When It’s Not Colic

my son was allergic to my breast milk. i know it’s controversial to say that, especially online where anyone can see what i write… but that is the truth. that is the direction this blog has taken, and i’m grateful for the connections it has given me.

doctor’s didn’t believe me, specialists didn’t believe me, and all of the medical professionals we consulted told me to continue nursing because “breast is best.” and yes, that may be the case for most women… for me, for my son, breast was not best.

i am by no means anti-breast feeding. not at all. i am pro-woman. therefore, i am pro-breast feeding mothers… it is what we were made for, and should you be a mother who is able to breast feed your child and it works for you, i commend you. should you be a mother who is unable to breast feed or unwilling to breast feed, regardless of the reason, i commend you. bottom line: find what works for you and your baby.

jackson was allergic to my breast milk. no matter what elimination diet i tried, my child was in pain with stomach distention, severe vomiting, bloody stool, not to mention the screams of terror that came from him any time i attempted to nurse him as a newborn.

the result of our magoo refusing to eat for the first 6 months of his life left us with no other choice than to force feed him through an NG tube that was taped to his face, went up his nose, back down his throat, and into his belly for 8 weeks. this “food refusal” diagnosis, resulting from the breast milk allergy, left us with a child who now battles severe reflux, and cyclic vomiting syndrome. google it or just check out what’s below…

these are links that helped me attempt to find answers on days when i found myself without sleep, without sanity, without confidence in myself as a mother.

infant reflux
GERD tests
dairy free nursing
allergy elimination diet for breastfeeding
“the second brain” by dr. michael gershon
cyclic vomiting syndrome association
cyclic vomiting triggers
neurogastroenterology definition
food refusal and failure to thrive
hopkins children’s
kennedy krieger institute
pediatric feeding disorders program

our son was hospitalized when he was 4 months old and then again at 5 months. the first time, paul and i chose to hospitalize our sweet magoo in order to have numerous tests run on him in the hopes of getting to the root of why he didn’t eat. two abdominal ultrasounds, two barium swallow studies, an endoscopy, an allergy panel, blood work, and (almost) a gastric emptying scan were done on our child… all tests came back “normal.” jackson was not normal. he didn’t eat. refused to eat. he was losing weight and not hydrated properly. we were scared for our magoo.

his diagnosis: food refusal and dysphagia.

our second hospital stay resulted in having an NG tube placed up jackson’s nose and down his throat to his belly for a total of 8 weeks. we called him “tube face” to make light of our situation.

thus, our bottle for a few months, was at the hospital… and those days are in the links below…

Hospital Stay #1

Hospital Stay #2