To give you a little background on my son, he is 11 months, and has had 11 ear infections, he gets tubes in his ears Friday May 2nd. He is behind in alot of things they think it's cause of his ears. He has never rolled over, he doesn't crawl he scoots, he doesn't talk much, He is having problems eatting solid foods he will be getting 3-4 therpies, PT,DT,ST. He did a swallow test and has consistent laryngeal penetration. Which means some of the liquids are going into his voice box, lungs etc. So we have to put Simply thick in his bottles and liquid he drinks so this doesn't happen.
Now this is my problem....Logan keeps getting up in the middle of the night for bottles. Last night alone he had two. We go thru Formula like we go thru diapers. We give him baby food, and some solids we know he can eat but the kid never seems to get full off of it. He always wants a bottle a hour or two later. Now our BIG problem is in the middle of the night when he wakes up crying, he wants his bottle or he will not go back to sleep. He will scream and cry and doesn't give up...and we have two other children in the house too. If you get him out to try and hold him to rock him to sleep he things it's play time. I'm at a loss on what to do, or what to try. Cause he is Very head Strong.
Any tips, Ideas ???
If you have a speech person, then she should also be a feeding specialist, maybe? Ask for her advice. My son was on a feeding tube til 18 months and the best advice always came from his speech person. Good luck!
Hi L., Oh how frustating! I really feel for you. You have a lot going on. My situation was a tad bit different than yours but it has some similarities so I will share it with you and what we did. My son is now 2. He was unable to eat most solid/textured foods until about 4 months ago. Cause? Mostly unknown but the therapists' best guess is a muscular issue with overlaying sensory issues. Anyway, he was a GREAT sleeper until about 11 months (sound familiar?). From about 11 months he would get up 1-2x a night for a bottle because he wasn't getting enough food during the day and HE WAS HUNGRY!!! We too were going through formula like crazy! I think around 1 year their need for nutrients/food increases and if they are not able to get it the normal way (eating) they can't store enough up to get them through the night. My son would cry at night, I would get the bottle (made it upstairs), give it to him, and change his diaper while he was drinking. I know, sounds kinda gross but the point was to get him back to sleep as soon as possible. By the time I was done changing his diaper, he was usually done with the bottle and I put him back in his crib. He would go right back to sleep. Because of this I knew he wasn't being manipulative. He was just hungry. It might repeat itself 2-3 hours later. I don't know if this is similar to what your little guy is doing but if it is I say FEED HIM. It is NOT a battle of wills if he is hungry. Unfortunately, this did last about 6 months for us - until my son was able to eat enough food during the day to make it through the night. I remember on Thanksgiving being thankful that he had made it through 2 nights in a row without waking up. I hope this helps and I hope your son starts sleeping through the night soon!
I must suggest a book by Dr. Joel Fuhrman called Disease Proof Your Child- Feeding Kids Right.
In the book, there is an example of a boy with ear problems, and it was contributed to dairy in his diet. When the parents followed Dr. Fuhrman's suggestions, the boy's health problems went away soon after.
There is also a website you can go to www.drfuhrman.com, and you can even call his office # listed on the website to ask his nurse questions. He is an actual family physician who has helped many other children with problems like your son is having.
Is your son falling asleep drinking the bottles? If so, the ear problems could be related to him lying down while drinking, and milk is getting trapped near his ear canals, which can cause many problems!
I really encourage you to contact Dr. Fuhrman to help solve this one- you won't be disappointed! He's one of the best.
Good luck.
Do you give him a bottle with his solids?
I am so sorry that your son has had 11 ear infections! My daughter had 5 before she had tubes put in her ears and we had just the opposite problem...she did not want to drink at all when she had ear problems. I am wondering about your pediatrician and wondering why in the world he/she let your child experience so many infections before suggesting tubes. As you are now aware so many developmental issues revolve around hearing. Therefore, have you considered another doctor that is more concerned about prevention rather than reaction? It might be good to have your child evaluated by another physician to find out if there are other issues present. Drinking and urinating that much makes me wonder about other issues that might be present related to blood sugar.
I encourage you to seek a second opinion or be assertive with your physician about these issues.
Dont worry he will eventually outgrow it. Just be patient.
You have to learn to be more headstrong than him. He's getting what he wants and you're caving in. You have to be the stronge willed on mommy. Get him off the bottle. It sounds like he's drinking a little too much. He could be filling up on liquid and gets hungry 2 hours later because liquids pass thru the body faster than food. More food less liquid. It's worth a try.
It sounds as if there may a be a few developmental delays. I would call your local First Steps, they are wonderful. If not contact an elementary school near you and ask the teachers/principal of a program that will be willing to work with your son addressing his developmental growth. In my area First Steps is a free service and they even will come to your home-with scheduled visits to work with the infant/child one on one in each develpmental area needed. Anyway-take care and good luck!!!
A book was just released two days ago called "Healing the New Childhood Epidemics: Autism, ADHD, Asthma and Allergies," by Kenneth Bock, M.D.
Don't let the title scare you if your child has not been diagnosed with any of those things. I just started reading it and it is great. He addresses every one of the issues you mentioned- developmental delays, speech delay, food adversion, ear infections (including ear tubes), night wakings, behavior meltdowns (you call it "headstrong"). The book offers 1) causes to these problems and 2) real solutions- dietary changes, supplements, some lifestyle changes, etc.
You are not alone. Many of us are dealing with what you are right now. ENT and pediatricians will blame the ears for these other things, but they have not told you what caused the ear problems. Good luck.
It sounds like you have some special needs here.
Try to remember that he is not doing this to make you crazy-- he's doing this because he needs something.
I believe in keeping the peace and meeting needs to keep a family happy. Have you tried to contact some special needs parenting groups?
can you add rice cereal as well as the thick it to fill him up?
My first thought is - does he get enough food during the day?
In addition, seems like your child already has too much to deal with. I personally would do what it takes to soothe him, and if it means I don't sleep for a few more months, then be it.
You'll be surprised how much love heals.
My daughter used to be this way. She had something called "polydypsia" which is excessive thirst. Her liquid intake was too high and she wasn't releasing it. She has gained weight rapidly. We took her in for all kinds of testing and saw many endocrinologist and nothing, no answers. Maybe you should take your son in for blood work.
you may want to consider that he is waking in the night because of pain in his ears. and the sucking action from the bottle soothes the pain. I would try giving him a mild painkiller -tylenol or motrin and see if that helps. I used to get lots of earaches and one thing that I remember is that my ears hurt when i slept. I eventually grew out of it but it was sometime before it did. I'm 36 now and I probably had my last earache 5-6 years ago.
