Reflux :(

Just a quick Mia update:
I took Mia to the pediatrician today. She has always been a "spitter," but recently she seems to have graduated from spitting up immediately after a meal, to spitting up several hours after she eats (far less appetizing, I'll have you know!). I just thought that I should mention it to her pediatrician and have her weight checked.


Dr. Dugoni (as usual) made me feel so much better. Mia has gastroesophageal reflux. Not uncommon in babies, but in most babies will have disappeared by now. However, Mia's weight was up to 12lbs, 13oz (still between the 10th and 25th percentiles), so we are not going to worry about it. As long as she is gaining weight and isn't experiencing any discomfort (i.e. heartburn), Dr. Dugoni doesn't see any need to put on her medication. She'll likely outgrow it in the coming months, although some babies have it throughout their entire first year (if this is the case, the Dr. suggested getting a carpet cleaning service on speed dial since crawling, "solid" foods, and reflux are not such a great combo - WONDERFUL!).

Despite the reflux, Mia still loves to eat. She especially seems to enjoy her daily feeding of rice cereal and sometimes will cry when the bowl is empty or if I stand up from the table before she wants to be finished. Most nights she eats two bowls of rice cereal :)!

Ear update

We had Luke's first appointment with the ENT specialist yesterday. I was glad to finally get him in and have someone look more carefully at his ears and his hearing.

The hearing test was probably the most important part of the appointment. They did two different testing procedure on Luke. The first was to put him in a soundproof booth. The audiologist had speakers on either side of the room as well as little lights and characters for Luke to look at. He responded pretty well to her speaking to him through a microphone, but there was an obvious favoring of his left ear (not a big surprise since his pediatrician had noted more fluid in the right ear). When tones were played, however, Luke did not appear to notice them until she made them quite a lot louder. Overall, he scored just below average.

The second test was one where the vibrations of his ear drums were measured. When the sound waves were sent into his ear, neither ear drum vibrated AT ALL. This means that there is so much fluid behind those ear drums that they are not able to correctly respond to sounds. Luke's hearing is impacted by the fluid, and most of what he hears must sound muffled.

With this information, the ENT quickly suggested that Luke have tubes put in to drain that fluid from his ears and to, hopefully, help prevent future infections. During this time, when his hearing so drastically impacts his language development, this is really the only option.

The good news is that it is a relatively simple procedure, which takes only about 20 minutes total (unfortunately, he does have to go under general anesthesia) ... and we were able to take a spot in the schedule that was open due to a cancellation for tomorrow morning. So, Luke is having his ear tubes put in tomorrow morning. I'll post an update once he is home and recovering.