Back to Square 1?

McKenna has had a pretty significant case of acid reflux since birth, including a PETRIFYING experience the night we brought her home from the hospital that caused her to turn blue and for us to call 911! At any rate, the reflux was diagnosed pretty early in her life after we had to take her for a Swallow Study. She has been on reflux meds since then, and with just a little bit of dosing modification here and there, she has been fine overall.

At her last GI appointment in June, she had been doing so well for the last 3 months, we decided it would be appropriate to "challenge" the amount of medicine she was taking to see if she was ready to be weaned off the medicine altogether, or at least to a lower dose. I want her to be healthy, but I also want to make sure I am giving her the least amount of meds needed to be effective. I was very happy about this plan, and she has been doing very well with the lower dose... or so I thought until yesterday.

McKenna has had a persistent cough and rattling sound in her chest for about 2 weeks now. I took her to the doctors yesterday and got her checked out. The pediatrician thinks that it is very unlikely that cough is related to any type of virus or other infection. He thinks it is related to her reflux. As soon as he said that, a light bulb went off! Why didnt I think of that!!! That makes so much sense to me and I cant beleive I didnt put 2 and 2 together. When she was little and we were just getting diagnosed and trying out different meds, those were exactly her symptoms (besides the actual spit up).... she sounded like she had bad chest congestion and a cough!

So, we need to go back to her full dose of the meds now and test the theory that this has to do with her meds being cut back. I am so bummed that we may be headed back there. I was really hoping she had outgrown her reflux and was ready to start being weaned. I just dont want her to take any more meds than she needs to. But, if she needs them, then she needs them and I will gladly give them to her. I'll be interested to see how this little test goes over the next 2 weeks. If it isnt related to the reflux, she'll need to be sent for chest x-rays.... ugh!