Diagnosis

Still being held in the hospital against my will, mean old Dr. House-like doctor comes in smiling. His whole demeanor changed and he said that JJ had rumination syndrome. I was thinking this guy is off his rocker. My son does not have a cow's stomach. God does not make us that way.

The doctor went on the explain that JJ will make a certain type of face (and then proceeded to show me the face) and that was how he brought up the food in his stomach to chew on it. I explained I have never seen him make that face, but there were times that I did see him chewing on what he had brought up and just thought he wasn't old enough to know that when something comes up, you spit it out. The doctor explained that I would not see the face because it was something that he would not do when he was interacted with (which I was always interacting with him). He said that JJ prolly was able to sit in his car seat for hours without fussing. Yes he was. And prolly did not fuss when in the cart at the grocery store. True again. Went to bed easily and was prolly the most contented baby I had ever known. YES! And I thought it was a blessing. At the end of the conversation (in which JJ was in the crib) he said he had observed JJ make the face a few times (he gave a specific number, but this was back in OCtober of 2007, so I cannot remember the exact number, but I do remember it was less than 5). He said that because he was a professor at a college he gets to see some very strange and unique cases. And in his 40 years of practice, he had only seen three cases.

The doctor then told me to watch JJ for the face and he left. Thankfully a friend of mine was there. After the doctor left, she mentioned how she had seen JJ make that face on occasion and just thought it was a cute little face the baby would make.

THE FACE:
It is very difficult to explain, and even more difficult to show, but basically, the chin and lower lip move inwards, the tongue pushes out, and sometimes the eyes squint.

I then turned on the TV for him to watch and had my friend observe. She saw him make the face several times (again, I cannot remember an exact number). I was floored.

The next day, I had to get his weight up. He had lost TWO POUNDS while in the hospital those first few days while no one knew what was wrong. And because of his allergies, I was giving him hemp milk instead of formula because he threw up every formula in the grocery store. Hemp milk was the most caloric of all the fake milks. But still not high enough and not high enough in protein either (although still better than other fake milks on the market.

They gave him Elecare. He took well to it, but of course I was still scared he would throw it up. We gave him more and more and more food. I was given all day to get him to gain weight or the would put him on a feeding tube. As irrational as it sounds, I was scared to death that if they put him on a feeding tube, he would never eat by mouth again and it would be a struggle to ever get him to eat by mouth again.

The time came, and they had lied to me. They never even weighed him. I was threatened. He would have the feeding tube put in and I did not have a choice.