6 Week Old-Possibly Has GER?

Definately see your pediatrician about it, sounds like he could have some reflux going on.

Try mixing rice cereal in the bottle this will thicken it and helps it "stick" in his stomach.
Keep him upright after feedings, this will also help somewhat.
I know it's hard for middle of the night feedings, but it helps. He can always sleep in a bouncy seat or his carseat.
God knows my son spent many many nights in both.

Go with your gut feeling, you are the mommie and you know.
If your doctor pushes it off as colic, push back and request some type of reflux medicine or seek a second opinion.
the doctors at St. E's childrens health are wonderful and work with a specialist from Madison on reflux.

Make sure you're using the smallest nipples for newborns. I had no idea that there even were different sizes (the Avent ones we use have numbers and you want the #1) and couldn't figure out why our son was gulping/coughing/getting milk EVERYWHERE until the doc told me to check the nipples and somehow we were using #2's!

GERD in infants is usually shown by increasing spit up after all or at least most feedings or vomitting after all or most feedings. Just wanting to eat every 1.5-2 hours every night isn't really a sign of GERD. The smelly breath could be from whatever formula you are giving. I noticed that different formulas and even different food I ate when I was nursing made my kids' breath stinky.

Hi N., My duaghter suffered from GERD and it was a very miserable experience for all of us. It sounds like the symptoms are the same with frequent eating and spitting up and not wanting to lay down. I would call your Dr today and try to get an appointment. There are several meds that can help right away and if it is acid reflux, your baby will be himslef again before you know it.

In the emantime, you may want to place him in a swing or car seat at night, make sure he is elevated and not flat on his back to sleep. Good luck!

Hi N.:

Our daughter had reflux and it was a horrible thing to watch. She would try to eat and then have these really "hard swallows" like it hurt. She'd then start to cry and scream and would basically vomit up what she ate. After changing my diet-I cut out spicy foods, dairy etc. (I was breastfeeding and supplementing at the time)with no success, our Dr. told us to try giving her a small dose of Maalox the next time it happened. He said if it helped, then she had reflux, because if she didn't, it would do nothing at all for her sypmtoms. Sure enough, it helped, and he then put her on 1/2 a tablet of chewable Pepcid each day which we crushed and put in her bottle in the morning. That kept her symptoms under control until she outgrew it at around 9 mo-1 year. She still has it on rare occasions, usually if she's eaten something spicy etc. Other than that, it has disappeared.

Good luck!
A.

My daughter was born 3 weeks early and had the same problem. Choking on the bottle, spilling the milk down the chin, and spitting up all the time along with the crying. I started burping her very often, like every 1/2 oz. and kept doing that for awhile. Eventually she worked up to 1 oz. So my advice would be try burping her more. Hope this helps.

Both of my daughters had GER, but I only had the first one tested because it was a horrible thing for me to watch. The main symptom for us was the constant spitting up and projectile vomiting.....all the time!!!!!!

At first our Dr. just thought we were concerned new parents until our sweetie did it at one of our doctors visits and got it all over him.

We chose not to use medication since she did not appear to be in any pain and was gaining weight (my baby was a month early also). We switched to soy formula and also added cereal to her bottles and that helped a lot. I know a lot of people say all formulas are the same, but I believe Enfamil is harder on babies tummies (I have done daycare for over 5 years and have seen this to be true in other babies) so we used Isomil.

When we had her tested at Childrens in St. Paul the doctor there said it usually starts to go away around 8 or 9 months as the muscles are more developed. And it did go away right around 8 months with both of our daughters.

It sounds like you baby is getting to much milk too fast and I would try a different nipple or a different brand of bottles that work better. I tried them ALL with our first and found the Avent ones worked great with her. With our second I started to use the Avent bottles but she didn't do well at all and started trying different ones and ended up using the playtex drop-ins...I don't know the exact name, but they were NOT the vent-aire and were the wide mouth ones. I think they were the Premium bottles with the Natural Latch Silicone Nipples.

Hi N.,

You should follow up with the NICU or Special Care Nursery doctors b/c many babies born early have additional needs and most (if not all) develop GERD due to development. In real life, he's actually only 1 week old if you correct his age...there are many formulas that you can be given to try such as Enfamil AR (added rice) that assist with decreasing the discomfort and spitting up.

My 5 month old has GERD. His symptoms worsened around 6 weeks and sound similar to your experience. We tried a myriad of formulas, then started Zantac. Zantac has helped with most of the crying jags and fussiness. It has helped projectile vomitting and decreased spit up a little, but not a lot. Call your pedi... Let the doctor know you suspect GERD. Best of luck to you. I know its hard to watch your little one suffer.

My daughter also had a similar situation. My daughter was actally diagnoised with GERD at 2 weeks old. My doctor told me all the same things that you heard, smaller feeding, burp after every 1 ounce, and sit upright for 30 minutes after feeding. This made it a a bit more difficult with nightly feedings but it worked. When she was on table food we stopped noticing the symptoms of the GERD.

