David gave us quite a scare at the end of March. He's been on formula almost since birth--he could never really get down a good latch/suck, and despite trying and trying, and then trying to pump, he was never particularly interested in nursing, and my milk started to dry up. We started him out on Enfamil ProSobee, which is what Amy was on once I stopped nursing her. She never had any difficulties on it, and for the first while, neither did David. (Our ped. recommends soy formula because the protein more closely resembles the proteins found in breastmilk, making it easier on their digestive systems, for any curious parties.)
We started noticing some change in his bowel movements a couple days after Mom got home from California. They were more frequent and watery. By Wednesday night, he had full-blown diarrhea. Then we started noticing some nasty stuff in it. What, you may ask? Um...that would be bloody mucous. Yeah. Delightful.
We went to the ER after calling a 24-hour nurse line and being told to go in. Despite being told what he was in for, the nurse in triage didn't even want to look at his diaper when we changed him there, and told us we didn't need to save it. Eventually we got back to a room in the ER. He was a champ when they came and drew blood. All of his labs came back normal, and he wasn't dehydrated, so they sent us home and told us to just give him Pedialyte, no formula, and follow up with his doctor in the morning.
The next morning the pediatrician said pretty much the same thing, and ordered a set of stool cultures for David as well, to be done overnight and dropped off the next day at the lab. THAT was fun.
Friday afternoon I took the cultures back to the lab and called Dr. Laycob's office on my way home to let them know I'd turned them in, and that oh, by the way, he's had bloody mucous in every diaper for over 24 hours now.
Go figure, that worried him. I wonder why? He was concerned enough that he told us to go back to the hospital and that we would be admitted. I wish he (and we) had known that he could've admitted us directly to the hospital. As it was, we spent seven hours in the ER before we were finally moved upstairs. We were so grateful for friends who took Amy, no question, and took care of her for us. Thank goodness for great friends!
Long story short, they had no idea what was wrong with him. He definitely perked up after several hours of getting fluids. Other than that, his vitals were fine, his temperature was normal, he wasn't vomiting, and once he was more hydrated, he was his usual happy self. The stool cultures came up negative, too. So, still no clue what was up. They had us switch him to a different formula. Alimentum is a special formula with the proteins and sugars broken down about as much as possible, so it's a lot easier on the digestive system.
He was on the Alimentum for a little over a month, and was doing so well that the pediatrician told us we could step down to Nutramigen. Nutramigen is basically a step between Alimentum and the soy formula. He was on that for maybe 3 weeks, and a few days ago he started having issues again, so we're back on the Alimentum. At the very least, he's still gaining weight really well, so despite the much stinkier formula and the nastier diapers, I'm happy!
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