Diagnosing Myelle

I called the doctor's office this morning to get Myelle in to be seen for her painful crying spells. Her primary doctor is out this week except for being on call Wednesday so we have an appointment held for next Tuesday afternoon. I have been suspecting a possible food allergy, and most likely dairy since that is the common one. A nurse called me back and after discussing the symptoms she was leaning toward reflux. After doing some research, I think it might be a little of both. GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease) is frequently associated with a cow's milk protein allergy.

Reflux symptoms:
- frequent spitting up (several times after each feeding and even up to right before the next feeding, sometimes quite a large amount)
- some wet burping/hiccups (this has either decreased in frequency or we don't notice it as much because we're used to it)
- fussiness and crying
- lack of sleep (only during the day when she takes a few short naps, but she sleeps fine at night)
- refusal to nurse (pulls away from the breast often)
- choking with feeding
- arching of back and neck, especially when being fed or rocked
- frequent runny nose
- increased drooling

The odd thing is that she seems to be comforted by bouncing around (which often disrupts the stomach and causes more reflux) and having her tummy held tightly (and pressure on the stomach also causes reflux). She also tolerates being on her back to play at times and while sleeping at night. Reflux peaks at 4-6 month of age which is frustrating. Hopefully if we can medicate (prevacid was mentioned) even the peak will be better than what we've been experiencing.

Food Intolerance symptoms:
- inconsolable crying spells
- sleeps little (during the day), sometimes waking in discomfort
- suspected eczema
- dry skin (on forehead and scalp)
- frequent runny nose
- irritability/fussiness/colic
- watery green stools, sometimes with mucus

Some things that seem to contradict this are that there is not any family history of allergies and that it seems to have gotten worse now than when she was younger with no major change in my diet. I have cut back significantly on dairy and have been trying not to eat other common problem foods starting this weekend (although not avoiding anything completely at this point). So far, I haven't noticed any improvement but hopefully even a decrease would trigger some improvement in Myelle in the coming week. (Dairy can take 2-6 weeks to get completely out of the system.)

She also exhibits signs of overactive let-down. I block feed which seems to help some, as well as her just getting older and able to handle the flow of the milk. But this could be the reason for her watery/mucous green stools, some of  the spitting up, and some tummy aches.

And to throw a wrench in all that, she sleeps great at night. The only possible explanation I can come up with is that she wears herself out during the day enough to sleep like a rock.

I'll be interested to hear what our doctor has to say and suggest. Hopefully we can tackle these issues so that we have a much happier baby. At times you can tell she wants so bad to be happy but it in too much pain. She will "talk" for a bit, then stick her bottom lip out and start crying such a sad cry. And when she is happy, her little smile can just melt your heart!