45 answers

2 Week-old Baby with Reflux

My 2 week-old daughter has gastroesophageal reflux (GER) which causes her to regurgitate a lot and makes her extremely uncomfortable. I am writing for some advice on managing this. She is exclusively breast-fed and she has been on 0.7 ml of Zantac 3 times a day for a little over a week, and I am not seeing any improvement in her symptoms yet. One of my sons also had this and was on Zantac until he was 13 months old, but it took till he was about 4 months old to find the right dosage to control it and he was miserable until then! I just heard back from the pediatrician and we are going to switch her to Prevacid. She does not actually spit up more than a normal baby, but I can hear the milk come up into her throat and she swallows it back down over and over. She throws her head back, arches her back, extends her legs, and cries when this happens or when she needs to burp. We are doing all the things I remember from my son, like keeping her upright for 30 minutes after meals, burping often, etc. She will be sound asleep lying upright on me, but within minutes after lying her flat she starts grunting and acting like she is in pain, then she starts crying. She sleeps well during the day on her side or tummy (supervised), but is miserable on her back at night and won't stay asleep. I know I need to put her on her back because of SIDS risk when we're not watching her. I've even tried letting her sleep in her swing or in an inclined bassinet (which worked for our son) but that doesn't work either. Does anyone have any advice on helping her to be more comfortable and to sleep at night? I know the medications just reduce the acid, and will not make her stop bringing the milk up. Thanks!

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Featured Answers

Also pay close attention to what you are ingesting. Make a list of the days and what you ate on those days, that the reflux is worse. This is because you are breast feeding. But please see a Peds GI. Good luck

My children also had this problem. My first had to be put on a slant board to stleep--nightmare. We found out when I had my daughter (who also had this problem) that as long as I didn't eat ANY dairy products, she was fine. We were able to take her off the medication. Hope this helps.

My son is two months old now. When we were still in the hospital they started putting 1tsp of rice cereal per two ounces of milk. He has reflux really bad but by doing this we have been able to avoid meds. Good luck!

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First I want to say I feel your pain as I am going through the same thing with my 6 week old son. He is extremely gassy and fussy after feeding. I agree with Anna B, definitely read the article link she provided on forceful letdown. It is a great article and I learned alot too. Best wishes with your little one.

My son is two months old now. When we were still in the hospital they started putting 1tsp of rice cereal per two ounces of milk. He has reflux really bad but by doing this we have been able to avoid meds. Good luck!

Im sure you've had tons of advice for this but I just saw your request....my baby had the same thing. Since she was so small I let her sleep in the bassinet propped (right spelling?) in the middle of the boppy pillow. It was a huge difference from her being so miserable. I would swaddle her tight in her blanket and set her in that and she'd sleep all night (well...for the most part!!)Then as she got older we rooled some towels under her mattress so she was propped up. She never did take Zantac. I was told she could have maalox. I think we gave her like 1/4 tsp. Good Luck--BYTW my daughter would never sleep on her back only on her side. I bought one of those triangle things that keep the baby in the same position. Those things are awesome.

Oh my! How horrible for your child....

Ask your peditrician if you can elevate the head of her crib a bit to help gravity keep stuff down in her stomach.

My son did not have reflux but he had to make sure his premature lungs wouldn't get gloppy with mucuous so I elevated the foot of his bed. It helped him.

Maybe this well help.

Good luck,
M.

Our parents used something called Paragoric-I'm only spelling it the way it sounds 'cause I have no clue how to actually spell it-lol.Drs. stopped using it 'cause it's an opiate....but, now, my dr. suggested this w/ ours-Dewee's Carminative..u have to buy it directly from the pharmacist,but, u don't need a Rx. Works like a CHARM! Ask urs about it-I see you're from Lousiana;we're from Mobile.We have a pharmacy practically on every corner and when I need a bottle of it, I always have to call around first 'cause they have a hard time keeping it stocked! If u can't find it, go to Humco.com and u can order it-they're the manufacturers. Give her a dropper of it like u'd give her tylenol- w/ her bottles;it'll work!!

I know what you're gong through b/c my son suffers withthe same thing, he will be 4 months old on the 12th, he was spitting up every bottle, sometimes with every burp. He is on prevacid and zantac and he also gets a teaspoon of rice cereal per ounce of formula. We went through alot of formula changes ang finally found one that seems to be working which is similac isomil advanced, it's in a red can and says on the can that it's fot gas, fussiness and spit-ups. I am on WIC which only covers Enfamil brand formulas so my son is now on Enfamil AR wgich is also in a red can and has rice cereal added in the formula. He gets this formula and still gets a teaspoon of the rice cereal per ounce of formula along with the medicine. He seems to be doing much better, not as much spitting up as before. Also the only way he will sleep is on his tummy which is the only way by daughter slept also and she is now 3 yrs old. When she was a baby the pediatricians wanted babys on the bellys to sleep so that if they did spit up in their sleep they would not choke on it. Also just a note, the prevacid is very much a pain to give, it only comes in tablet form and has to be disolved in water to be given, I put it in a syringe but still never seem to get the medicine to completely disolve. Hope this helps! N. A.

E.,
I had the same problem with my son & GERD. The pediatrician had him on Prevacid until he was 10 - 12 months old. Since then I have learned (through my own research) that Prevacid is one of the worst Reflux meds to take. It doesn't offer any more comfort or relief to the patient, too bad babies can't tell us that!
If you are interested in natural remedies, I recommed you check out mothering magazine on line. There has been much discussion about this very topic! There are other resources that you may find helpful. At least the pediatrician didn't ask us to stop nursing... that was probably the best thing for my son, I only wish I would have realized there were other resources available at the time we were all going through it.

Tell your pediatrician about the amount of pain the baby is in. He may prescrible Levison drops, they are a bladder and bowel muscle relaxer.

She might be in pain from gas as well. I would give her the over the counter gas drops mylicon. Little Tummies brand is about $8, Mylicon brand is about $12. Talk to your pediatrician, mine said you can give them plenty of drops.

So, there is probably more than just reflux going on. Her pain is probably from reflux, gas, and colic.

Remember it won't last forever. My baby stopped crying after 13 weeks. He still needs the reflux medicine though.

Since the baby is in such severe pain, maybe you could get the doctor to prescribe the monitors they use for Sleep Apnea so you could let the baby sleep on her stomach, and the monitors would beep if she stopped breathing.

It is so hard to see your little one suffer, hang in there.

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