Preemie Stuff No One Talks About

Preemie. The name sounded cute. It's a small baby, right?

Then at week 26 I went into labor. Week 27 my son was cut from me. Despite the kindness of the clinicians, and my OB, despite the sterile environment, it was necessary and a violent act; the cutting through flesh and muscle to free a small breech baby. In another time we both would have died.

Fast forward through the NICU experience and my son is home, but he constantly throws up. You burp him for the recommended half hour and still, projectile vomiting. He coughs and chokes and sputters. Meanwhile, he also develops thrush and baby acne. He has apnea at night and my husband and I jump out of our skins each time the monitor goes off. One night his heart rate plummets.

That's when I lose it and decide to do something radical.

I find that one of the top NICUs in the country is introducing probiotics to preemies almost immediately after birth. So I read up on it. And then I begin breaking capsules, and adding the good ones - the refrigerated ones - about as much as the tip of my finger. Thrush disappears in a few short days. Reflux reduced to the normal amount of baby spitup.

A friend of mine whose daughter was a preemie was told to put her child on antacids by a pulmonologist. Antacids weaken the stomach acid (which isn't the problem; a sterile gut and an open sphincter is). Not only can she not absorb he maximum nutrients, but she becomes seriously ill.

Why, why, why aren't we talking about this?