Wait and see, cradle crap and potty talk

Warning: The following contains graphic descriptions of breastfed poop. Reader Beware.

Jonah's doctor visit last week was, um, ok…I suppose. Doctor V. agreed with me that due to the blood I had seen in is dipe, Jonah likely has a food allergy . Of course, just like when you go to the mechanic because your car is making a weird sound, and the sound disappears while you are there, Jonah had no blood in his diaper when we were there. But the green mucus was still there, as was his reflux. The good doctor gave him some reflux medicine which seems to be helping some, but she also said the words I feared, “Well, he is clearly thriving, so I am not concerned about him. This will probably resolve with time, so we can just wait and see.”

Yikes. Wait and see? He is in pain, I told her. To me, thriving or not, he deserves to have his pain investigated. She said give the reflux medicine a chance. What if it isn’t the reflux? I had asked. One step at a time, she had replied.

Dang. I don’t do waiting well, especially not when my baby is in pain.

As far as the rash goes, she suggested hydrocortisone cream and said it was likely a very bad case of cradle-cap. It didn’t make sense to me to treat the symptom and not the cause. I had read that cradle cap was the fungus (one that we all have a little bit of) that also caused dandruff. There is a special shampoo that I had begun using a while ago that has medicine in it to kill the fungus, but I had stopped because the rash was still there, and I started pursuing the food allergy idea at the same time. When Jonah showed some improvement on his skin, I had attributed it to the diet changes.

When we got home I gently exfoliated Jonah's skin with a pinch of salt granules and bathed him for two more days. His skin cleared almost completely.

With all of the crying Jonah has also developed an umbilical hernia. His little belly button has become an outie, and a large purple one, at that. Again, her response was to wait and see if it resolves on its own. In this case, I am ok with waiting. I would hate to subject him to surgery that was not necessary.

She suggested I stick with the diet if it helps. So I haven’t really known if it is the food, reflux, or itchy rash that has had him screaming, but since the rash is gone, and he is on meds but still fussy, I am back to the food drawing board.

I abandoned corn two days ago. I am down to rice in its many forms, and a few fruits and veggies. Oh, and chicken. And prayer!

We have spent the day in the rocker today.

Maybe tomorrow will be better.