Nisarga

Category: pain

  • New beginnings

    New beginnings

    We have now moved to our new home, and Nisarga seems to be thriving. He is eating more, sleeping sooner, sleeping sounder and rising at the crack of dawn all excited.

    Another new beginning is the end of my resistance to massage. After being told that it wouldn’t help him, and after seeing little to no result from it as well, I’d given up on it as one of those things everyone either tells a mother to try or avoid, depending on which end of the orthodox to allopathic spectrum they land.

    Then today, something a new neighbour said, suddenly clicked. He was speaking of trying various exotic oils specifically to help his condition (as opposed to the general “build strength” or “good for baby” suggestions so far). It was a minor departure from the routine suggestions and possibly an accident more than intentionally different, but it got me thinking.

    After Nisarga settled into a very uneasy sleep, I got on the internet and hunted down information.

    And I can’t believe I missed this, but 3 in 4 cerebral palsy patients experience pain from their constant involuntary movements. Astonishingly, I have not actually tried to solve the pain beyond gently pressing his feet when they seem restless. I however seem to have noticed subconsciously that the few times he was given crocin – usually for unrelated reasons, he slept soundly and moved around less in his seep. Obviously, he can’t make painkillers a part of his diet, but surely there can be massage oils for pain that can be in his routine?

    So I hunted down information that mostly led me to herbal and alternative medicine websites and some natural treatment websites including one that claims to treat cerebral palsy (implying cure). In the process, I ran into dozens of names of oils and herbs that would be useful, and made a note.

    Among those on various pages (and for various related reasons ranging from pain relief to relaxation and nerve stimulation), I noted those I had present at home to experiment. I had rosemary, eucalyptus and citronella (I thought it would be the same or substitutable, if not, for lemongrass). On a stray note, most of these seem to be astringent or somewhat mildly irritating to the skin – I wonder if that is a factor in the pain relief – by creating counter sensations or increasing blood flow, etc.

    Taking a few spoons of olive oil, I mixed a few drops each of these, and rubbed a sleeping Nisarga’s legs.

    Normally, touching his legs when he’s sleeping, particularly extensive touching causes him to contract them closer to his body. Not today. He just relaxed into my touch, his breathing suddenly deeper and his whole body went limp in a way that spoke of relief.

    So I rubbed some into my own aching legs, and the ache indeed seems better.

    So now I’m hunting down various other alternative medicines and massage oils to try with Nisarga. Might as well boost this growth spurt and see where it takes us.

    And I am planning to massage him (very lightly) with one or more of these oils twice a day. Less rubbing and more of pain relief and relaxation.

    I’ll update here if there are any noteworthy results.

  • Atarax drops – things I didn't know

    Okay, the baby had had a bad night two days ago, and the pediatrician prescribed atarax drops – 10 drops morning and night. She asked me to call back in a day.

    I’d given him the drops and he slept most of the day away. I assumed it was from being so utterly exhausted. He hadn’t had another crying spell. When I called the doctor after 24 hours as told, she asked about how he was responding and I told her that, and she asked me to reduce his dose to 8 drops both times and call back in another 24 hours.
    He’s doing fine.
    Then, with my obsession with whatever the baby ingests, I searched online for information about Atarax drops and I found the following:
    • They contain Hydroxyzine Hydrochloride.
    • They are indicated for nervous stress, anxiety and neurovegetative disorders in cardiovascular affections (hy­pertension, arteriosclerosis, arrhythmia, stenocardia, nervous and circulatory asthenia), respiratory af­fections (nervous cough, chronic bronchitis, bronchospasmsl, gastrointestinal disorders (nausea and vo­miting, gastric hypermotility and hypersecretion, gastric and duodenal ulcers, chronic colitis), and in pe­diatrics (tics, enuresis)….
    • Sleepiness is a common side effect!
    • It is possible to alergic to these – I HAD been thinking that Nisarg’s face looks a little swollen, but thought it was because of the crying….
    In short, its a heavy duty medicine, particularly for such a small baby, and while it helps, it would have been good if the doctor could have explained how important it was not to give more than needed (I can imagine myself giving him “a little bit more” if faced with a screaming infant in the middle of the night – not that I do this easily with him, but that it feels remarkably powerless to see him hurt – luckily the situation didn’t arise). I think it also was crucial that we be told that we could expect him to sleep a bit more from the medicine and to watch out for possible allergic reactions.
    It sounded like a regular medicine for babies, the way she gave it. Or maybe it is? I don’t know.
    Anyway, it doesn’t seem to make him drowsy when it counts, and he had a fussy spell for two hours after taking the medicine before he would settle to sleep. Though luckily, it was more a needy state of being rather than outright wails. And then we slept like a pair of logs till morning.

  • Pain and fear

    Just had some awful news. A friend of mine had a son recently and he developed some problems after birth and had to be hospitalized, where he died after two days. This must have been the hardest thing I have ever done….. I gave her a call and spoke with her briefly.

    What do you say to a new mother who loses her child?

