I guess I shouldn’t be surprised anymore, right? 

This past month has been pretty gascinating. Nope, not a typo. We continued to explore our baby’s GI issues and have had quite an adventure, all leading up to his vaccinations this past week, and his entrance into the public.

So clearly he’s putting on weight, so we can’t be screwing up that badly, right? He’s about 10 pounds or so, nearly double his birth weight, and has grown nearly 2.5 inches since birth (a hair under 2 feet tall!) What we’ve learned thus far:

1. If at first you don’t succeed, formula, formula, formula. We’ve landed on Enfamil Gentlease after sticking with the Similac brand for awhile – ultimately, his constipation and gassiness from the “foamy” Similac Sensitive were intolerable. We’ve been happy with the Gentlease, which is visibly thinner, lacks the foam, and he takes it with no issue….except spitting up. Acceptance is a virtue when you’re a new parent, and I’m ok trading a little spit up for his general gassiness. Was it the formula, or him growing up? We’ll never know. Cheapest I found Gentlease is at Costco.com, shipped for 4 containers at $104, which isn’t too much more than Similac. Enfamil also sends samples and has partnered with Rite Aid for a total of $30 in rebates to try out their formula – we did, and were thankful for that gentle assistance.
2. IF YOUR CHILD HAS REFLUX, you should read this: formulary for most health insurance company’s covers only Zantac, which tastes horrible and, in some cases, doesn’t work. We switched per doctors orders to Prilosec, which not only tastes amazing, but we’re giving it once a day and he takes it like a champ. His symptoms associated with reflux are gone. Minor detail most parents don’t know is, you’ll have to pay for Prilosec cash anyhow ($50 out of pocket), so instead of putting yourself through ultimately a futile situation with Zantac, you can just jump to Prilosec. Yes, the insurance requires you fail Zantac to progress – but then doesn’t cover it, so who cares?!?! I don’t care, he’s happy, and I wanted you parents that are reading this to not have to go in circles like us. At least check with your insurance, we have Aetna and were astonished.
3. L. Reuteri is your baby’s friend. No really, a prospective clinical trial demonstrated prophylactic use of probiotics in baby’s helped prevent colic, regurgitation, and constipation. I am a scientist by training, so I’m looking for a well-designed, double-blind, placebo controlled study to hang my hat on for any thing new I’m introducing to this little guy – this study was published in JAMA Pediatrics this past March, 2014, and it made good sense to me. My son has been going #2 every day now (he was going every 1-3 days before), and he’s able to pass gas much more easily (I’ve also noticed as a parent that I talk a lot more about bowel movements in public, like it’s a pride thing sometimes….”he took a huge ____ this morning, it was amazing!”). Gerber has jumped on the bandwagon and is packaging some of their formula with this probiotic, but literally any sort of probiotic for infants should work (consult your pediatrician first). Some baby’s have the right kind of gut flora, some don’t, so the idea here is to assist in getting the right bacteria into their gut.
4. Vaccinations are your baby’s friend. In the wake of Andrew Wakefield’s horrible research that was later retracted in the Lancet,  it’s important to remember that despite the vaccinations hurting your baby within the first few moments of the shot (and maybe 10 minutes after), vaccinations save lives and literally are a public health service you are doing for your community. Yes my son was clingy and had a fever the first 48 hours, and yes, I had to use Tylenol after about 14 hours because he wasn’t well. But, he recovered, and despite still being mildly clingy due to an early teething episode, we’re glad we can take him out of the house now!

And so the third month begins – what adventures will we get into? Only my son knows, I’m just along for this wild ride!