Things A Pediatrician Should Never Say

"You'll do better with your second baby." Uhh... what do I say to that? Thanks?!

He did not listen to one thing I said... (here's the part where I'm just going to ramble about a doctor who didn't listen... it's really not worth reading. I'm sure you've been there before and this may not make sense. I just need to write out my frustration, then it will be gone and I don't have to think about it any more.)

I told him Caleb has had diarrhea for two months and wasn't really gaining weight until I stopped eating dairy two weeks ago. In five weeks he only gained one pound and in the past three weeks he has gained two and a half pounds. Now he has more normal poops unless I slip up and eat something I shouldn't, then he has diarrhea again. His response, "Does he poop regularly?" (He doesn't believe me about the dairy stuff btw)

At that point I pulled out the outfit Caleb had been wearing when we got to the doctor's office... "This is what happens if I eat something that bugs his stomach, he has diarrhea all over everything. That is usually a couple of hours after he cries in pain, brings his knees up to his stomach or arches his back as hard as he can (whichever feels better to him at the time), his stomach is a tight knot, and screams until the pain goes away."

* Funny tangent: I was checking in at the front desk and Caleb was sitting in his car seat on the floor and just let loose. The 10 year-old boy that heard Caleb started laughing and tried not to stare. And then Caleb just kept going. I knew at that point I was in trouble... I felt Caleb's back. Sure enough, soaked in poop. So I finished up the paperwork and then headed into the bathroom for damage control. I ended up having to wipe down a lot of the bathroom after I got Caleb situated... it was a messy one. *

"Does he sleep through the night?"
No, we tried having him cry it out like you said for five nights and he just cried all night. He's been sleeping a lot better over the past couple of weeks, meaning, last night he only woke up once every hour but was able to fall back asleep on his own (other than the two times I fed him).
"You need to just let him cry it out. In three nights I promise he'll be able to sleep through the night."
It didn't work very well last time.
"You need to settle down. It's hard for the mommies to let their babies cry. Just do it, three nights."

"Does he take naps?"
I try to have him take 3 naps a day. One in the morning, one around noon and one in the afternoon.
"Well, maybe he's getting too much sleep during the day."
His naps are usually between 30-50 minutes.
"So he's a cat-napper, he must sleep well at night then."
(Did he really just miss the last five minutes of our conversation?)
"Have him nap from 10-12 and then 3-4:30. Don't let the afternoon one go too long. Wake him up, otherwise he won't want to go to sleep at night."
I would love to have him sleep for two hours at a time, but he hasn't had a nap that long since he was four weeks old.

Anyway... Caleb is healthy and happy and handled his shots so well! I love him and will try to figure out how to help him with his tummy problems as best as I can. Hopefully a couple more weeks without dairy and then slowly adding different things back into my diet to see how he handles it. Maybe I'll try probiotics again... they helped my stomach issues but Caleb didn't seem to like it when I tried it... that may have been because I mixed the probiotic powder into my yogurt (dairy).