Lilly, by four days old, she was constantly screaming, distressed, and hard to feed. She was going rigid and vomiting. She developed eczema and had intermittent blotchy red rashes.
Her local paediatrican gave her an odd diagnosis of the “unsettled baby syndrome” – he said that there was nothing wrong, and that she was a “normal’ baby. Lilly’s mother was amazed and felt frustrated.
At the Childrens Clinic, we made the diagnosis of gastric reflux from a cow’s milk allergy. We put this poor Lilly on a special dairy-free formula (Neocate).
She is now “a different baby”. She is smiling, gaining weight, and her rashes have gone.
“Unsettled baby syndrome” was a ridiculous diagnostic label. It means nothing and was of no comfort or use to her parents.
So many parents are told that there is nothing wrong, that its normal or asked if they are first time parents when they know that there is something wrong with their child.
I’d prefer doctors just said they didn’t know what was wrong and weren’t going to bother looking into what’s happening as that’s really what “unsettled baby syndrome” means!