Occupational thearpy question

jlh123

We took our son to a pediatric GI specialist today because of his pushing, grunting and screaming out all day and night, even after a BM.  Our pedi kept saying it's normal but I just dono't see this as normal him being in pain it seems like.  So we went ahead and made an appt. at one of the best from a pediatric hospital, chair of dept., etc.  After my research I thought it has to be GI related, maybe reflux but just no spit up.  What does he do?  Refer us to occupational therapy.  From his assessment he feels my son is uncomforable in certail positions, mostly lying down.  Well he'll do it in the bouncy seat too just not as much.  He showed us how my son screams when you move his legs and arms certain ways.  Well sure, the dr. seemed kind of rough with him.  But also by our interview he felt it's telling how his feedings he sucks sucks sucks for the first 3 ounces then the other 3 is hard work and grunts through it.  I'd think it's reflux, he doesn't.  He said most doctors would through medication at you for reflux when most of the times that's not the case and how it's so common with preemies that they just need to learn how to manage their muscle tone and so forth.  Anyone have experience with this?

jlh123

sorry for my terrible spelling and grammar, I noticed I was just babbling it all out!

lemen99

I'm not sure how to answer your question exactly, but in regards to reflux, I would expect more arching back & screaming during feedings if that were the problem. 

From your description it doesn't really sound like reflux, but I'm not sure I have any other ideas...and it sounds like this is happening all of the time "all day and all night" not just associated with feedings?

If he still grunts/screams out after a BM, then I'm not sure if that's the problem either.  Our son never ever used to go to the bathroom on his own (they thought something was wrong w/ him but couldn't find anything) and after about 4 days w/ no BM he would get super irritable and kind of stopped eating.  One morning he had to go and I could not get him to eat after 9 hours straight...and so at that point we knew he needed to see a GI doctor and put him in Miralax which worked great.

Also Andrew used to grunt a lot, just to grunt!  Visitors always said he was pooping "haha! He's pooping!" but he wasn't.  He was just grunting because that's what he did.

Also, if he's grunting after the first half of his bottle, is it possible that he needs to burp?   DS gets super fidgety/grunty/weird if he needs to burp :-)