If you asked me one word to describe Cooper, it'd be spitty. The kid is a spitter. I've yet to wear an article of clothing (including my shoes, thankyouverymuch) that hasn't been christened by the contents of Cooper's stomach. There hasn't been a meal that hasn't had some part regurgitated minutes or hours later. When my friends or family ask to hold Cooper, the first thing I say is "Be careful, he's spitty."
Sure he's adorable. And he's a thinker. And he'll always win a staring contest. He's a good sleeper at night. And if he really loves you, he'll try to give you a kiss by slobbering all over your cheek. But the first thing that I think of when I think of Cooper is the consistency of his outrageous spitting.
Which, when you think about it, is sort of sad. Especially when I would have called his older brother angelic and happy at this age. Darius was a spitter too. But he was a happy spitter. And while Cooper isn't colic-y and doesn't go screaming his head off, he is not a happy spitter.
After a really horrible weekend of spitting up with a whole series of spit-ups hitting the projectile vomiting classification, I decided it was time to talk to our pediatrician about it.
Turns out Cooper has infant reflux.
Also turns out that up to two-thirds of babies have reflux. Most of those babies will be like Darius, happy spitters who don't need medication to keep them happy or help keep food in their bellies. Then there are bambinos like Cooper, who despite all the home-remedies and helpful tips, need medical intervention. While Cooper hasn't experienced poor weight gain, he has had:
- discomfort while feeding
- resistance to feeding - especially breastfeeding
- coughing
- gagging
- vomiting
- sticking his fingers in his mouth and making himself spit-up
- excessive drooling not associated with teething
Yesterday, we started giving prescribed meds to Cooper for his reflux. It's too soon to tell if this medicine will work. It's hard to know if this particular medicine which works on one cause of reflux will work or if he'll need a different type of medicine that works on a different type of cause. Reflux also peaks at 4-6 months with it virtually tapering off by a year (only 1% of babies have reflux past one year), so I'm hopeful that we'll be outgrowing the barf stage soon.
Until then, consider yourself warned. Cooper is armed and dangerous. And yes, still adorable as ever.
