Hmmm, it's been 44 days now since the dreaded cheese sandwich. Forty four days. That's a long time to suffer from acid reflux without any breaks. Well, I shouldn't say that. We've had two or three breaks at night, but those have been made up for some long daytime attacks.
School has started. After many sleepless nights (my sleepless nights, not Jayden's), I had to send my little boy to school. So, I hope and pray that nothing will happen in the daytime, and I hope and pray that if something did happen in the daytime the children, the teacher, and school will be kind to my sweet boy. I looked around on the Internet, at other blogs, and found advice on how to inform the school about Jayden's health issues. Essentially, it was advised:
1) inform in writing,
2) skip being nice (don't be mean, but be firm)
3) make sure that everyone who cares for your child is aware of the situation.
The following is my attempt at doing all this. I would normally write this overly flowery letter but here is my attempt at "to the point." I sent this letter to my son's teacher, the school nurse, the school, everyone on staff at my church, and also sent it to Jayden's grandparents. I sent this to the grandparents mostly to share with them the letter, but as I pressed the send key I realized that this letter is very clear, and contains good information should they ever need it. It's something they too can hold on to. I will take this letter to the multitude of doctors that we have seen in hope that they will read it.
The following is a note about Jayden that I will also give as a hard copy to the office.
In June, Jayden had a severe allergy to Advil. It tore up his stomach lining or something to that nature. He has been under great distress since then. The Advil has resulted in Jayden having severe acid reflux which means he has a lot of burping (sometimes 40 or more per minute that are very forceful, painful, and uncontrollable) and sometimes has burning acid. These problems usually start in the 9:00 hour at night but I'm not sure what will happen when we switch his schedule to school hours. We are working very hard to get this under control. Jayden does have medicine that he needs to take twice a day and we have him on strict food restrictions. We will try to have all medicine taken outside of school functions.
Currently Jayden is:
Dairy-free (no milk or cheese)
Chocolate-free
Citrus-free (no orange-juice or lemonade)
Mint-free
Spicy-food-free
Fried-food-free
Tomato-free (no pizza)
Soda-free/Caffeine-free
We have also put him on a gluten-free/soy-free/peanut-free diet.
We took him to an allergist and had Jayden tested for allergies. He is NOT allergic to wheat, soy or peanuts and does not need to be isolated from any of these foods. However, he seemed to have a slight intolerance for these since the Advil mess and we are doing everything we can to help him. Since going gluten-free Jayden's acid reflux symptoms have decreased from 4 hours at night to 2 hours, so we are making a commitment to doing this. I will happily provide snacks for him, please let me know ahead of time if there are birthdays or other school parties that I can bring a special treat for Jayden so he does not feel left out. We are really struggling with all of this. Jayden has been in and out of the doctor's offices since June and we will start seeing a pediatric gastro-enterologist at Children's soon in September. I anticipate other school absences for doctor appointments as we work through this. We hope to work with the school as these come up.
Mostly, Jayden experiences acid reflux at nighttime. However, Jayden has had issues during other hours of the day. Sometimes he has a day "attack" of acid reflux. If this should happen while at school, he really doesn't want to be near people during that time. Jayden is very aware of when the acid reflux/burping attack will start up. Please take him seriously if he shares that his stomach does not feel well. Should the burping happen, while in your care, please take Jayden out of a public situation and send him to the office and have them call me or text me at (cell), or (home). I live 20 minutes away from the school, which will feel like a long time to Jayden. During this time, please have Jayden eat 10 raisins, which we will send with him. It's a strange but true "old wives tale" that we found on the Internet but it seems to work (but doesn't work all the time.) Tums, DO NOT work for us unfortunately. Please note, if Jayden is burping this is NOT something he can control, please don't ask him to use "good manners" with this situation. Once it starts, his burping can last for two hours or more and he is very uncomfortable as it makes him feel sick to his stomach. Usually the burping stops when he's absolutely exhausted from them at night and he falls asleep, but in the daytime, we have noticed that there seems to be a sudden relief. We will update you as we go, we truly hope that this is temporary. Jayden is a very active little boy and will enjoy PE and recesses and dance fully.
Thank you for your kindness in this matter.
Tomato-free (no pizza)
Soda-free/Caffeine-free
We have also put him on a gluten-free/soy-free/peanut-free diet.
We took him to an allergist and had Jayden tested for allergies. He is NOT allergic to wheat, soy or peanuts and does not need to be isolated from any of these foods. However, he seemed to have a slight intolerance for these since the Advil mess and we are doing everything we can to help him. Since going gluten-free Jayden's acid reflux symptoms have decreased from 4 hours at night to 2 hours, so we are making a commitment to doing this. I will happily provide snacks for him, please let me know ahead of time if there are birthdays or other school parties that I can bring a special treat for Jayden so he does not feel left out. We are really struggling with all of this. Jayden has been in and out of the doctor's offices since June and we will start seeing a pediatric gastro-enterologist at Children's soon in September. I anticipate other school absences for doctor appointments as we work through this. We hope to work with the school as these come up.
Mostly, Jayden experiences acid reflux at nighttime. However, Jayden has had issues during other hours of the day. Sometimes he has a day "attack" of acid reflux. If this should happen while at school, he really doesn't want to be near people during that time. Jayden is very aware of when the acid reflux/burping attack will start up. Please take him seriously if he shares that his stomach does not feel well. Should the burping happen, while in your care, please take Jayden out of a public situation and send him to the office and have them call me or text me at (cell), or (home). I live 20 minutes away from the school, which will feel like a long time to Jayden. During this time, please have Jayden eat 10 raisins, which we will send with him. It's a strange but true "old wives tale" that we found on the Internet but it seems to work (but doesn't work all the time.) Tums, DO NOT work for us unfortunately. Please note, if Jayden is burping this is NOT something he can control, please don't ask him to use "good manners" with this situation. Once it starts, his burping can last for two hours or more and he is very uncomfortable as it makes him feel sick to his stomach. Usually the burping stops when he's absolutely exhausted from them at night and he falls asleep, but in the daytime, we have noticed that there seems to be a sudden relief. We will update you as we go, we truly hope that this is temporary. Jayden is a very active little boy and will enjoy PE and recesses and dance fully.
Thank you for your kindness in this matter.
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