4 Month Old with Reflux

The JC Penny catalog on line has a great wedge for your child to sleep on in their crib. My son had reflux and the wedge really help along with medication. We also used Nuetramagin formula.

My daughter had reflux starting at 3 days old. It is very common!!! So many people think it's horrible to give reflux medication to a newborn/infant, but they are finding out that the percentage of babies with reflux is incredibly high. Most of the babies who are thought to have colic actually have reflux. Anyone who has had acid reflux themselves knows it is extremely painful. I have had it and cannot go with out taking medicine for it. There was no way I was going to let my daughter be in constant pain with constant crying. I wanted her to be happy and we wanted happy memories of our baby.

When she was a week old we started liquid zantac. Each dose was effective for about 4 hours and we could only give her 3 doses a day. That left 12 agonizng hours for all of us. By the time she was a month old we started her on Prevacid. It is an actual pill that I would break in half, drop into a syringe and then suck up water into the syringe. The pill would dissolve inside of the syringe so I could give it to her in liquid form once a day. That helped a lot, but still left about 4 hours of her feeling the pain. By the time she was 2 months, she was old enough to take 3/4 of a Prevacid pill every day and that worked like a charm. Every day she was PERFECTLY happy - all day. I tried taking her off of it at 9 months but the reflux came back and we had 3 days of crying and her not wanting to eat. When she was 12 months we started her on whole milk. After a month (when she was 13 months) we took her off the Prevacid again but she still had reflux, even with milk. By 15 months we were able to take her off if it and she has been perfectly healthy ever since.

Prior to giving her the medicine we too tried feeding her slow, burping her after every ounce, putting pillows under her mattress so the head of the mattress was at an incline and nothing worked. Reflux hurts! Please, for her sake and yours, just try the medication, and give it time to work. Try for at least 2 weeks to see if you notice a difference. But remember, you may have to adjust the dosage or switch to a different brand before you give up.

Aside from my daughter, 4 of my friends also have had babies with reflux in the last 2 years. My cousin was adament that there was no way her 3 month old could have acid reflux, but once she tried the medication, her daughter finally started taking the bottle, stopped vomiting, and stopped crying.

I hope this helps you! Good luck!

Good Morning C.!

My son of 7 months has reflux as well and has been on the liquid zantac for at least 4 months now. That said-in addition to that I also give him a probiotic supplement 2x a day. This is the same type of live cultures that are in yogurt but they come in a capsule form. This type of supplement works at a deeper level than just eating yogurt-the yogurt works while it is passing through the body-where as this works on a cellular level helping longer and better.(The reason for the discomfort-spitting up etc. is that there are 2 types of bacteria in the stomach and if they are out of balance all the hurtful and bad stuff happens).
The brand that I use is Florajen3 and I purchase it at our local Walgreens. It needs to stay refrigerated. And I just open a capsule and put 1/2 in a bottle in the am and one in the pm. You can mix it in food as well.
I would ask your pharmacist.(he or she can probably explain it a bit better & they may say to start after 6 months-but I started before then-it will take a couple of days to get into your baby girls system-so be patient!But you will see a difference shortly & you there are no side effects.)
I do hope that this helps you and your baby.
L.

C.-
Hi! I am the mom of boys who also had eating issues and I recommend trying a chiropractor. I ended up being able to get both of my boys to eat well without using drugs. Certainly drugs have a very important place in the world, but I really wanted to try to figure out the issue naturally. I just didn't want to put any unneccesary drugs in their little bodies! I go to Davis Chiropractic in St. Louis Park (I think they have 2 locations now, but I'm not sure where the other one is...) They have doctors that are board certified to treat little ones. Good luck!!!

Hello C.! Our little girl was diagnosed with GERD when she was 5wks old... the pediatrician had us add rice cereal to her formula - approx 1.5 tsp per ounce. The change this created in our baby was immediate - no more spitting up, fussing, etc, etc... we never had to go as far as medication. Currently she is 7.5 mos old and we are slowly weaning the cereal out of her bottles with no problem...

