Fussy Baby program helps couple work through difficult period in child's life

Ben and Bernice with their son, Sam.

No matter how hard Bernice tried, she just couldn’t get Sam to sleep through the night. For the first year of his life, Bernice and her husband, Ben, tried different strategies with little success. Every night, Sam would wake at least once, and sometimes up to three times a night.

By the time Sam turned 8 months old, he also started experiencing unusual bowel movements, sometimes having diarrhea so bad that the couple would be asked to pick him up from daycare and take him home.

The couple became concerned and contacted Oakland Family Services’ Fussy Baby program for help after hearing about it from Help Me Grow. Fussy Baby is a home-visiting program that assists parents with an infant or toddler who cries a lot or has difficulty sleeping, eating or calming down.

“We were concerned about his development,” the 36-year-old Oakland County woman said. “If he was not getting enough sleep, then it may be impacting his development. We also didn’t know if he had a dairy intolerance. Those factors gave us more than one cause for concern.”

Bernice began meeting regularly with Pamela Coleman-Gay, an infant and family specialist with Fussy Baby, who offered strategies that would comfort Sam and reduce stress for the family. One of the things they tried was having Sam eat more food at dinner and drink more milk before bedtime to see if hunger was the reason why he was waking up at night.

“As a first-time parent, there’s so much information on the Internet, in books at pediatrician’s office, or through well-meaning and experienced friends, but some of that advice is conflicting, “ Bernice said. “For example, some say it’s bad to feed your child in the middle of the night, others say it’s fine and your child will outgrow it. Talking to Pam gave us more confidence to choose a path that was right for us.”

They also worked on trying to determine if Sam’s bowel problems were caused by a food or milk allergy. Pam suggested slowly introducing non-dairy milk and different food one at a time to see if any of them were a problem. Fortunately, Sam didn’t show any signs of an allergy.

“Sam’s parents worked hard to find the best solutions to help him, working with the suggestions that were given, as well as looking for their own solutions,” Coleman-Gay said. “He is now happy, healthy and growing into a fun loving, adventure seeking toddler.”

Bernice said she was so impressed with the Fussy Baby program that she has recommended it to several friends.

“One of the things I learned through the Fussy Baby program is there is no right answer and what works for one parent doesn’t necessarily work for another,” Bernice said.

“The Fussy Baby program, and Pam in particular, really helped us work through a difficult period when our son was about 1 year old. We have no family in the United States, so the support and guidance we received was invaluable in helping us take steps to identify the issues he was having. My only regret was not contacting the Fussy Baby program sooner!”