Reflux Redux

WARNING: Possible TMI post. Read at your own risk if you have a sensitive stomach.

For those wondering what "redux" means or if it's even a real word, rest assured it is. It is Latin and means "revisited" or "brought back." I looked it up and at the risk of sounding juvenile, Wikipedia confirmed it.

So Emlyn has been mostly reflux free since she was about 9 1/2 months old. Well, not so anymore. Over the last few months the reflux has been increasing and has been accompanied by some other worrying symptoms like distended belly, gas, cramps and spasms, i.e. PAIN, crying, vomiting and occasionally, diarrhea. She has also had trouble sleeping and has been showing signs of sleep apnea, just like her brother. It looks like before my girl is 2 she'll be having a surgery to get rid of those troublesome tonsils. She has been constantly sick since October. That's six months of near constant illness including one bad double ear infection. The croupy cough is her constant companion as well and I am beginning to suspect that she is breathing in the acid and food that is coming up her esophagus. Poor girl can hardly breath now with all the excess mucus in her nose plus her throat too. It also seems like she might have developed some post-nasal drip as a result of the reflux too. She's choking on everything from water to crackers and all the other textures in between. We got her back on Prevacid but it takes time to get into her system, so hopefully before it has been a week she'll be better. It's so frustrating to have a little girl who loves to eat refuse everything because she simply can't stomach it.

One of the more concerning issues that has come up is some spasms and belly distension that comes in episodes. The first time this happened she was a tiny baby and had the reflux so bad I was beginning to wonder if she would start losing weight. It was awful. Now she's older and bigger, but I have similar concerns for her. She'll refuse to eat or drink and her belly gets progressively puffy. Then it kind of hits a climax and her cute little belly turns nasty on us. She's gagging and throwing up and having awful burps. Then the pain and spasms begin and her belly turns into a hard bloated mess. After much screaming, thrashing and arching her back she passes a lot of gas and settles down enough to sleep. I haven't been able to connect it to any particular food yet. Right now I'm considering wheat and dairy, but that doesn't explain why it is somewhat hit and miss. She doesn't get this all the time, yet she has milk all the time. She doesn't have these issues even on a weekly basis, but she does have wheat and pasta on a weekly basis. There must be something that is going on internally or chemically. I don't know.

Basically my little girl has these fits about once a month now and they are usually over as quickly as they begin. The longest one was almost 2 hours, but I think that's because we kept trying to feed her things. We thought she might be hungry, I guess. It seems stupid now.

I'm just hoping the prescription can take care of my little girl's symptoms so she can get some relief. The new pediatrician said we could get her a referral to a GI doc if we need to. Our well check is in 10 days and I'll definitely be bringing this up and asking for that referral. I'm at a complete loss. Since these attacks are unpredictable I don't know what to go on. If anyone reading this has any suggestions please let me know.