Gripe Water

Gripe water is a miracle drug - or miracle non-drug. It's all natural. Carter has proved to be a rather fussy baby and has had tummy issues since he was about 3 or 4 weeks old. After trying every formula under the sun to keep him from spitting up, I have gone back to Enfamil Lipil with 2 scoops of rice cereal to thicken it up. A lot of people and doctors suggest not feeding rice cereal to a baby so young because it can cause bowel problems and food allergies, but it's that or Carter will never keep his food down. I switched to this combination after trying Soy formula and Enfamil A.R. The A.R. stopped the spitting up, but it constipated him so bad because it was too thick. This combo that he's on now was really working well at first, but it started to constipate him again and I thought I was going to pull my hair out. I thought I had finally found something that would keep my baby's food moving in only one direction, but now he was getting plugged up again!!! Thursday night after an entire evening of crying and fussing I told Brett to run to the store to get some Gripe Water. I had seen it on the shelves, but had never tried it with Carter. Well, after I gave it to him it took about 15 mins and he was comfortable and no longer fussy. Then the following morning he had a REALLY large dirty diaper and I almost jumped for joy. You never think you'd be so happy about changing such a nasty diaper until your baby stops having them for a while. Then the entire next day he didn't fuss at all.

The bottle says I can give him 6 doses a day, but I've only been doing about 2 to 3 doses and it's keeping him regular. It's really great because it's made up of Ginger and Fennel extract along with other natural extracts, so I don't feel as though I'm medicating my baby all the time. The only kicker is that it's not exactly cheap (as if any baby stuff is cheap). For a 4 oz. bottle it's about $13 (another reason I'm only giving him 2 to 3 doses a day). But I think at this point I would pay $50 a bottle to make the fussing stop. It's the best pacifier money can buy.

Speaking of the pacifier. Let me just say...I hate it!!! I thought pacifiers were supposed to be mom and baby's best friend, but so far it has proven to be nothing but a pain in my rear. Carter has yet to learn how to keep it in his mouth for long periods of time and when it falls out, he gets all fussy. I know he's only 8 1/2 weeks old, but I'm considering taking that stupid thing away already. It doesn't seem to help him too much and if he's being fussy about something else, the pacifier isn't going to change that. Plus I'm really not looking forward to the day he gets super attached to it and the fight we will have when I take it away. And the last couple of weeks I've seen a handful of toddlers running around with them in their mouths (while trying to speak, I might add) and it makes me just want to yank it out of their mouths. Now, I say it's fair to give each mother their own amount of time to take it away from their child (especially if it's actually working like it should), but I think once they are nearing 2 years old, it no longer needs to be in their mouths; especially if they are needing it during the day and not just at bedtime. But as for Carter and I, it hasn't ever seemed to help much, so I'm really starting to wonder what the point of it is. He doesn't even need it to go to sleep....so what's the point? I'm just trying to find a good couple of days that I don't have to work the next morning where I can afford to lose my mind and some sleep.