The acid reflux is a day-by-day operation. Some days are great; others are terrible. His torticollis has lessened in severity, and we continue with the exercises and tummy time. Here is what we do.
Acid Reflux
- He eats a combination of formula, rice cereal, and oatmeal in his bottles. At first, we were only adding rice cereal, but that was increasing his constipation, which increases the acid reflux problems. Currently, the mix ratio is 2 parts oatmeal to 1 part rice cereal, and we usually put 3 teaspoons of mix per every 2 ounces. Ever so often, we have to thicken it a bit more if he is having a rough day.
- He always sleeps on a 45-degree incline whether he is in his crib or in the pack-n-play at Michelle’s. Unless it is time for playtime on his back, we always keep him inclined, even on his changing table.
- He is always held upright for 30-45 minutes after a feeding. The bumbo seat comes in handy for this. He is about to be too big for the seat, and I am hoping that, miraculously, he can sit for longer periods of time by himself just as he graduates from the bumbo seat.
- Medication: We give him Prevacid 15 mg by syringe in the morning and are supposed to give him Axid in the evening. But, he has been throwing up each time we give him the Axid, which totally defeats the purpose of controlling the acid reflux. So, we haven’t been giving it to him.
- Managing constipation: We are very diligent in watching his poops. I know this sounds gross and possibly over-excessive. But, if he is constipated: he cries, refuses to feed, and life is just miserable for all of us since the acid is worse for him, which causes more pain. The home remedy for constipation that works for us: dark Karo syrup. When he is consistently constipated, he gets a stool softener.
- Feeding in smaller amounts. Everett gets around 4 ounces with every feeding. Recently, before he his last cold, he had worked up to 6, 8, or even 12 ounces at each feeding! But, that was pretty short lived. So, we are back to feeding Everett frequently since eating in smaller amounts helps decrease the acid reflux.
Torticollis
At 4 months old, Everett was diagnosed with Torticollis. Besides the exercises prescribed by the doctor, we altered his infant seat (which he slept in at the time) and oriented everything to his left since the torticollis forced him to always look to his right. He is almost 7 months now and has a larger range of motion due to completing the exercises 4-6 times a day. He still tilts when laying down and sometimes when sitting up.
Besides, the exercises, Everett also spends 50% of his awake time on his tummy.
This is something that we worked on very diligently, and we got really creative to build up his endurance to be able to do that. We worked on it bit by bit increasing his time by a little bit each time. Believe me, he fussed in the beginning. But, if I was engaged with him while he was on his tummy, I could get him to last a little bit longer each time.Helpful website: http://www.torticolliskids.org/ This includes an online listserve that many parents participate in and give feedback to each other.
