The night he was born, we had our 1st choking experience. I was in the bathroom and Anthony said "something is wrong, you need to hurry up". By the time I got in there he was making this whistling sound, I picked him up and held him, called the nurse and told her what happened. The nusre said some babies swallow amniotic fluid during birth. She took him for monitoring. When she came back, she stated that he had another choking episode (#2) with her and they extracted 3cc's of amniotic fluid from him. She said that he should be fine now. The next day, our family doctor came by to check him out and saw him doing this choking thing (#3). Dr. Winters came to talk to us about it and I told him of the other two episodes, he didn't like what he saw and called a neo-natal nurse from Bergan to come check it out. The neo-natal nurse came to observe him and didn't see but a glimpse of these episodes we were describing. What she saw was like a dry heaving with the whistle sound (stridor) right before leaving. She said he was healthy and looked good and then that was it. Later that evening I went to ask the nurses for some water and saw one of my labor/delivery nurses who mentioned that the neo-natal nurse told her that Thorin had a bit of tracheomalacia. This was a new word to me so I went to my room and got on google. I was confused at this point. During the middle of the night the nurse came in and told me I needed to rest and she would take baby to the nursery. After their assessments she brought him back and said he had a choking episode (#4) in the nursery. I told her about the first episode and what the doctors had going on. I mentioned the tracheomalacia term to her. Upon the next day and our last in the maternity ward, Dr. Troy (a partner doctor to our family doctor, Dr. Winters) came to discharge Thorin. I asked a nurse to tell him about the tracheomalacia thing and if he could explain it to me. After his assessment, he came to talk to me. He was very tender with his wording and explained it as something he will grow out of and there were no other concerns for baby. You see, Dr. Winters and Dr. Troy know how hard of a time I had dealing with Anders' (Thorin's brother) heart defect. So I appreciated the way Dr. Troy explained this weird term to me. I felt confident at this point and was ready to get home.
Our first night home, I fed Thorin, burped him and felt okay with putting him in the bassinet. My feet were super swollen so I rolled the bassinet by the couch and laid down with my feet up. Probably 10 minutes later I hear this whistling sound (stridor) and nothing else. I jump up and look in the bassinet to find Thorin's face reddish purple and his eyes bulging out of his face. I didn't know what to do and before I knew it instinct took over. I grabbed him up and pat his back then used the sucker in the side of his cheek. I repeated this three times before he recovered and was able to breathe. I called the on call doctor who ended up being Dr. Troy and he said what I did was the right thing and if it happened again to go to Children's Hospital, if he lost color to call 911. I got off the phone and my husband and I were in tears with what just happened. It's scary to think your newborn is choking and neither one of us no how to do cpr on an infant. The next day we had a weight check appointment with Dr. Winters where I shared our scariest choking episode (#5) ever from the night before. He did not like what he was hearing and said he is sending us to the ER at Children's to see two specialists and stay overnight for monitoring.
Now we are at Children's Hospital and I am re-telling these very same events to the doctors there. They took x-rays of his neck and his lungs. There was a specialist Dr. Colombo, a pulmologist, who came to visit with us. He would perform a bronchoscope but not until the next day. Thorin was losing weight and very dehydrated so they were going to hook him up to an IV. He was also very jaundice so they gave him something to help him poop. We were supposed to see another specialist like a gastronologist but did not. The next day came and so did this scoping. I was able to stay in the room and watch them and then Dr. Colombo found videos on youtube to help give me a visual of what he saw. The way it was explained was that he has laryngomalacia and the nodules on the back of the vocal chord are enlarged and red causing the airway to collapse with and without the stridor sound. He put him on baby zantac for acid reflux twice a day to help keep food down and told me to supplement my breastmilk with Infamil AR formula for spit-up. I am to hold him upright during feedings and an hour after feedings, also I am to keep him elevated during sleeping which will help him. This is an underdeveloped airway which usually corrects itself by 24 months of age. So there is hope but yes my husband and I were not wanting to hear this. I mean who wants to hear that their newborn's airway randomly collapses so we both went home and cried together.
Our pastor and his wife came over with family to pray with us that night after we were discharged from Children's. We are fortunate to be blessed with such a caring, loving, and supportive family, church family, and friends. We have been thanking God for each day and night and take episodes as they come, which have been milder and fewer and farther between. I have also found healing through other mom's dealing with laryngomalacia through facebook support groups and by creating this website.
Our first night home, I fed Thorin, burped him and felt okay with putting him in the bassinet. My feet were super swollen so I rolled the bassinet by the couch and laid down with my feet up. Probably 10 minutes later I hear this whistling sound (stridor) and nothing else. I jump up and look in the bassinet to find Thorin's face reddish purple and his eyes bulging out of his face. I didn't know what to do and before I knew it instinct took over. I grabbed him up and pat his back then used the sucker in the side of his cheek. I repeated this three times before he recovered and was able to breathe. I called the on call doctor who ended up being Dr. Troy and he said what I did was the right thing and if it happened again to go to Children's Hospital, if he lost color to call 911. I got off the phone and my husband and I were in tears with what just happened. It's scary to think your newborn is choking and neither one of us no how to do cpr on an infant. The next day we had a weight check appointment with Dr. Winters where I shared our scariest choking episode (#5) ever from the night before. He did not like what he was hearing and said he is sending us to the ER at Children's to see two specialists and stay overnight for monitoring.
Now we are at Children's Hospital and I am re-telling these very same events to the doctors there. They took x-rays of his neck and his lungs. There was a specialist Dr. Colombo, a pulmologist, who came to visit with us. He would perform a bronchoscope but not until the next day. Thorin was losing weight and very dehydrated so they were going to hook him up to an IV. He was also very jaundice so they gave him something to help him poop. We were supposed to see another specialist like a gastronologist but did not. The next day came and so did this scoping. I was able to stay in the room and watch them and then Dr. Colombo found videos on youtube to help give me a visual of what he saw. The way it was explained was that he has laryngomalacia and the nodules on the back of the vocal chord are enlarged and red causing the airway to collapse with and without the stridor sound. He put him on baby zantac for acid reflux twice a day to help keep food down and told me to supplement my breastmilk with Infamil AR formula for spit-up. I am to hold him upright during feedings and an hour after feedings, also I am to keep him elevated during sleeping which will help him. This is an underdeveloped airway which usually corrects itself by 24 months of age. So there is hope but yes my husband and I were not wanting to hear this. I mean who wants to hear that their newborn's airway randomly collapses so we both went home and cried together.
Our pastor and his wife came over with family to pray with us that night after we were discharged from Children's. We are fortunate to be blessed with such a caring, loving, and supportive family, church family, and friends. We have been thanking God for each day and night and take episodes as they come, which have been milder and fewer and farther between. I have also found healing through other mom's dealing with laryngomalacia through facebook support groups and by creating this website.