Gas/Acid Reflux/Stomach Problems

Hi J.~
I can actually back up Heidi's suggestion with the Gripe Water/ Fussy Water. You will hear it called both things. You can find it at a local pharmacy...if you can't, look at a nearby healthfood/herbal store. If they don't have it chances are they can find it. It contains the lavendar/chamomile & one other natural ingredient that has left my mind. But it actually sooths the stomach. I LOVED,LOVED it!
I had Twins April 06 & my little boy...poor thing...he was AAALLL male! So irritable~couldn't do anything to make him happy! lol
I send out many praises to GripeWater!!!!
Best Wishes!!!
T.

J.,
The three primary food allergies or sensitivities are dairy. soy and wheat, so good that you breastfeeding. Most babies tolerate breastmilk better than any of the formulas... all of which are based on dairy or soy.
That being said, some babies are just "spitty". I would love to help you more, but would really need more details like:
Your baby's age, birth weight, lowest weight, number of wet and dirty diapers in a 24 hour period, time of fussiness, consistency of stools.
Please contact me privately if I can assist.
L. G
IBCLC

Hi there,
My son also had colic, and I just had to ride the time out. He was better at about 4 months. He would start screaming at about 9 pm till around 3 am, so I was exhausted. Mylicon didn't work, and I changed his milk. It could be the milk or your may need to possibly try mixing a little bit of soy formula with your breastmilk. It could be allergies. I can say it does get better. "White noise" items seemed to help with colic. I would take my son in the bathroom and run hot water and that seemed to soothe him. I would take him for a ride in the car, he liked the vacuum and the dryer noises for some reason. So I made a tape with the running sounds of a vacuum cleaner and the dryer. If you haven't bought a swing set, get one asap. My son seemed to like to sleep propped up in a swing better than the bed, and I didn't argue with that!!! Good luck with everything.

i haven't tried it but a lot of mothers i know sing the praises of gripewater...you can get it at toys'r'us and walgreens that i know of...it's like homeopathic stuff so it's no actual medicine.

good luck!

This is crazy b/c I have a four year old son and just gave birth to a little girl on June 8 of this year. She is now 9 weeks old and we have delt with the acid reflux/colic thing since we brought her home from the hospital. She screamed, literally, everyday all day for the first 6 weeks....it's just recently gotten a little better. But it is totally connected to my diet. I have discovered that even adding an extra cup of coffee sets her stomach off for the whole day...that caffeine seeems to really mess her up. Anything with onions or any type of fruit tears her tummy up as well. Basically, I've found about 4 or 5 bland things I can eat and I just rotate them at every meal every day. It's really hard b/c I am totally committed to breastfeeding, but her fussiness at one wrong food choice from me makes it really hard. But hang in there, regardless of what it is that is bothering her stomach, she WILL grow out of it on her own soon anyways. IF you need anyone to vent to about this though--feel free, because I am right there with ya!!

Try changing nursing positions. Keeping the baby's head up while nursing may decrease the amount of gas. This helped with my youngest. My oldest developed reflux between the fifth and sixth week. The doctor had me put rice cereal in bottled breastmilk because the milk wasn't heavy enough to stay down. I don't recommend trying that without your doctor's ok. Good luck!

Both of my children had reflux as babies. My daughter was a silent refluxer, meaning she didn't spit up- she just swallowed it back down. You could watch this happening. My son, on the other hand, spit up volumes. My daughter was uncomfortable, my son was MISERABLE (ie-screaming and writhing in pain after eating as a newborn- the I'm in so much pain cry). My daughter was on medication for a short time, and our first prescription worked well for her. My son went through three different medications before we finally found one that worked for him.

Our pediatrician at the time said our son had colic, but the medication settled him right down. We were told that years ago, when children were diagnosed with colic, they probably had some kind of gastric upset going on, whether it was reflux, milk intolerance, milk allergy, etc.

Good luck and prayers to your little one that she feels better soon.

J.

We had both reflux and colic problems. Unfortunately, I can't really give a good explanation of the colic. As for the reflux, it took several tries for us to find something that seemed to help. First of all, we fed exclusively with formula. (no breast feeding) Secondly, we tried several different types of formula... soy based, lactose free, etc. We finally settled on the lactose free. We used the formula that was pre-mixed liquid (not the powder). When we were feeding so much that it was too expensive to use the pre-mixed liquid, we found that using bottled nursery water, rather than tap water, helped. We tried several prescriptions, all to no avail. Finally, we found that giving a 1/2 tsp of maloxx 10 minutes before feeding and having DD sit up for 15-20 minutes after feeding helped with the reflux issues.

As for the colic... it was just something we had to endure. I don't think anything we particularly did helped, I think she just had to grow out of it. We had crying bouts that lasted hours, starting around 10:30 at night. We found that the bouts started taking place later and later. THe last scheduled time I remember started around 4:30 am. She didn't grow out of that for several months. The first time she slept for 8 hours, we thought there was something wrong with her and actually woke her up! I feel for you, if you're going through colic. Hope it passes quickly!

The only advice I can give you is to be sure you give the mylicon drops before feeding or they won't help. They will just be chasing the gas. Good Luck.

B.

Sounds like our son had the same thing.
"Colic" is basically a catch all term for babies that cry for extended periods around the same time each day. In my opinion the biggest factors of colic are:
1. Lactose Intolerance
2. Allergies
2. Acid Reflux
3. The difference in the way others feed your baby from the way she is used to being fed. (Routine is key)
My son was lactose intolerant, with acid reflux. Our son would vomit exorcist style after bottles and breast milk, and curl up with his knees to his chest or arch his back.
I didn't want to stop Breast feeding so I tried pumping & adding stage 1 rice cereal to my milk so he could keep it down. That didn't work because of the lactose problem.
We began Enfamil Nutramigan with on spoon of rice cereal per ounce, a very expensive powder formula that made a drastic difference in 48 hours. Our son was a much happier baby. Our doctor also prescribed acid meds for him.
A very less expensive similar alternative to this formula is Walgreens brand soy. I don’t know if this would have worked for our son as an infant. Colic is something babies grow out of.
M Drops gave him constipation...use caution.
I wanted to and encourage you to Breast Feed. I had to stop after two months.
Hope this helped.

My son had acid reflux and I had to give him enfamil a.r. (for acid reflux) I thought he was colicky too but his stomach was just upset. The crying decreased 70% when I changed his milk, the milicon drops didn't work on him either, I was breast feeding. Consider changing the formula....

Both my boys had severe Acid Reflux. They were put on Prevacid Fast Dissolving Tablets & are doing great.

sounds like colic to me, I have found with my 9 wk old that running the blow dryer while sitting in the bathroom works most of the time. My pediatrician prescribed something for the spasms but it can only be used every six hours and sometimes his symptoms come and go. I also have a book on infant massage with a colic routine in it that seems to help. I know what you are going through - good luck. Hope something helps.