When James was 10 days old we took him in to his pediatrician. We brought him in for a check up but we were also concerned about his breathing. He was making lots of noise. Not a noise that you would never hear a normal healthy baby make, but he was making them all the time. The pediatrician listened to him and was very concerned. I am not sure how she would have reacted if he had not been born with a midwife at home, but she said we needed to go to a hospital right away with him. So we were told to bring him to the NICU because he was so small. We brought him in and right away our fears were calmed. He had plenty of oxygen and he had already exceeded his birth weight. But the hospital wanted to keep him overnight to monitor and make sure every thing looked okay. He was noisy most of the time that we were there and I was told to burp him better cause he was full of gas. Also we did xrays, blood work and even had an ENT scope his throat. But we didn't get any answers at that time but they sent us home with confidence that his health wasn't compromised and that we could coordinate care with our ped.
So at a follow up appt a few days later with my ped, she seemed mostly unconcerned and said to come back for his 2 month appt in about 7 weeks. We were slightly concerned with her now downplaying the same symptoms that sent us to an ICU at the beginning of the week but also felt confident in our skills to watch his health i.e. color/oxygenation and weight gain. And I was still seeing my midwife and James was getting weighed every 2 weeks.
When we finally made it back to our ped at 2 months, she recommended a pediatric ENT. After doing the specialist waiting game, we went on Tuesday to the ENT and he did a laryngoscopy and found that James has laryngomalacia or floppy larynx. For some babies this would satisfactory diagnosis and they would be told that they just need to wait it out and that he would be better from 6 months to 2 years as the cartilage of his larynx gets stronger. The problem though is that he also has chest retraction nearly every time that he breathes. You can visibly see his chest and the little spot above his collar bone go in with each breath. For the rest of us that is a trip to the emergency room as you would be in serious respiratory distress. So we need to have a bronchoscopy to see why he has to work so hard to breath. The good news is that in spite of all that is going on he is a very healthy little boy with great color and great weight gain. But long term this is a problem that needs to be corrected.
We feel very blessed that he is still a healthy little boy and a very sweet one at that. Hopefully in Oct when we get the bronchoscopy we will have more answers.
So at a follow up appt a few days later with my ped, she seemed mostly unconcerned and said to come back for his 2 month appt in about 7 weeks. We were slightly concerned with her now downplaying the same symptoms that sent us to an ICU at the beginning of the week but also felt confident in our skills to watch his health i.e. color/oxygenation and weight gain. And I was still seeing my midwife and James was getting weighed every 2 weeks.
When we finally made it back to our ped at 2 months, she recommended a pediatric ENT. After doing the specialist waiting game, we went on Tuesday to the ENT and he did a laryngoscopy and found that James has laryngomalacia or floppy larynx. For some babies this would satisfactory diagnosis and they would be told that they just need to wait it out and that he would be better from 6 months to 2 years as the cartilage of his larynx gets stronger. The problem though is that he also has chest retraction nearly every time that he breathes. You can visibly see his chest and the little spot above his collar bone go in with each breath. For the rest of us that is a trip to the emergency room as you would be in serious respiratory distress. So we need to have a bronchoscopy to see why he has to work so hard to breath. The good news is that in spite of all that is going on he is a very healthy little boy with great color and great weight gain. But long term this is a problem that needs to be corrected.
We feel very blessed that he is still a healthy little boy and a very sweet one at that. Hopefully in Oct when we get the bronchoscopy we will have more answers.
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