Gripe Water

Last week I took Halen to the pediatrician for a scheduled weigh-in. He had been in the week before and his doctor wanted to make sure he was gaining enough weight. Apparently he should be gaining about a half ounce each day, but in 7 days he'd gained 11 ounces, which is about 3 times what was expected. Yea us!

That was our go-ahead to stop forcing food down his throat every 2-3 hours (day and night), and let him eat only when he wants (which, ironically*, is every 2-3 hours.)

Anyhow, our little rock star got an A+ in weight-gaining. But the doctor did say that he's gassy, and that may be why he tends to be fussy at night. She gave me a sample of this Gripe Water stuff. Anyone heard of it?

So this Gripe Water is basically baby Beano, as far as I can tell, but the problem is - it's yucky. It smells like licorice (fennel?) and poor Halen started gagging when I tried to give it to him via dropper. And here I was dropping it all nicely into the side of his little mouth, one slow drop at a time just like the directions on the dropper thing say! Oh man, you should have seen his eyes bulge as he opened his mouth all huge, stuck out his tongue and made these awful "HWUH!" sounds. He looked so indignant. Poor fella.

The next time, I snuck it into a bottle and he downed it without a flinch. Long story short, tonight right after a bottle (I've been pumping and bottle feeding the last few nights) he seemed fussy so I tried the dropper again. "HWUH!"

*Is that actually ironic? Alanis Morissette really screwed me up...