Aaron Hartman, MDFunctional Medicine Specialist | Clinical Researcher

A Mother's Journey_ Uncovering Hidden Health Issues in Infants | When a Mother's Love Changed

30 Apr 2025 · 1 min

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A mother recounts her infant daughter Zoe’s early minor health problems—chronic constipation and eczema that worsened around six months during introduction of varied foods—and the family’s responses. The pediatrician suggested hydrocortisone for eczema and corn syrup for constipation; the mother rejected corn syrup and sought a nutritionist (a PhD) whose basic advice (water, vegetables) felt unhelpful. The narrative highlights tension between standard medical recommendations and parental instincts/seeking alternative guidance.

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When Zoe was an infant, she was experiencing very minor symptoms, I guess through like a medical lens. She wasn't acutely ill, but she had kind of chronic constipation and also was developing eczema, which seemed to worsen around the age of six months. When we were introducing foods a little bit more with greater variety. And, you know, we went to the pediatrician and he recommended that we do a little bit of hydrocortisone for the eczema and corn syrup for the constipation. And I thought, you know, what if I give this baby corn syrup syrup? She's never going to eat a vegetable in her life like this. Just never going to work. So we had friends living in Maryland at the time who had had a life changing experience with a nutritionist, and they recommended that we see one. So we found a nutritionist in our area who had a PhD, and I thought, okay, well, this person knows nutrition, you know, and it was not a super helpful visit. The person recommended that we give her plenty of water and that we do kind of give her plenty of vegetables.