Yesterday we took Margaret up to Children's Hospital in Birmingham. She's been a noisy breather since the day she was born. Very noisy. Eli was the same way but our doctor was not concerned so neither were we. We never got him checked out and sure enough he grew out of it. Now, everyone around us panics a little when they hear Margaret. They want to know what is wrong with her. Does she have a cold? Is she in distress? Can she be fixed? Because as my brother never fails to mention - she struggles for every breath!
As you know from my previous ramblings, Margaret is a wonderfully happy baby. She eats well, sleeps well, and is generally a very content baby. So, I have not been worried about her noisy breathing. However, at her 2 month appointment her pediatrician suggested it might be time to take her to Children's for a pulmonary evaluation. I tried to talk him out of it, because I believed there was nothing wrong with her. But I caved in when he said we could wait 4-6 weeks before taking her to Birmingham in the event her breathing cleared on up. However, when you're referred to a specialty clinic you take whatever appointment you are given. We went yesterday.
It was the first time either Jason or I had ever been to Children's Hospital and we were very impressed. The facility is very nice, filled with beautiful kid-friendly artwork, murals, and toys. Since Christmas is upon us, there were about 30 Christmas trees in the main lobby. My comment was, "this is a great place to come unless you have a sick child".
Now on to the point of my post. Margaret is just fine. There is nothing wrong with her save for a tiny baby
esophagus which the doctor said will strengthen and expand as she grows and she will outgrow her noisy breathing. No surprise to us. But, here's what I feel the need to comment on. There was tiny Margaret Jane, lying flat on her back in nothing but a diaper, her arms bound above her head, her legs wrapped tight to make them immobile, starving because she had to stop eating at 6AM, and being force fed barium (a liquid the patient drinks so stuff will show up on the x-ray). She was very upset and screaming her head off. The nurse turned to me and asked, "is she usually this fussy?" I let that one slide. Then, the nurse conducting the test said, "we are watching the monitor for acid reflux". Then, almost as if she was excited to find it she said, "Yep, there it is. She's got acid reflux". Jason and I looked at each other and if he hadn't said it I would have. He said, "Well, if you strapped me down to a table naked and force fed me barium you could give me acid reflux too". And all day long everyone kept asking us if Margaret spits up. Okay, people, here's the deal. Babies spit up. All babies spit up. Why do we have to hang a label on spitting up? Do some babies have a more severe spitting up condition that makes it difficult for them to ever eat or sleep? Of course. Let's get those babies help. But talk about over diagnosing something. We weren't there because she spits up, we were there because she breaths like Darth Vader. Stop trying to find something wrong with her! I won't go through the laundry list of medical issues that I believe are grossly over diagnosed in our society today since I'm probably offending enough people with my acid reflux rant. But, why do we have to put a label on every bodily function then throw a bunch of medicine at it? It would have been so easy for the medical staff at the hospital to convince us that something was wrong with Margaret, especially if that was what we wanted to hear. It was an interesting game that could have gone either way. We could have left there with a prescription for some pills to give our healthy two month old, or as it happened we ignored the suggestions that something minor could be wrong with her and we just left --
very thankful our child is healthy as we were surrounded by some very sick little children. Props to the doctor we saw (after 2.5 hours of waiting) because when she mentioned the acid reflux from the test we told the doc that MJ doesn't have it. She took our word for it and said, "Yeah, I could diagnose anybody with acid reflux from those tests".
My point exactly.
Josey loving on Margaret:
Eli wants to get down and play, I've got the death grip on his knee:
Eli spotted his grandfather, MJ is sitting sideways:
Josey is posed beautifully, unfortunately she's facing the street and not the camera! And both boys were tired of kneeling on the concrete:
