I feel horrible

For the last 2 months we have been dealing with recurring sinus, eye and ear infections. We took them to an ENT two days ago and he was certain the problem was caused by reflux irritating the mucosal lining, which has made them vulnerable to infection. Apparently all the spitting up that everyone told me was normal was extremely excessive, and my babies should have been on meds to control it. I am also feeding them too much. He said 32 ozs a day is way too much and I should be feeding them less formula, increasing solids, and thickening the formula with cereal.

To add insult to injury Kate had a reaction to the antibiotic he prescribed, and we dealt with that all day yesterday.

I feel terrible that I have been doing the wrong thing all this time. To think I could have prevented this, and the pediatricians who have been treating them never told me to do anything differently.

Now I am just hoping that things improve. The spitting up has gotten much better since I have been following the ENT's advice. It is just extremely frustrating and concerning. As I am typing this I am hearing Kate cough in her sleep in the next room, and it feels like things will never get better.

My girls want to explore and play. They like other babies. I want to take them places and let them play with other babies, and I can't do that. We have all been stuck at home, and my babies have been miserable, bored, caged in, and feeling sick this whole time.

 

I can understand you feel horrible, but its not your fault. Hopefully things will get better from here on. Hugs!

 

Kristie, don't be so hard on yourself, how could you have possibly known? Hindsight is always 20/20! The point is, that you have followed up with it, gotten them into the right doc, and hopefully things will start to get better for them now. You are a good mommy. :hug99:

 

Maybe you could try adding some baby acidophilus to their bottles. That can help w/strengthening the immune system, plus it will def. help to control other issues from the antibiotics, like diaper rash and diarrhea.
It can also help w/the reflux.

 

Kristie,
First of all :hug99: to you b/c I know exactly what you mean about them being sick. Mattie was at the dr again on Wednesday for another ear infection and we are on breathing treatments again.
Second of all, How could you have known to do any different when even the peds. didn't suggest anything different?
Don't beat yourself up, [SIZE=14pt]YOU ARE A GREAT MOM[/SIZE]!!

 

You are not a horrible Mom! Every mother will go through something like this at some point, trust me!! I could give about 10 examples from my little family of 3 alone. Just today I was at the Dr with my 3yr old and she diagnosed him with strep, which wouldn't be a big deal but I had strep like a month ago and it is likely he has had this a while. He never has complained but he woke up this morning with a huge, swollen lymph node in his neck. Talk about feeling horrible.

Kind of off track here, I do want to know why the Dr. think 32oz of formula is too much. If it is, then my boys have been getting way too much formula for about 4 months. How much formula and solids they need is based on weight and activity level, so maybe your babies are much smaller than mine. Anyway, my boys were getting about 32oz a day at 6 months and increased to over 40oz before we added more solid food. Our Dr. said it was fine because they are still getting all they need from the formula but he did add to increase solids. As we increased solids, their formula intake went down considerably, but they were really slow to take to solid foods. They eat 3 solid meals and and drink about 26oz of formula each now. Thanks and please don't feel bad.

Kelly

 

I think between 9 and 12 months you are supposed to start cutting back the formula and increasing solids. I was still doing 32 ozs (8 oz bottles 4x a day) at 9 months. Since they were spitting up so much (about 15x a day each) the doctor said that 32 ozs was too much for them and it was time to cut back. I guess if they didn't have a problem from it, it would be fine, but since they were getting all the sinus infections, he said I needed to cut back. I feel like such an idiot for not putting two and two together when they were spitting up so much and getting sick again and again.

I am worried about cutting back on formula because Kate has been lingering around 17 lbs for a few months now and I don't want her to lose weight. But I guess the idea is to increase her solids. She eats the recommended amount of solids a day. I am just so used to depending on formula. It's hard to decrease it. I may just bring them up to 24 ozs a day just for peace of mind.