Rachelle: What Colic's Really Like
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Wondertime's interview with Rachelle, mother of Kayla, (both shown left) who was 3-and-a-half months old at the time.
Wondertime: How old was Kayla when she started acting colicky?
She was just one month. Actually, she may have been displaying symptoms earlier and we just didn't realize it.
Wondertime: When you started taking her to the pediatrician, what was that process like?
We have a very good pediatrician. When we explained what was going on, she tried the initial medication, a liquid form of Prevacid. At first we thought it was making an improvement, but then Kayla started showing symptoms again. And so, when it kept escalating, our pediatrician ordered an upper GI, and we tried various medications from there. When she had exhausted all her resources, she told us that we needed to go to a specialist, which is where we met Dr. Vartabedian.
Wondertime: What have your experiences been like, talking with people who haven't had colicky babies?
It depends. People that have babies about the same age as her, they've been sympathetic. They wish that there was something they could do. One friend in particular helped me out with trying to go on a message board, to see if there was anybody out there that had advice. And some of that helped a lot, knowing things not to try. Like rice, for instance, can give babies constipation. And so that was helpful, to know not to put rice in the breastmilk to thicken it up, so it stays down. Because that was a problem: it just kept coming back up with her, with her reflux. So that was helpful.
People that are older, because they were used to the term of generalized "colic," they just would say, "She'll grow out of it," or "Try to prop her up on her stomach," things that we already had tried, and it just wasn't working. And so, on that note, it was more dismissive. So you got different advice depending on what age group you were talking to.
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