A newborn undeniably a wonderful gift, as indeed is any child; but when they scream non-stop in obvious pain for hours on end, you start to feel the tether unwind! (In fact, I’m quite surprised I still have hair…)
After 6 months of this, 23 trips to the emergency room, various GPs and numerous times of being told its just colic, you need to switch to formula because you dont have enough breast milk or theres nothing wrong, hes just a baby, I dont have a magic cure for you, we have recently been told our son was and still is suffering from various allergies, and the big killer SILENT REFLUX.
When I went to most doctors, they mistook my 411 petite appearance to mean that I was a teenager, and let this effect their judgement (which gives me great sympathy for teen mums, I mean it is hard enough being a parent at the best of times – right?) and my concern for my childs pain to mean that I simply could not cope with the normal crying process of babies, which led them to the completely erroneous conclusion that our little man was not really in pain.
Although I am by no means an expert on reflux or silent reflux, and I’m not going to include the same list of symptoms featured on almost any parenting website, I can list the symptoms that my son went through. Hopefully it will spare others from experiencing a similar debacle!:
* Arching back coupled with constant high pitched screaming
* Needing to be held upright on shoulder, preferably while walking
* Screaming in pain, whilst still asleep! (then waking up in pain)
* Wanting to feed every hour or so
* Having trouble with wind and the process that creates the poo-ey nappy