My son was born June 17th and started taking Zantac one month later for acid reflux. Originally he was projectile vomiting but the Zantac stopped that. Then at three months he was getting really raspy and snotty nose all the time. I brought him in again and they gave him a nebulizer. That didn't seem to work much, and then last week he was referred to an allergist and was tested for dog, cat, dust mites and milk. He is allergic to none of those, but still very, very snotty. Today he was in to see an Ear, Nose, Throat specialist and he said that Bryce is snotty because of the acid reflux. That they have actually found stomach acid in the ear canal. His advice to me for the reflux was to keep giving him Zantac, snot-sucker his nose very often, and just keep doing that. So, I guess that's all I know about it! Keep up with the Zantac and snot-sucker her if she's snotty! Good luck and keep me posted!! We should compare notes!!

We have have seven month old boy and he did the same thing. I knew it was reflux this time because our first was the same way. It is not bad to give the meds. She will likely out grow it before her first year. I think you are doing the right thing giving her the meds. I have had reflux in the past and is not pleasant. And the meds are very safe so I wouldn't worry. We are on prilosec which is one of the stronger ones. If you are on zantac be careful because that one only works for a few hours and then wears off. So, you might find it helps for awhile and then she is in pain again. If that happens you might need to go on the stronger one. And raise the head of the bead that helps a lot too. I don't know if she is breast feed or not but we do a bottle of formula before bed because it helps keep the acid down. Hope some of that helps.

Take her to a chiropractor!! I have heard endless success stories of immediate relief in infants from Chiropractic care for reflux. I think it's a better option than putting meds into her system...their little bodies just don't know what to do with that stuff.

I would suggest putting the crib at an incline and getting a Danny Sling. It is an apparatus that ties onto the crib and hold the baby in place so they don't roll to the bottom of the mattress. Also, try looking at different formulas. My son couldn't handle Enfamil or Simlac. He ended up using Goodstart and it almost completely went away on its own.

My daughter had it really really bad and was exactly like your daughter only she was like that for 8 months before they said thats what it was. Only because she had a constant ear infection for 8 months that never went away. Not sure what meds she is getting or if she is brest fed but my daughter was on liquid Zyntac and I breast fed her, so I started pumping and mixed breast milk with Enfamil AR its in a pink can the AR stands for Added Rice which allows the formula to stick to their stomach lining alot better so they are actually keeping something down.
I also took her to the Chiropractor and told them and they adjusted her and it helped alot. Always take them to one that does babies!!! It really helped alot. Alos try propping up her crib mattress underneath so that she sleeps better, always feed her when she is sort of sitting up. I hope this helps, my daughter had it so bad she was on the meds for 1 1/2 years. Good luck

My little girl went on Zantac at 1 month old for reflux. She was so miserable before the medication and it really helped her. I was able to take her off of it at about 5 months old. She is now a happy heathly two year old.

Hello C.,

I have a 6 wk old and going through the same problems. UGG... I know how you feel. Our doctor sug to make the meals much smaller and more often. Yeah, I know its not their life. But on the lighter note it has helped us a great deal. I pump, we serve formula, and we feed cereal to help prolong feedings through a bottle for night. We give her only 2 ounces at a time and WOW what a major help. Just remember when 2 hours is up they are HUNGRY.
I hope this helps you out...we see the doc again Thur to see if this works and she is maintaining her weight.
Good luck I am in the boat paddling with you :)

Hi, around 6 wks old we found old that our baby girl had reflux- she was pretty spitty and spit up threw her nose, it was really scary for us. SO the dr. recommended putting the crib matress at an incline, either w/folded towels or something like a phone book placed under the crib. He also suggested that we keep her upright for 30-45min after a feeding, we didn't necessarily have to hold her, we often put her in the swing and let her sit that way. It was rough at night but made a difference. We were also on zantac for a month which made a difference, then tried a few days w/o it (we didn't want her on meds unless we had to plucs they were really $$$) and she was much better and didn't seem to need it anymore. So we treated it pretty aggresively until she was about 4mo old and after that she was much better. So good luck!

Hi C.~

My encouragement for you is to consider giving her a probiotic. Have you heard of them before? My daughter who is now 10 months has been getting probiotics since she was a baby. I know of a great one that I would love to share more information with you if you are open to it.

Take care~
A.

When our daughter was 6 weeks old, she would cry and cry and cry. I finally took her in and the doctor said it was likely colic, but after a few more questions, he figured out that it could be reflux. We gave her the medicine later that day and had a brand new happy baby. It's been a lifesaver!

