From Our Patients

When my husband and I welcomed our first child last summer 5 weeks ahead of schedule, we were initially over the moon.  That “newborn bliss” was incredibly short lived, however, as it quickly became apparent that something was wrong.  At just a few weeks old, our little boy began screaming and crying all day, every day.  If he was awake and not feeding, there was a good chance he was crying.  Even as first-time parents, we knew something wasn’t right.  “It’s just colic”, we were told, “he’ll grow out of it”, they said.  Deep down though, I knew something was wrong.  Then came the obvious signs of silent reflux.  In hindsight, I think he had silent reflux from the get-go, but we didn’t know anything about it or what to look out for.  Once it became apparent what was happening, I set out to try and fix it.  I couldn’t stand to watch my baby have these episodes 20+ times a time when it was clearly causing him so much pain and discomfort.  We sought help from our pediatrician, our local peds GI, etc., but were met with resistance.  “He’s gaining weight, he will be fine, he’ll grow out of it”, is what we were told.  I think that is one of the hardest parts of having a baby with reflux, especially as severe as it was for our son.  We understood he was gaining weight; that was never the problem for us.  Feeling like your concerns were being dismissed simply because of solid weight gain and essentially being told to “deal with it”, was incredibly disheartening.  Yes, he was gaining weight.  However, he was in extreme pain and discomfort 24/7 and that is not normal or acceptable for an infant to have to go through.  My husband and I felt like we were losing our minds from the constant screaming.  Finally, after lots of searching, I stumbled upon Dr. Prince and her practice.  I saw the initial consultation fee and decided at that point we had nothing else to lose.  The way I saw it was, if what she suggested didn’t work, then we were no worse off than we had previously been.  But if it did work….?  Then it would be well worth the money.

Working with Dr. Prince completely changed our lives.  I will admit, I was skeptical at first.  I didn’t want to put my baby on a high dose of medication.  But at the same time, I didn’t want to risk any more damage to his esophagus by leaving the reflux untreated.  For the first time, we felt like we were being listened to, and our concerns were not dismissed.  Within a few weeks of working with her, we began to see small improvements in our son.  After 6-8 weeks, we had a completely different baby.  We watched as his silent reflux episodes became fewer and farther in between before eventually stopping entirely.  Occasionally, we would see little flare ups during illness or teething episodes, but nothing as severe as what we had previously experienced.  He was finally able to sleep independently on his back again, after refusing to sleep like this for months.  We regained our sanity and for the first time were able to fully enjoy our baby and parenthood.  It was incredibly helpful to know we would meet with her at least once a month to talk through things we were seeing, questions we thought of, or concerns we had.  Now here we are a year later and in the process of weaning him off his medication.  It’s crazy to think that this time a year ago we were in a living hell, but because of Dr. Prince we were able to finally help our baby became pain free.

If I could give one piece of advice to a parent currently in the trenches of reflux, it would be this: don’t stop advocating for your little one.  YOU know them best, not a provider who sees them for 5 minutes and writes off your concerns or tells you “It’s just colic.”  When you find the right combination of medication and nutrition (whether it’s formula or breast milk), you can help your baby live a happier, more comfortable life without having to just wait for them to “grow out of it.”  If you’re on the fence about working with Dr. Prince and her team, I say do it.  You’ll never know if she can help your family if you don’t try, and for us, she truly changed our lives for the better. 

- Jennifer Maracle​