Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Prevacid, Round 2

About three weeks ago, Anna Claire started throwing up after eating dinner - a couple times that week after she was finished eating her finger foods before we even got her out of the high chair. Out of nowhere, she would throw up everything she had just eaten and then happily go along on her way like nothing had happened - she would even want to eat more.

What I noticed upon examination of the evidence (and there was a lot of evidence) was whole pieces of carrot, banana, etc. So, I thought she was probably trying to swallow too-large pieces of food, gagging on it, and throwing it up. Then she started throwing up after lunch and breakfast, still after she had finished her finger foods (theory in tact). Next, she started throwing up after just having eaten jarred food, so my theory about the finger foods was out the window.

With the frequency of these "episodes" increasing, and with no other symptoms and no explanation, I took her to see the pediatrician yesterday. She seems to think Anna Claire has probably been having reflux problems that have gone unnoticed by us, and her esophagus has become irritated over time and that we are now seeing the effects of that reflux. So, she's back on prevacid.

Interestingly enough, we had a little stomach bug run through our family yesterday (for the record, we didn't think we had swine flu, and we're all doing fine today). Both Anna Claire and Mallory suffered the effects of the virus throughout the day, and Anna Claire threw up last night after drinking her bedtime bottle. Poor baby was just falling asleep on my shoulder when she burped once and then everything came up. Since she was on my shoulder half asleep, she ended up with her face covered in yuck and she was not happy about it! I'm not sure if that was due to reflux or the bug we had, but she and Mallory both slept great and are doing fine this morning.

Anna Claire had her first dose of prevacid this morning, and it can take a few days to see improvement, so we'll hope this helps her. If we don't see improvement in two weeks or if things get worse, then we'll be referred to a specialist. Let's hope the prevacid does the trick.

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