The growing Roza family: Month 9 and digestive issues

In Lilah's 9th month she cut those first two bottom teeth, which was super exciting! Lilah also began pushing herself into a standing position a lot more often. Lilah is still her playful, happy self! She loves her toys, but she will play with whatever you give her...a paper towel roll, an empty kleenex box, etc. Lilah loves wrestling with me, climbing on me, and slobbering on me! She is such a joy! I love being home with Lilah and being here for all of her cute moments, new tricks, and those amazing smiles!

Lilah has had some digestive problems over the past few months, and I'm praying that she's on the mend now. It started back in mid to late July. She started throwing up at daycare and they sent her home for the day. The teachers told us that the stomach flu was going around, and they figured that's what it was. I know a couple of other kids in her class had the bug because I heard the parents talking about it. Lilah threw up a few times the first and second day. But after that, she vomited about once every 18 hours or so, and it lasted about a week. It lingered into the week Carson was born. I remember taking Lilah to the doctor the afternoon after he was born. The doctor said that sometimes the bug goes dormant for a bit and then flares up again, and it's not uncommon for some kids to have the stomach bug for many days. That sounded a little weird to me. I know that Lilah definitely looked out of sorts the first 1-2 days. But after that, she acted like her normal, happy self, even when she was vomiting about once a day.
About 3 weeks later, Lilah started vomiting again. It was in conjunction with heavy coughing spells from a cold she was recovering from. It seemed like she would cough so hard she would make herself vomit. At least that's what we thought. But this vomiting spell lasted about 2 weeks, with vomiting occurring only about once a day or so. And Lilah acted perfectly healthy. Sometimes the vomiting occurred after a coughing spell. But sometimes it didn't. Sometimes she would barely cough once and then her meal would come up. And sometimes when she was eating her baby food she would start gagging. Not because she was choking but because her gag reflex suddenly kicked in. I can't remember, but I don't believe we took Lilah back to the doctor this round, since her vomiting eventually cleared up.
Then on Sunday, September 11th, another vomiting cycle started up. It seemed like Lilah was fine during the day, but her evening meal of baby food would come back up. However, I don't think there was any real rhyme or reason to it. This cycle of vomiting was off and on for the 2nd half of the whole month. Lilah had a bad flare-up at Chrindy's cabin, which was mentioned in my last blog posting. Again, Lilah's disposition was her normal, happy self. She didn't act sick, didn't act like she had an upset tummy, and overall had the same appetite.
We took Lilah back to the doctor with an outline of each occurrence so that her doctor could understand how often this was happening, and how long it has been lasting. I suggested that perhaps she has a very poor gag reflex. The doctor seemed to think it was related to acid reflux. Just to clarify...we are talking about true vomiting. Lilah's spittiness was just that. Spitting up after a bottle or meal. And that was excessive spittiness that she had suffered from. But not the same as vomiting. Lilah's spittiness stopped in early September, thank goodness!!!! But now we were battling her vomiting ailment. The doctor also mentioned cyclic vomiting syndrome. I think that's the name of it. I had done some research on this prior to our appointment, and I was really hoping that's not what she was suffering from. We made an appointment to see the doctor again in 1 month, once Lilah had been out of daycare for a few weeks. The doctor seemed confident that her constant head colds and vomiting issue would clear up once she was out of the germ factory (daycare).
We went back to the doctor last week for her re-check. Lilah has only had a small handful of minor vomiting issues since leaving daycare. And none of the episodes lasted more than 1-2 days. No 2-week spells. But it's only been a few weeks. I am really hoping that this is not some sort of cyclic vomiting issue that she will suffer from long term. I do know that her daddy has a terrible gag reflex and has been known to throw up after a multitude of triggers, both physical and emotional. Stress and anxiety affect Edward's gag reflex. So maybe Lilah inherited that from him?? We don't really have any answers right now. We just continue to hope and pray that Lilah will improve and won't continue to have these vomiting spells. Thankfully, Lilah's weight continues to do well and she doesn't let her ailments get her down!

Nine month photos of Lilah!