My son was just about 6 months and I was eager to take some pressure off my rigid pumping schedule. It wasn't very easy to pump at work every 3 hours while serving tables. I didn't like asking for help and some tables would wonder where I "disappeared" to. I'm sure some thought I was out smoking cigarettes etc. In our formula fed nation, rarely do people think about breast feeding mothers on the job. Guess they just assume mothers who work formula feed. A week before Austin's 6 month "birthday," I decided to give him some sweet potatoes... I know, bad idea, but solid foods seemed like so much fun.
He took a few bites and spit it all up. I feared an allergy, but my mother assured me that he had no symptoms of an allergy. I just assumed he wasn't ready. Then at his 6 month check up I was pressured by the nurse practitioner to feed him solid food 3 times a day. That my son was on the small side and she made me feel like it was my fault and that Austin should have been eating solids regularly for a while by then. So, I tried, and i tried, and I tried some more. He would stick his little tongue out to block the spoon. If he took the food in, he'd push it back out with his tongue. In the back of my head, all I heard was, "your baby's small! Feed him," Why didn't I listen to my baby who was saying, "the food makes my tummy hurt!" I continued to push him. I would hold the bottle up and he'd open his mouth for it and I'd stick the spoon in. I feel so bad looking back, but remember what the practitioner told me? Also, my son had a rash that continued to get worse over time.
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I was told to put hydrocortisone cream on it, that babies just have sensitive skin. Later, a practitioner told me it was ring worm. I even put fungus cream on his little belly! It ended up the acid in his saliva was causing the rash. It cleared up as soon as we treated the acid. August 28th 2010 was the worst day of my life. I decided to try a new food with Austin. It was the first, and last time he had bananas. He seemed to love them! He ate the entire container! Soon after we decided to take an afternoon walk. My husband picked Austin up and we ran out the door to get the stroller from the car. As we walked Austin looked strange. His eyes looked like they were rolling back, and then he started to shutter!! I went ballistic. Was my baby dying in his father's arms? Was he having a seizure? It sure looked that way! We jumped in the car with no car seat. Erik held my baby while I drove like a nut to the hospital. I kept asking, "is he breathing? Is he out of it?" Erik said he's breathing and he's come to. Afterwards he was VERY lethargic, but he was alive and seemed ok. After a very hectic drive to the hospital, we were finally there. They rushed him back because I told them he had a seizure and didn't feel warm. They checked his temperature and it was 99.5. They did a CT scan and blood work, all normal. They refereed us to a pediatric neurologist. I stressed to the doctor that he had just eaten a whole container of a new food and was there any way the two could be related? He never ate so much before. She insisted there was no connection. An allergy would not cause a seizure. The weekend was long and I couldn't take my eyes off him. I didn't sleep I just researched online. I decided to google baby seizure after eating. Some how I came upon, "Sandifer's Syndrome." I was in awe... everything I read, seemed to relate to my baby. The seizure symptom was only one of his reflux symptoms. He also was very congested that weekend. He wheezed and even gasped for air. First thing Monday morning I rushed to his pediatrician. I explained everything and got a prescription for an upper GI barium test. I also got a prescription for Zantac, which I later discovered doesn't really help GERD babies. She wasn't convinced but understood my worry but insisted I see the neurologist also. So Austin had the barium test. He didn't really cooperate. What an archaic test! They think a baby will drink a chalky substance on their back with a bunch of doctors staring at them? They're crazy! I didn't really get an accurate test, but mild reflux showed up. It kindof made me think, maybe my baby doesn't have Sandifer's Syndrome... I thought the test would come back severe reflux. I got lazy with the zantac, thinking something else is to blame for the seizure like symptoms. We saw a neurologist, and since fever seizures run in my family, she suggested that could be the cause. She thought my son was very advanced for his age. He could hold his head up early, turned over early, crawled and sat up early. She insisted that babies with epilepsy are usually behind. She also thought Acid Reflux could most definitely be the cause, and not to count that out. Exactly 28 days after his first episode, he had a second. We had finally calmed down from the first and were convinced, it was just a fluke. It was early in the morning, I put him in his new jumper. He had been breast feeding a lot that night/morning because when I pumped I got very little, when I usually get a lot. I wondered why my baby stopped jumping, and I looked at his face and there it was... blank stare, eyes rolled back. I took him out and put him on his side as the neurologist suggested you do when a child has a seizure. It lasted about a minute and he came out of it lethargic and fussy all day. I took him to the pediatrician just to make sure he was ok, as the neurologist had suggested. I put a call into her as well. I was frustrated. He hadn't even had solids, so I guess it couldn't be sandifer's syndrome? He didn't have a fever, guess it's not fever seizures. I didn't know what I was going to do. Then my wonderful neurologist called back and insisted that it very well may be the reflux. Being put in the jumper first thing in the morning could cause the reflux to come up. She told me to give him a higher dose of zantac through the weekend and get to the pediatrician on Monday and ask for a better medicine. Thanks to refluxrebels.com I was very educated as to what medicine my baby needed. He should be on a PPI... a proton pump inhabiter. I was very firm with the pediatrician and I finally had one who listened and understood that reflux can cause seizure like symptoms in a baby. She gave me a prescription for prevacid solutabs and these little pills have forever changed our lives. He soon after was able to eat solids. I had never seen him eat so much! He began sleeping and napping! His rash cleared up, he gained weight. His congestion cleared and no seizure like symptoms! We are going on two months episode free and I am so thankful for the internet, baby center and reflux rebels. Without my own research, my baby would probably be on seizure medicine still suffering. Doctor's do not know a baby like a mother does.
