It was nice to finally have someone actually sit down and take the time to listen to what was going on and then explain all the possible things that could be happening. Dr. Silvernale told me that yes all babies spit up but projectile vomiting is not normal - no matter what the frequency. He also said that being premature should never be the answer (former practice's favorite reason for everything).
Dr. Silvernale explained that when an infant is consistently projectile vomiting, often times there is a valve that connects the esophagus and stomach that doesn't open and close correctly. He said if it's really serious you can feel the malfunction - think a huge rock in her gut. Thankfully, Lily has only had one episode since Sunday, has good weight/growth, and no rock in her gut. If she hadn't had good weight gain or if the Dr. could have felt the valve, he said he would have insisted she be seen today for a GI scope. Since Lily has had a better week, we are just going to monitor her episodes of projectile vomiting. If it starts back up again, we'll go see a specialist.
He also went over her growth on a percentile basis with me but warned me that they don't typically do this for babies born prematurely because it's not accurate. Based on her current weight and height growth she is in the 10th percentile for her current age. Once he corrected it for her prematurity (subtracted six weeks off her age) she appears in the 75th percentile. Pretty apparent why they don't track preemies on the scale - it would be super discouraging to hear Lily was only in the 10th percentile all the time.
Keep your fingers crossed for us that we don't have any projectile vomiting any time soon. She had one incident on Wednesday (all over Mike thank goodness) and other than that has been doing great. It's amazing how less stressful life can be when I'm not changing her clothes (and mine) every three hours.
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