Zantac, Tummy Time, and Laws of Nature

A bit of a ramble...

Since Victor's 2-month check-up on Tuesday, I have been thinking and thinking about what the doctor said about his probably having acid reflux. The doc gave us a prescription for Zantac, but said we didn't need to fill it if we could manage the reflux with more "natural" methods.

We've done the "elevate mattress" route before, and it generally resulted in the little man teetering at the top of the bed until, sometime in the middle of the night, he would wrestle himself sideways, and roll downhill, thumping his noggin on the wooden rails of the crib.

I tried sitting him more upright after feeding, but that didn't seem to make a remarkable difference either.

Since the doc told me that he thought Victor was occasionally coughing (and semi-gagging) on his spit-up because of the reflux, the last straw was when I laid Victor down on Tuesday afternoon (already crying because of his shots), and his little screams were almost strangled by coughing and choking. (Not nice for Momma, who was already a bit on the ragged edge.)

So, first thing Wednesday morning, I headed off to pick up some Zantac from Walgreens. (The nice folks said that every baby known to man spits it out if left in the original mint flavor, so we sprung for an extra $2.99 to make it grape flavored.)

I don't like giving my 2-month old baby medicine. So I've been praying and praying that God would help us to see if this is the right thing.

After giving V 4 doses, I still felt like the jury was out. He was still pretty fretful while eating, still spit up like a monster, and still fussed some (even right after I gave him the meds).

But there have been a couple encouraging notes.

First, he was happy for basically the whole Crabby Hour (9-10am) this morning, and didn't even spit up during Tummy Time. (Incidentally, he has started fanatically sucking on his fist during Tummy Time. He loves it! I would find it fairly uncomfortable to jam my whole entire hand in my mouth, but it makes the little fellow so cheerful.)



And second, we went through bath time and the first side of feeding without spitting up. And as the Laws of Nature would dictate, it was during the first side of feeding (immediately following bathtime) that Victor had a total blowout. So back to the changing table we went, to wrestle off the sleeper, onesie, and diaper and replace them with a full fresh complement.

And the little guy didn't spit up through that whole process either!

He is currently taking his mid-day snooze and (last I checked) has now made it a record period of time without a spit-up geyser!

Possibly I did stand outside his door for a long time after I put him down, squinting through the crack in the door, to see if he would fall asleep without losing his breakfast...

So far, so good!

So, if you think of it, you could ask the Lord that this would be the real deal and his little tummy would be adjusting to the Zantac and finding a harmonious new equilibrium. That would be a sweet answer to prayer!