Silent Reflux in Babies Pt. 1

Silent Reflux

One of the first things I say to new parents is “enjoy the first few weeks of baby bliss”.

There is nothing better than bringing that new baby home and falling in a vortex of not knowing what day or time it is. Nonstop snuggles, feeds and diaper changes. In hindsight this sentiment feels highly cliche based on the fact that it is nowhere near my own experience. I think it might terrify new parents if I shared my truth of:

“Watch out! Those first few months will be the worst months of your life”.

The first ten days home with our son, Alessio were far from bliss and challenging to say the least. Even though he was pooping and peeing regularly (the kid pooped on me twice right out of the gate) our son had tested DAT + (Direct Antiglobulin Test is done when the mother is O- blood type and the baby isn’t. It can cause build-up of bilirubin in the blood which is a yellow pigment produced when red blood cells, which carry oxygen around the body, are broken down. Newborn babies who are DAT positive may have higher levels of jaundice and may need to have treatment)

“Damn you universal blood type! Damn you”!

Our sons’ jaundice had us on a strict two hour schedule of wake times and feeds to clear the bilirubin out of his body. The anxiety I felt was overwhelming and I was grateful to have my Doula, April talk me through it and help with the feeds. Ten days later our sweet babe was in the clear only to be left with a giant bleeding diaper rash all over his brand new bum. I could write an entire blog on butt cream, I literally tried them all. Constantly running errands I never expected was also overwhelming and I couldn’t be more thankful for April. She stopped to grab me things like butt cream and nipple shields to save my husband from returning to the store multiple times to return the wrong ones. Bless him he tried.

Since I was new to motherhood and didn’t know a thing about newborns and their sleep other than it wasn’t consistent, I failed to fully understand that it wasn’t normal for my child to be waking up abruptly screaming in agony after 15 – 20 minutes of sleep. I did what I think any new mom would do… I assumed he was hungry and fed him.

That same summer my brother was married only three weeks after Alessio was born. Here we were packing up a newborn, running on no sleep and driving to the mountains to stay in a small hotel room on a weekend the weather decided to drop below zero in the middle of July. (That's 32F for all my American friends)

I left our hotel room all of three times. I felt like I couldn’t breathe, I didn’t want to make anyone uncomfortable around my screaming baby and I was exhausted from being up every hour feeding. I simply thought I had a VERY HUNGRY baby on my hands. I was late to the wedding and left the dinner halfway through; isn’t this what motherhood is supposed to be like? No, it was my motherhood and maybe yours if you can relate.