Colic and Acid Reflux in Babies

Run for the hills! Don’t let it get you! It will eat you alive.

I’ve known many friends who have dealt with acid reflux in their babies when they were young and I never knew how hard it is. I never knew how isolated it can make someone feel, like a prisoner on an island, unable to really connect with the outside world because there is so much crying all the time.

My daughter was born 7 weeks ago and at first she was an angel. She was so sweet and happy and easy. Until about 3 weeks. Then she started crying. ALL the time. Not just for a period each day, I mean ALL the time. She cries when she is hungry, so I feed her, then she cries because her belly hurts. I can feel her digesting the milk, the bubbles in her belly and intestines. Thankfully we were already seeing a gastroenterologist for other issues and the doctor kept asking if she was spitting up or vomiting with her other symptoms. I said no.

But then by week 4-5 the spitting up started, and usually through her nose. We started her on Zantac, which she’s been on for 2 weeks and it’s NOT working. This past weekend I spend the entire time holding her, not sleeping, and trying to get her to stop crying, to no avail. I feel so helpless, so out of control, and unable to even be a mom to my other children.

It’s the worst feeling to not be able to do anything, to feel like a failure at even just consoling your crying child. I now have such sympathy for those friends who have dealt with colic or reflux or any other condition that creates a never-ending cryfest.

Today we went to the eye doctor for my baby to test for a genetic syndrome which is connected to her liver issues and it was so hard. She just cried and the doctors weren’t able to get an accurate diagnosis, so we have to go back again. How can we keep the baby from screaming when she is in so much pain? How do we live a normal life with a baby that is not in agony all the time? I am so afraid of her to be awake for fear the crying will start all over again. It makes for an overly anxious, frazzled and crazy mom. I am hoping her new medicine will shine a light at the end of this dark, lonely tunnel.