We're Off To See the Wizard...

We're off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz...

That's what I felt like when we hit the road Wednesday and headed for the GI specialist. I was crossing my fingers for him to grant me what I wanted most of all: appropriate medication for my twins to completely control their reflux and make them act like typical babies, rather than the kind that don't eat enough, refuse bottles, cry in pain from spitting up, and sleep poorly.

I had to go alone because my husband has a major deadline at work right now. So I packed up the kids and made the hour long drive there by myself. (This is not an easy task when you're outnumbered by infants that don't like carrides) We survived that with minimal issues and then hunkered down in the waiting room. And we waited. And we continued waiting for an hour and 15 minutes; just me and my two 3 1/2 month old babies in the waiting room. We talked, we read, we played with toys, we watched the fish in the fish tank, we took a few strolls around the room. They were getting pretty sick of sitting in their carseats by that point, but we still had to meet the doc and make the return hour-long trip home.

Once we finally got called back, the GI specialist was fantastic. I think he felt badly that he was so far behind that I had to wait that long. He listened very attentively to all the notes I had written about Sam and Anna's reflux history so far. He even asked to hold both babies and soothed them when they got fussy. Picture a very grandpa-like man, with a quiet gentle voice. The short version of chatting with him for an hour and a half is that he is totally agreeable to the amount of prevacid we are giving the babies right now (which their pedi was not). He is completely fine with using Buffer Babies to administer it.

He also agreed with my conclusion that Sam and Anna probably don't have a milk/soy protein intolerance because they don't have most of the signs, and that being on the uber expensive Alimentum is probably not needed. He suggested trying out a regular formula once the prevacid seems to have regulated their reflux and see how that goes. He also thought that the reason they are still not eating a lot (although they aren't refusing anymore) may be because Alimentum doesn't taste the best. He told me to taste it and see what I thought. I told him I'd rather not, because I've smelled it and that's good enough for me!

The GI doc also asked if we wanted some cans of Alimentum to make the trip worth our while to tide us over until we try the switch (which of course I said yes to). So he asked the nurse to bag up as many cans as she could find. The bag held 13 cans- which would probably cost over $160 dollars if we bought a comparable amount. She said to call if the babies end up staying on the Alimentum, because she'd contact the sales rep and have him give us a full case of it. His nurse even carried it to my vehicle in the parking lot for me, since my "hands were full enough."

Sure, I left after 6 pm and still had to make the hour long drive home with cranky babies- but the trip was definitely worth it to get validation that what we are doing (against my pedi) is what's best for our babies. I hope we don't have to see him again (because that means the reflux isn't under control and the next step would be invasive testing), but if we do, at least he's great to work with!