There are times when parents have to follow their instincts even when doctors don't think they are on the right track. We have asked Hayden's doctors a few times over the last year and a half if maybe a different food would work better for him. Each time we were told Pediasure is the best thing for him. Still, there was something in our guts that kept telling us that there was something better. Unfortunately, the past couple of years have been spent getting through one medical crisis after another. So, what food Hayden was getting didn't seem so urgent, especially since we were reassured that he was getting the most best food for him.
However, Hayden's vomiting wasn't getting any better. In fact, it seemed to be getting worse for him. He was still vomiting 2 or 3 times a day, but the mucus was getting thicker in consistency and larger in volume. We have tried everything we could to, at the very least, thin out the mucus to no avail. Nothing seemed to really make any difference. Usually, the mucus was the consistency of molasses. Sometimes, it was thicker. When it was thicker, Hayden really struggled to get it up. There were a couple of times that Tony was really worried that he was going to choke on it and he'd have to call 911. More than once, Tony had to pull it out of Hayden's mouth with his finger. How scary! We don't need to be terrified everytime he vomits that he is going to choke to death and the poor kid shouldn't have to go through so much to vomit. Something had to be done. If the vomiting is purely caused by GERD, why is there so much mucus in it and why does he vomit at least half of his feed 2.5 hours after he eats?
There isn't much we can do on our own to try to help our son. So, our goal was to make the vomiting easier for him. Hopefully, by elimintating the mucus. At the very least, by thining it so he doesn't choke and gag on it. After researching medical foods, there were several options that we could try. We wanted to keep the food as similiar to what Hayden was currently being fed, but wanted something that was wasier to digest. Once I used that criteria to wade through the many pediatric medical foods, we decided to give Nutren Jr. a try. It was almost identical to Pediasure except for the whey to casein ratio. Nutren Jr. has much more whey in it than Pediasure. Whey protein helps to facilitate gastric emptying (our goal). We ordered it online and had it in a couple of days.
WOW! The result was immediate. The entire month of January Hayden only vomited twice. Both times were induced by something. One time was from too much kicking, of course. The other was because he was crying too hard after being scared by a sudden noise. When he did vomit, the volume was less and there was NO mucus. Best of all, there was no gagging, crying, back arching, or arm flailing...and no vomit came out of his nose. Without vomit coming out of his nose several times a day, Hayden's snoring has become much quieter. So quiet, in fact, that we were able to take him off of his Flonase. I love it when we are able to discontinue a medicine.
Even his therapists have noticed that Hayden seems happier in general and that he is much more tolerant of movement. He is now even putting toys in his mouth! It's great to see something besides his pacifier in there!
We want to give a very big thank you to the Hy-Vee in Ankeny, especially Ali and Hillary, for going out of their way to order Hayden's food for us. We greatly appreciate your willingness to help our son.
Of course Hayden's GI doc gave us his blessing after I told him of our experiment. I am thankful he was so cool about it. We really struggled with this decision. His office even called me the next week to see where I was getting the Nutren Jr. so that they could begin another child on it. Besides that family, there is another that has started it after our experiment and it appears that this is helping thier son out, too. How wonderful to know that Hayden is helping others. I thank God every day that he gave us the courage to listen to what our instincts were screaming at us. We can't wait to see what February has in store for Hayden. This could be very exciting for all of us!
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