    Just the thought of it was enough to shred all coherence from me, and we spent some torturous minutes of uncomprehending grief.

    As a new mother myself, I have no fear greater than this, and I can only imagine how a mother who should have been celebrating instead is dealing with engorged breasts and no one to feed. All the hopes, dreams, love….. shattered.

    I don’t know what to say, I don’t even know what to wish for…. Not my child. Mine is waving his hands and cooing as I swipe at tears, in a complete role reversal. For once, he doesn’t know why I’m crying and what to do about it. I’m grateful that I’m crying over a loss I will not be living with.

  • Neopeptine drops for infants with gas

    Okay, like I said that the baby’s loose bowel motions got sorted by Bonnisan, the other helpful miracle we had with the infant gas and colic was Neopeptine drops for infants. We had been asked not to give gripe water to Nisarga. Opinions vary on this from gripe water containing something that is risky for infants to accusations of doctors wanting to promote branded medicines instead of traditional remedies. Whatever the truth is (and we never investigated) we were not giving him gripe water to prevent infant gas. However, considering that a friend who gave her child gripe water regularly had similar problems to ours, so I’m not certain the gripe water helps.

    There are two things you need to know about infant gas. The first is that it is very painful and a leading cause of sleep deprivation for new parents. The other is that while medicines help, the biggest thing you can do is burp the baby and often. This simply cannot be repeated often enough.

    Neopeptine drops have digestive enzymes, and really helped cut the amount of abdominal pain from gas discomfort the baby goes through. Unfortunately, it took us a while to discover how to use it.

    Neopeptine drops for infants are available over the counter at most medical shops. So, if you are using Neopeptine drops for infant gas, here are some tips, which we wish someone had given us:

    • You have likely been advised to give Neopeptine drops only for extreme colic and exhaust other methods of soothing abdominal pain first. This makes you tend to wait for quite some time before the baby’s distress forces you to use it. You end up with a baby too worked up to patiently take drops and then too worn out and fussy to simply settle quietly. Don’t wait. Use it at the first sign of gas.
    • If your baby is suffering from intestinal gas, don’t give Neopeptine drops only when he is suffering abdominal pain. Give them for a day or two after getting relief from stomach pain as well, as long as you aren’t giving him more than three times, though we have given him four or even five doses once on the first day, when he was in a lot of trouble.
    • Give the drops before feeding. Pause. Then feed. Burp. Feed. Burp. Feed…. did I mention burp?
    • Neopeptine helps baby move the gas easier, but you can help it along. Give drops, burp, feed, burp, wait for some time, burp again.
    • Moving the baby’s legs will also help him pass gas, which will not hurt your situation.

    Have you used Neopeptine? How did you use it? How was your experience?

  • Bonnisan works miracles with gassy infant!!!

    Of course I did a whole load of searching on Bonnisan, and then tasted it myself before even showing baby the bottle….

    I’d read all kinds of nice things about it, which kind of reassured me, and the taste is nice – similar to gripe water, so initially I didn’t know what the doctor’s big deal about the whole thing was.

    I found out for myself within our first day on the medicine. Two doses in, and the gas pains were audibly lower. Baby was sleeping better, more cheerful and eating more.

    We are now into our second day and WOW!!! Nisarg is back to the sweet tempered baby he was before this gas nightmare began. He hasn’t pooped all day today after every day since birth being an experience of a constantly pooping bottom. He still has gas, but its much less and he can pass it without going through agony for every fart or spraying poop along with it. His body just seems so limp and relaxed after feedings.

    I’d reached the end of my rope with this gas thing, and desperately needed a miracle. Looks like I got one.

    If I add my experience with this medicine, with the research I read, I don’t know why doctors don’t simply prescribe this off the bat, or at least at the first sign of trouble. Its a digestive tonic that does so many things. Just Google it. No point having to suffer through my half baked jargon.

  • Gas trouble for my baby

    We had our first horrible night.

    Nisarg just cried and cried and cried for 3 hours. We felt so helpless.

    He woke up screaming bloody murder. Poor baby had gas. Every little while, a pain built and he screamed and squirmed and kicked out with his tiny feet in agony, and all we could do was look on helplessly as all our comfort methods failed. If there was ever a moment parents could be fired for failing their babies, it was this one….

    I tried everything I could. Rocking, singing, talking, cuddling, massaging, feeding at the breast, bottle, moving his feet to help expel the gas. Everything worked for a minute or so, and the poor tyke was back to yelling. I have never felt so helpless or under prepared. The doctor had given us some drops and they helped, but it was about an hour after he had started crying that we thought to give them….

    He had cried so hard that he was still having tiny sobs after he finally drank milk and slept. The morning brought some relief, but it was back to the same screaming inconsolably a while later.

    Am at my wits end. Called the doctor, and she simply said that these things happen and to comfort him how we could.

    Mother in law says to give him gripe water everyday, but the doctor shot down the idea earlier. She repeated it again, and again, and again, till we got some and gave it to him. Not much of a difference though he does like the taste.

    On an internet expedition to find out what I can do to help him.