However, she started getting bad ear infections at around 6 months and they got worse after she was off the bottle. My baby was actually put in Children's for 5 days due to a bad intestinal infection caused by all the antibiotics for ear infections. To make a long story short her reflux wasn't gone and she was suffering from slient reflux, which mainly happened at night and caused bacteria to get into her ears. This was actually found after 2 ear tube placements and nasal endoscopy. The good news is she's been on zantac since they realized it wasn't gone and she's been ear infection free for 2 years. I don't need a special diet for her just the zantac.

Really GERD isn't any joke in babies. Please talk to your doctor is you think your baby has it. You don't want things getting out of control if you don't do the necessary things to help prevent symptoms.

Have you tried "gripe water"? You can get it at the healthfood store(that is the kind we always got) or you can get a kind of it at walgreens (in the infant section) Our little guys were always really "pukey" and spit up a ton after they ate. This helped our last one the most. It smells funny but is very effective.
Also, I don't know if you are nursing him but I had an issue with my last one that if he did not nurse enough (to get the "back fat")he would get really spit uppy also. My mom and I actually found something that resembled the symptoms in the little nursing book that enfamil gives you.
I hope that things start going better.
take care,
A.
One more thing, when it comes to burping. Try just sitting him on your knee with support of course and doing a gentle bounce. I never knew this until our last one (the chiropractor told me), It is tons more effective that patting them on the back and it is not knocking their spines out of wack.

To me it sounds like the bottle you are using might be wrong. I have a 3 month old who started out on NUK nipples as I had used them for my other two children but they flowed too fast for her and she did the same thing gulpped and slirpped and cried and its because she was getting too much air. Plus you said that he got some running down his chin, so maybe hes not really getting 4 oz, maybe hes getting 3.5! My oldest daughter had GERD and she was a spitter upper, and I mean projectile! Thats a very common symptom. In the end my 3 month old like the playtex ORIGINAL nipples, the kind that use the plastic liners. the nipple is latex not clear silacone. it is a soft nipple and my daughter was able to latch on tightly and avoid excess gulping of air. Also you can push the air out of the liner to decrease the amount of air he gets. If you buy the paytex bottles they come with a set of liners and the correct nipple. this will allow you to try to see if it works, and if it doesnt its worth tring several different styles to rule that part out before buying expensive formula or paying for an unnecessary dr. visit.
I hope this helps!
B.

I agree with everyone... talk to your doctor!!
My son also had GERD but our family doctor did not want to put him on anything. I spent many long miserable night with him until finally I asked for a referral to Childrens Hospital in Milwaukee.

here is what they told us to do for him (before and besides meds):
smaller amount of formula at a time
burping after every 1-2 oz.
Putting blocks under one side of the crib or propping up one end of the mattress
keeping him upright for an hour after feedings

For us, the cereal in the bottle did not work. Made him gag more and frustrated to eat. But for some it works!!

Good luck and don't wait to long.

Hi, just thought I'd give you the thoughts I have... my daughter is now 2 but had reflux, was diagnosed when she was about 2 months old. Hailey (my daughter) would munch, she would have a few ounces every few hours, but the main symptom that all the doctors and people told me was projectile vomitting, which if you cant tell if it's projectile, it's probably not. She spit up ALOT, she had to be sitting up (it helps the acid stay down, and doesn't hurt as much) She was always in her swing or carseat, the dr.s even told us to let her sleep in her car seat if it made her feel better. When a baby is born early their stomachs aren't quite ready for the acid they are making, it's called pyloric stenosis, the "flap" coming down into the stomach is not fully developed and can allow the acid to come back up the digestive tract. There are alot of options and medications that make a world of difference. It usually will heal itself by the first birthday. My daughter switched medications a few times as she got older/bigger and grew out of the previous medication. But it helped ALOT! There is no good way of diagnosing it, Hailey had a barium radiological test. They made her drink a bottle of barium and wait until it started moving throught the digestive tract to see how long it took, we had to wait about 4 hours and they did a scan of her abdomin about every hour to watch how much came back up. From what you've said, to me it doesn't really sound like reflux, kinda but not really (I'm in nursing school too, so I'm not just full of it, I've done alot of research on it for school and for my daughter) I would recommend calling your doctors nurse line and just ask, tell them what you've stated already and see what they say, it may just be slight colick, I get that from when you said he wants to be held all the time and he eats enough, the more frequent eating could be a part of reflux, they dont want a full tummy because the baby knows (they are very smart) that it will hurt more if they eat more. I'd be curious to know what you find out, hopefully it works out for you!

That is a very good possibility. Has he grown very, very quickly? (My middle son had reflux and he went from 7 lbs 15 oz at birth to 9 lbs 3 oz at his 2 week check up) Sometimes the flap that closes the esophagus to avoid reflux doesn't grow as quickly as the baby does. Don't be afraid to call the doctor on this one. My babies weren't preemies, but could that be a factor?