My son had it so bad when he was born that we were in the hospital for 14 days becasue he stopped breathing from sever acid reflux quite a few time. Our pediactric dr consulted a pediatric gastrointerologist. Once diagnosed they had him on 2 medications, Reglan & Zantac. At day 14 they sent us home with a Sids monitor as he sept on his stomach to help with the reflux and the 2 medications and told us to sleep him on a slight incline. A combination of all of this and by 6 months we were off all medication and the monitor. It was a very scary ordeal but we got thru it as will you. Acid refulx in babies is more common that you think. Good luck! Things will be fine.

My second daughter had reflux really bad so she was on prevacid and nutramagin formula and that helped a ton. we tried to take her off of it around eight months but she still needed. She grew out of it which I think most kids do. It will be nice to solve the problem for both you and the baby. my baby slept better in her seat sitting up that helps a ton with reflux. if that is the problem you will notice a big difference in your baby and it takes a couple of days even up to a week to get her on track because it has to repair damage too. good luck and just be patient with her she's in pain!

Hi my baby has been on reflux meds since 1 month old. he is now 6months old. we have had really good sucess with prevacid our pharmacy mixes up a suspension and then flavors it with grape bubblegum(walgreens). He takes it like a champ. the one thing i found out with this med is that it only has a shelf life of 2 WEEKS. so he would get better and then all of a sudden symptoms of fussiness and spitting up alot would come back. no one told me this but now we have the script refilled every 2 weeks and it works great!he was also on zantac(and hated the mint flavoring it came in). ans he also has axid(bubblegum)our dr said we could use axid everyonce in awhile if he had a really bad day.our dr thinks he has a milk protein allergy which is different from lactose allergy.this has made it tough to breast feed and for him to keep it down.but i didn't want to do formula.so this is why he was put on meds so early because the dr didnt want me to give up breastfeeding.they also had him do a swallowing test--it was completely pain free and he just had to drink barium chalky stuff and a dr observed a live xray type thing as he swallowed to sde that he had reflux...i have reflux too and so does my dad(seems to be hereditary)the other thing i have noticed is that we had introduced baby food applesauce peaches and bananas.they seemed to make him really burpy!!so for now he is on rice cereal. good luck to you!!!

consider that with out the meds, chronic conditions can occur due to frequent acid in esophagus etc. with my son i had the same concerns but opted for zantac and chiropractor (in Green Bay) and wow what a difference. i will take previous moms advice and check out florajen, too.
forgot to mention... also using gripe water and happi tummi herbal belly wrap for nonmedicinal help

My first daughter had reflux and I will say it was a living nightmare until we got meds. For three months the only way she would sleep is if I was holding her. She would fall asleep, we would lay her down, and she would sleep 10 minutes and wake up screaming. She was extremely fussy all the time sometimes even when we were holding her. After the meds she was a happy baby again. I would say she was maybe 3-4 weeks old before symptoms started getting bad, so we knew she could be a happy baby. Our ped said she could hear her refluxing although she wasn't spitting up all the time. I say if it is helping keep with the meds for a while. You can always stop giving them and see if the symptoms return. We had to use meds for about 9 months though. Good luck!

Your pediatrician prescribed medication because he/she "thinks" it's reflux? That's a little strange. I wouldn't give my little ones anything for something someone just thought they had. I would ask for a referral to a specialist to get you daughter tested for reflux before giving her the medication. When my middle son was 3 months old I took him in for spitting up and we were sent to Children's for an upper GI to make sure it was reflux before starting any reflux treatment.

Hey C., Bring your baby to the chiropractor!!! seriously it may help your peanut. My little guy had "acid reflux" also and nothing seemed to help, meds, 5 different formulas everything, a few times to the chiropractor and voila he was a happy baby! it can't hurt to try... Good Luck!

M....single mom of a 10 year old girl and a 15 month old boy

C.,

Be very careful with the things you give your babies.

A friend of mine had her doctor prescibe some meds for their baby for the same thing and over medicated the baby making the situation worse.

Try raising the side of the bed where your daughter's head is. Try raising the one side about 2" or so. then watch what she eats.

If that doesn't seem to work, we have a Florify that I use for my acid-reflux & crohns. I think that the one capsule might be too strong for her, but perhaps, could be divided.

She just might have a touchy stomach.

Best wishes,

J.