I just got home from taking Noah from his 9 month checkup. I got a little bit frustrated. I knew I would…well, atleast I had a hunch that I would. If you’ve been reading my blog for the past couple of weeks, you will have noticed that Noah (although only 9 months) is not drinking baby formula anymore. He quit taking it. I mean literally, I could not (nor did I want to) force that mess down his throat. The kid was starving…wouldn’t eat any of it. Absolutely, totally 100% did not want it. What was I to do? I gave him milk. 2% to be exact. He drank it right up. Never a whimper, never a whine, never even a gassy complaint. He slept all night. For the first time. In 8 1/2 months.
I wasn’t surprised when Dr. Bhumi got on to me for swapping him. But I did get ill when she started trying to tell me that I was going to cause him to have stomach trouble and that I was going to be responsible when he got a GI Bleed and had to be put in the hospital because we would never detect it. Ok, first of all…I’m not an idiot. Please don’t talk to me like I am. Second of all, GI Bleeds are pretty obvious (even in a baby/toddler). I worked in our CCU at the hospital in Alabama and have seen more than my share of GI Bleeds, both in adults, teenagers and children. You know when there is a bleed. Lastly, I got ill because she wouldn’t listen to what I was trying to tell her.
I have respect for doctors. They spend a lot of time in school and know a lot more about a lot of things than I do. I’m not saying that. BUT, I am the one that spends all day and all night with Noah. I am the one that sees how he acts and reacts to different things. His formula…not getting a good reaction. We haven’t gotten a good reaction on baby formula since we started him on it. We tried Similac…didn’t work well. Tried regular, plain ol’ formula (with nothing added to it) and it didn’t work. We tried the pre-mixed kind. Didn’t work. We were going to try Soy and Dr. Bhumi told us not to…we ended up on Enfamil AR (which I have 6 cans of that I need to get rid of if you or anyone you know needs it!) and it worked ok for a while. But he still wasn’t getting the right reactions. He was gassy, colicky, not sleeping well and having a lot of bowel issues…
Not anymore. I have a different baby. No trouble with any of that. Still gets a little gassy sometimes, but not in the way that he SCREAMS like he used to. Not in the way that you can see his stomach bunching up. Not in the way that he can’t potty. Now, he’s a poopie machine with no trouble sleeping. I. LOVE. IT. She wouldn’t listen to any of that. Would not let me explain to her that he wasn’t having negative reactions to milk. Wouldn’t listen to me when I tried to tell her that I give him vitamins to make sure he gets enough iron. Wouldn’t listen to me when I told her that even though he is only 9 months old that he is digesting this regular, 2% cows milk better than he ever did that stupid powdered baby formula.
What did she say for us to do? And this is what really didn’t make any sense…put him back on formula. How? We are supposed to go buy formula (which costs too much as you know…atleast $15 a can which runs us atleast $60 a month because he is supposed to drink 20 oz of formula a day…and it’s only $3 for a gallon of milk that he only drink 16 oz. of a day…) and put 1 oz of formula, 7 oz of regular milk in a bottle and give to him (which in a bottle discourages him from drinking from a sippy cup, like she said he needed to start trying to do…) for a week. Then the next week do 2 oz formula, 6 oz. milk for a week and so on. If I do that, that’s 8 weeks…that puts him right back at being one year old…when we can start him on regular milk and then we have to start all over! Does that make no sense to anyone other than me?
::Sigh:: Anyway. I’m not planning to do it. Sorry. Maybe that makes me a bad mother. A friend of mine on facebook told me that “she doesn’t have an MD for nothing. It would probably be a good idea to listen to her.” Gee thanks. Miss I don’t have a child, I’m not even married, I just think I’m smart because I’m almost done with nursing school. Puh-lease. I think Noah is fine on milk. Seriously. No cramping. Pooping like normal. No issues at all. I would like some of your opinions on this. Am I totally off base to say that I’m just going to monitor him and if he starts having trouble, deal with it?Or should I put him back on the same nasty formula that was causing him more trouble that this regular milk is?
Courtney Kirkland is a Southeast Alabama Writer & Designer. Since 2011,, Courtney has passionately provided beautiful, intentional design to small businesses & bloggers and encouraged thousands to walk in a rich faith in any situation.
