Let me start by saying Rebecca is the sister to Lucas, and because of which it took my husband and I three years to have another one, and even once I finally agreed it was more to provide a brother/sister for Lucas and fulfill my husbands desire for two children, as my desire to have any more children disappaited whenever I remembered the first years of my sons life. Also even though we where through the worst, the behavioral implications of the first years, and the few remaining digestive problems continued to plague us off and on, as a lurking reminder of what we all had experienced.

You will notice that I talk about how it affected us all, because although Lucas was the one in pain, all three suffered the trauma of the first years of his life which slowly over time we began to heal from. So reluctantly to please others I agreed to try for another one and sure enough a month later found myself pregnant with babe number two. My pregnancy passed in a rollercoaster road of fear, anticipation and what I can only describe as despair as the babe grew, and my protests of here I go again where met with exclamations of others in regards to my negativity. When the twenty week ultrasound showed a slight problem, it only confirmed my fears that once again this wasn't going to be a normal baby.

I went into labor the night before a booked caesarian section, and spent the remaining hours before the operation in dread of what was awaiting me. Unfortunately the spinal block didn't work as planned so I had to be put to sleep and I awoke to a beautiful little baby next to me.

Within the next few days I noticed how unsettled she became after the feed and how she started squirming and yelping in her sleep before waking about an hour after each feed. I put her in bed with me and resumed all the management strategies that I had used with my son and by day two was telling everyone that she had reflux, however it wasn't until Janice the DISA president came to visit that anyone believed me. She was the first person to take me seriously and for that I will always be grateful.

By day 5 or 7 I was at the doctors soliciting a prescription for Zantac and a referral to Don Cameron, although the doctor was unable to work out a dose for a baby so young, so I obtained it through a DISA mum and ran it by the doctor. Another DISA counselor Vanessa on being told I couldn't get into Don for 6 weeks, rang the receptionist and swapped her appointment with mine, so as I didn't have to wait, and so Rebecca had her first visit with a pediatric gastroenterologist at three weeks.

I had ceased eating any dairy or soy products on the birth of my daughter as advised by Don Cameron when I was pregnant, and two days before I saw Don I tried eating some cheese. Rebecca went from being on average 6 hours distressed to screaming for 14 hours in one sitting. She was so distressed that even knowing what it was I took her to the Emergency room just to ensure she wasn't developing meningitis or something. She wasn't of course.

Now from the moment I entered Dons Rooms on that day this story took a significant turn from Lucas's. Not only was I believed, but I was asked my opinion, and we discussed the possible causes, treatments, options open to me and then Don simply asked what I wanted him to do and we discussed it. At all times I was the one that was given the choice of what was to be done and the direction in which we should head. I came out of that room feeling informed, in charge of the situation and thus empowered to handle it. This was not something I had to endure, but rather my daughter had a condition which with the aid of Don Cameron we where going to identify and treat accordingly.

Each of the subsequent visits where the same. We assessed Rebecca, openly discussed her and our options, and together we agreed on a course of action. We did a 5 day trial of Neocate solely to determine whether she was multiple protein intolerant, and although her colic symptoms disapated, her reflux appeared worse, so agreeing that she was multiple protein intolerant, I chose to breastfed her and keep her on the Zantac. When Rebecca stopped responding to Zantac at three months, she was scoped to rule out oesophagitis and then placed on Neocate, eight days later she overnight became a delightful smiling baby. At no time was Rebecca bad! She had had five days where she was as distressed as Lucas had been on a normal day. Six months of hell had been reduced to five days.

Rebecca still obviously had not been good in that time, needing constant comfort and often distressed for some time each day, but it was never something that overwhelmed us. We still had nights of not enough sleep and the odd teary day or two and being caught out in your pyjamas at two in the afternoon! But Rebecca in the end gave me back what I had so sorely missed from Lucas's first year, the chance to enjoy it! I got to take her shopping, show off this pretty SLEEPING baby in her pram while I DRANK A CUP OF TEA AT A CAFÉ. I got to place her in her bassinette and walk away confidently knowing she would go to SLEEP FOR AN HOUR OR TWO!!!! I got to experience all the things I had anticipated before I had children and she was more severe than Lucas. We just knew more!

Rebecca since the start of Neocate thrived and unless teething or sick was an easy going smiling babe, however on introducing food we discovered our next hurdle, she was multiple protein intolerant to the extent of all protein, so in other words, all food. So slowly through trial and error, & guidance from Don Cameron , Dorothy Francis and Royal Prince Alfred we are slowly getting there, she is fourteen months old and can now tolerate rice! Any food sees a sharp deterioration, some worse than others, generally the higher the protein content the worse she is, otherwise she's perfect. Although teething and viruses are pretty bad.

Things that I found helped.
1. Other siblings's age, the older the better. When I was pregnant we encouraged Lucas to dress himself, get his own breakfast etc, to become self reliant, this was invaluable.
2. A bad day plan. We called them pyjama days. You have videos, play station, activity books all reserved for pyjama days, so older children see it as a treat, while you spend all day on the couch!
3. Precooked meals and a big freezer
4. Spouse home for eight weeks following birth if at all possible.
5. Outing day. My husband took Lucas out every Saturday and sometimes camping all weekend. This proved invaluable as the other children need an outing, and some one to one time, that they can count on. Lucas coped much better when we did this, and it gave him something to look forward to.
6. Support network, you need people who have lived through this, who understand, who will listen, and who will give you a kick when you need it.

Overall the biggest problem I found in her first year was deciding that I needed to something about her distress. Because Rebecca was treated appropriately from day one, her symptoms where relatively mild when compared to Lucas, so I constantly faced the deliemma of is she severe enough to warrant intervention. However when I asked myself the following questions my answer was Yes.
Is she in pain?
Is it interfering with her life, her sleeping, her eating, her playing?
Is her distress affecting the family unit?
If I was in that amount of pain would I do something about it?
So whenever I faced a decision about taking the next step in treatment I would ask myself these questions, and armed with the knowledge that reflux and intolerances if treated accordingly should not cause undue distress, I took the next step in her treatment, Thankfully for all of us, as its been a year that the whole family has enjoyed, including Lucas

I'd like to Thank Janice for listening to me, Vanessa for laughing and sympathizing with me and Nicole for always being there and giving me a kick when needed. I'd like to thank Wendy for her friendship and turning up with takeaway at 11 o'clock one night when she'd heard I'd had a bad day, even though her son is the most severe case of intolerances that I've ever come across. I'd like to thank all the others at DISA for caring, my husband for sticking it out and my beautiful children, for giving me the reason, inspiration and dedication that we all need to keep DISA going. The information contained in DISAs internet site is all what I needed to make Rebecca's first year, a year in which I'll treasure in comparison to Lucas's which was one we're still recovering from. Again I owe so much to Don Cameron for his faultless care of my children and me!