5 MONTHS OLD!

Well, DHR is 5 months old today! WOW! He is a Happy Boy! (Thank Goodness!)

This week we took him to an allergist. He coughing got so terrible we were not able to sleep. He would wake up screaming with each fit. They would last for a 3 or more hours. He would relax fall back to sleep to be coughing 15-20 minutes later. Our pediatrician is saying it could be "reflux" however, he constantly sounds congested, coughs so hard he gags and his eyes water, he still vomits A LOT and has developed a patch of eczema on his arm. The pediatrican's solution is to put cortizone on his eczema for 2 weeks when it is "bad." Only thing is , it gets better but day 1 with no cortizone he comes right back to nasty. It doesn't ever really go away.

Well, from what I have read is that constant cold like symptoms and eczema could actually be an allergy. Worth a shot right?!

We headed to a Pediatric Allergist. They did some tests. He became irritated with a number of allergens but nothing actually being a histamine reaction. She gave us a plan to follow and to come back in 4 months. We now are switching to him to Hypoallergenic formula. The only problem is it tastes TERRIBLE and we have to ween him on it. (to get used to the nasty taste...nice right?!) She actually addressed the coughing issue relating it to his RSV and said that babies who get RSV can get asthma-like symptoms (ie:coughing...) She hopes the formula and a daily dose of zyrtec can get things under grasp. If the coughing continues then he may need to be treated as if he had asthma. We have started solids and he would vomit for the first 4 days of a food. She said this could be result of his gastrointestinal tract being irritated from the formula and to keep trying foods since he did not react to those tested. Now after 4 days of a food he stops vomitting, I was tired of cleaning up baby vomit and just stuck to cereal and these decreased the amount of vomit yet it still comes. She reccommended to avoid gluten for now too. This makes rice cereal our only option as oatmeal does not have gluten in it but is frequently cross-contaminated with wheat.

It was nice to actually go see someone express our concerns and be told to "suck it up" because it is "normal." When indeed we are pretty sure it is not the norm. The allergist did say there is an entire spectrum of how people react some have horrible and some not so bad. She related Daniel as more of in the middle. Our main concern was, if we vomitted that much everyday it would be pretty miserable for us so why make him go through that daily?! On really bad days he cries when he vomits and it breaks your heart. Overall, though he is happy and healthy. He is gaining weight, still not eating as much as a baby his size "should" which results in not very many wet diapers or dirty ones either. He definitely is on the total end of the diaper spectrum than his Big Brother's who would pee constantly and I remember one week...(yes I was counting) in three days I changed 14 poop diapers between the two of them.

We are curious to see if these changes help him at all.

Overall, Baby D is doing great and we can't believe he is five months already!! He is getting better at tummy time and decided today to finally start rolling from back to tummy. He had the other way down pat but right now he is acting as if he can't do it. I guess one thing at time... :-)