Isn't It Ironic......

Ask anyone in my family, I've always had a thing with puke. Since I was a kid. First time my sister vomited in the bed next to me at night, I ran and hid in a closet to get away from it all! Well, into adulthood, married life, etc - it still grosses me out past the point of a normal human (I know everyone thinks its gross). I just COULD NOT watch it, hear it, be around it.

And now....I think I have a child that can force herself to vomit. The irony struck me. She's always had a bit of an aversion to most vegetable purees. Sometimes she cry, other times a fake gag. I'd feed her a bit of something she'd like and sneak in the veggie from time to time. I thought we were making progress. Well, this afternoon, while eating mangoes & peas & seeming to be okay with the situation. She did her fake gag after a couple bites of peas towards the end of the meal. Then, she coughed and proceeded to projetile vomit a large portion of her meal. Isolated incident I thought. Stopped lunch and moved on.

Fast forward to dinner. I'm excited to have made her first homemade vegetable puree - zucchini. I was tired of the 4 choices (okay, maybe 5) of vegetables made by Gerber. 3 of which she didn't like! So, I serve her the zucchini, a turkey dinner and some rice cereal. She's was having almost none of it. After no more than a couple bites of each, gagging ensues, and vomit flies. Okay. Point taken. The irony here is literally yesterday, we hung out with our friends Ali & Mady Kay. Mady Kay had JUST started doing the same thing this weekend. Did they discuss their plan to make life difficult for mommies!?!?

Okay. We'll take a break from undesired foods. I won't press it too hard in the future. One gag & I'll stop, I promise! I believe she'll eat it eventually....

Then comes bedtime. She takes her bottle. I rock her. I transfer her to crib. She wakes up. I walk out. She pulls to standing. Starts crying. Proceeds to screaming. I hear coughing. Go to check on her. VOMIT! UGH!

Now, you may think she's actually sick (I did!). I get her out. Turn on lights. Clean her up. And rock her. Less than one mintue & she's smiling, "talking" to me, pointing at my nose, gazing around the room, and having a marvelous time. HMMM....... She did eventually fall asleep, did not wake on transfer and is still asleep in her crib. WHEW. What a day.

Time for a little internet research on this phenomenon. Well from my unofficial research, it seems the general consensus out there is that reflux babies often have overactive/sensitive gag reflexes, food aversions, etc. I had taken her off Prevacid because she was gaining well & I didn't want to medicate her if it was unnecessary. Tomorrow, she'll be back on Prevacid to see if that helps settle her tummy. Otherwise, I may start wearing a raincoat during feedings :P