the liquid was traveling through his system.  Through this, we could see that he had some traces of acid reflux.  The doctor said the blood was probably from a burst blood vessel and was nothing to worry about.  For the reflux, he gave us some Prevacid and Reglan to see if it would help.  It didn't really.  He was still so fussy and sad, there was still something wrong.  I just didn't feel right about what the doctor said about the blood.  I couldn't let him cry and hurt and spit up blood until I knew exactly why.  So, after bugging his peditrician about a hundred times, he finally said that if he spit up blood again to go down to Primary Children's Hospital in SLC and see what they say.

Well, he did- about an hour before his baby blessing in church this past Sunday he spit up more blood, this time bright red.  Jimmy had to work so Gail went with me to Primary's.  The doctor there ordered some blood tests which all came back normal, so he talked with the pediatric gastrointinologist about Bentley.  He told us that most likely B has esophagitus (tearing in his esophagus, causing him to puke blood) due to a strong milk allergy.  He recommended only giving him Nutramagen (a special lactose-free formula, it also helps with colicky babies) for a month, and then if I want to breastfeed him after that, I'll have to be on an extreme dairy-free diet (even excluding bread, most cereals, etc) and see how he does with that.  I started the diet yesterday and it's hard!  If there is any more blood, we'll go back down to Primary's for a scope test, but hopefully this is the answer!  In addition to the two medications Bentley is already on, he also gave him Zantac to control the reflux in a different way.

It feels really good to hopefully have an answer about why he is such a sad little guy and why he's hurting so much all the time.  Plus, we are hoping he'll stop crying all the time!  I'm really glad I didn't just ignore my feeling that something was wrong and let Bentley hurt even longer.  Poor little guy!