Ear Infection & Reflux

Well, Maisie ended up with her 1st ear infection...took her to the doctor earlier this week to confirm and get some medication. I guess it sometimes will follow a cold, which will often follow a teething period -- an unfun little cycle. Maisie started her bad teething session just over a couple weeks ago, which was followed closely by her cold, and then likely led to her ear infection over the holiday weekend. She never pulled on her ears though, but it sounds like not all kids do (think my SIL Gretchen was saying her boys never did either) so makes it a little harder to diagnose when your child is not at the talking stage yet (i.e. talking in English that is, not baby gibberish).

But Maisie was a super happy kid at the doctor's office (thankfully not at the stage yet where she remembers the shots), and they all loved her as usual. A nurse even came into the room just to see her, even though another nurse was assigned to us. And thanks to Ryan, Maisie was able to use the stand up scale to be weighed instead of being placed on the scale on the counter (the baby scale). He has been working with her here at home to stand and stay put on our scale...easier than having to weigh one of us holding her, then weigh one of us again without her, and then subtract the difference to get her weight.

And if one sick kid wasn't enough, Annie's reflux seemed to worsen over the last week. She was still pretty much what they call a "happy spitter" (so was Maisie, but Annie's has been worse than hers ever was), but the episodes were becoming more frequent, larger in amount, and starting to interfere with her sleeping. The recommendation was to actually thicken her formula with baby cereal (keeps it down in her stomach better), so I am now adding about 1.5 tbsp of cereal to each 5oz bottle.

And so far, it is working! Annie still spits up of course, that is what babies do, but it is far less often and not nearly as much. However, the addition of cereal into her diet does increase the chance for constipation so making sure to give her an ounce of diluted juice a day...and it also increases the # of calories that she consumes, so she might end up being a little chubbier baby than Maisie. :) Plus a lot better option than medication (which some people unfortunately can't avoid) or expensive specialized formula.