Laryngomalacia

So it wasn't laryngitis, or even reflux...well not directly anyway. According to the ear nose and throat doctor he saw today, he is hoarse because of mild laryngomalacia (yea, say that ten times fast). Because I had never heard of such a thing before today, I won't even try to explain what it is. If you are really bored, you can read a little more about it online.

Bottom line, it's probably been what we've been mistaking as sinus congestion since he was born and it's what causes him to go hoarse after crying for only a few minutes. It's aggravated by reflux which the doctor did confirm he has and that it was indeed irritating his vocal chords (surprise, surprise). It's also aggravated by illness, stress and vocal exertion. So either the stress of traveling, a virus or reflux (or all of the above) likely caused the hoarseness which could persist for as long as a year.

He'll out grow all of this by the time he's about a year to 18 mo. and in the mean time, we have to 'make sure' he sleeps on his stomach (yea, like we could keep him off his tummy if I tried!) and to keep him from crying excessively. So no Ferberizing or any other meathod of 'crying it out' for our little guy - doctors orders. Oh well, I wasn't really all that amped to try either of those anyway.

Above are the pictures of his vocal chords that took two nurses, a doctor and a very unhappy momma holding him down to get.

Poor little guy sleeping it off right now and I hate that I put him through it. Don't get me wrong, I'm relieved it's nothing serious, but it's so frustrating to have to watch your child go through something like that just for a "he'll grow out of it" diagnosis.