Infant Reflux - Los Angeles,CA

J., there is nothing you can do for reflux, some Doctors might recommend acid medication. Our Daughter just grew out of it at 8 months. In the meantime make sure she has enough burp clothes. Good luck.

Our son spit up a lot. He was mostly breastfed and he also didn't eat/drink a lot at once, but ate/nursed often. We burped him a lot and kept him sitting up for a few minutes after eating. This helped, though he still would spit up, but not as often.

J.,

the first thing I'd recommend is doing an elimination diet.

the most common problem foods are:

Dairy products
Caffeine – coffee, tea, soda
Soy products
Peanuts
Shellfish
Chocolate (sorry!)
Citrus fruits
Wheat
Chicken
Beef
Eggs
Nuts
Corn
Prenatal vitamins (The iron may be irritating to baby. Ask your OB for an alternative if this is the culprit.)
Gassy vegetables:
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Cabbage
Onions
Green peppers
Tomatoes

www.askdrsears.com

When I had this issue, I looked at the list, looked at my diet and eliminated accordingly. I started by eliminating dairy, soy, eggs, caffeine, chocolate, nuts, peanuts, tomatoes, citrus. My son improved within a few days and continued improving for about a month. If he hadn't improved dramatically, I would have added corn (including corn syrup) and gluten to my list. Once my son was healthy and happy, I started adding foods back one at a time (one about every 2 weeks). I was able to add back everything but dairy, soy and eggs. I was able to add back eggs about the time he turned one. At 2.5 he's still highly allergic/intolerant to both dairy and soy proteins. Colic is basically unexplained misery in a baby. To me that was unacceptable. My son was miserable and he had pretty serious reflux. Once I eliminated the problem items from my diet we were able to reduce his Prevacid dose by more than half and within a few months we were able to eliminiate the medication entirely. Before I removed dairy and soy from my diet, treating him with medication was like throwing a bucket of water on a forrest fire - if it did any good, you seriously couldn't tell.

He went from a miserable, fussy, uncomfortable, non-sleeping baby to a happy, content tyke that slept for 4-6 hours at a shot (at 6-8 weeks old) compared to a baby who didn't sleep much at all.

Elimination diets are kind of a pain in the butt but they are really effective in determining if there is a food source causing the problem (and from the research I did, there is usually at least one problem food seriously contributing to the issues). I was dairy and soy free until my son self-weaned at 18 months. It wasn't easy and it wasn't fun but he was SO much healthier for it and it was worth it.

Tell your friend good luck. Doctors are absolutely no help with this type of thing. If she wants more info, she can email me teralee999 at hotmail dot com.

T.

Reflux in a baby is so scary at first--both of my children had it. It seems like the baby isn't eating anything because it all comes back up. The first thing to check is that there are many wet/soiled diapers each day (around 6) to make sure there is milk getting down. She can also check weight gain if she has access to a scale with ounces (one time when I was desperate I even used a postal scale in the lobby after hours!) She should also tell her pediatrician. Usually the dr. prescribes xantac (sp?) first which rarely helps. After a few weeks of the problem continuing, the dr. might prescribe prevacid or prilosec which seems to work better. Your friend should also keep the baby upright for at least 1/2 hour after nursing, and maybe have the baby sleep upright in a swing/bouncy seat/car seat. Please tell her that it gets better as soon as the baby is able to be propped up/sit up. We started both my kids on solid food at 4 months, and that seemed to help too.

Dear J.,
Try La Leche League www.LLLI.org it is moms helping moms with all breastfeeding and related issues.

Also Dr. William Sears at www.askdrsears.com has great advise on childrearing--all aspects.

You are so sweet to care so much!!!

Brightest Blessings,
Deb

At the same age my niece used to do this. She was also breastfeed. The doctors told my sister that possibly a "tube" in her throught was not fully developed yet and reflux was a normal thing in this case. The doctor said if she was still having problems by six months to a year that the tube might need to be operated on since it likely would not have correctly developed by that point. The docotor was not at all worried about the reflux as he said it is quite nornal for babies. I hope this is the case for your friend's baby.

Good Morning J.,

This could be a sign of food allergies. You may want to go to site NAET.com. NAET.com is a group of allergists who eliminate allergies. Also, you may want to get the book Say Goodbye To Illness by Dr. Devi Nambudripad.

I have had food allergies my entire life and am currently being treated for them. My health is improving and my allergies are being eliminated.

Be Well.

N.

My daughter experienced the same thing and every day was a challenge with all the crying. I knew she was in pain but could not figure out the source. We tried everything and I mean EVERYTHING and finally the winning combination was Good Start Formula (liquid) and baby Prilosec, which has to be compounded at the pharmacy. It was truly a life saver. I was not one for giving my daughter medication at an early age, her onset was at 3 months, but I trust my pediatrician wholeheartedly and this was her suggestion. I hope it works for your friend, tell her with the right treatment there is hope, I promise :)

Chiropractic has already been suggested and is a great idea ... but a very simple thing to check is whether she is holding the baby at a 45 degree angle when she breastfeeds. So many women use breastfeeding pillows, like a Boppy or My Breastfriend that hold the baby flat during the feeding and their immature digestive system doesn't keep the milk down -- gravity helps with that a lot! Tell her to have the baby's head above the baby's butt while nursing and see if that helps.

The best the doctor could tell me when my baby had the same thing was to not feed her as much. If it were me now, I would contact the La Leche League and take the baby to an acupuncturist.

i would disregard the PP... it was completely uneducated except for the part about contacting a LLL leader.
As a breastfeeding mother, I experienced my DD having indigestion when I would drink milk, so I cut dairy out of my diet and she has been fine since. many other breastfeeding moms that i know have also experienced this. have your friend check out kellymom.com. hope this helps

Hi,
Well, I have two small girls (6 & 3 yrs). Both girls had it. 1st I changed my diet so that we could rule out what it may be caused from. Took out onions, garlic, spicy food. But that didn't change her symptoms.

Had her sleeping upright in a bouncy seat and a side rocking swing because she also had an undeveloped spincter muscle (I think that is what it is called) because if she was tipped or bounced EVERYTHING would come up and burn her throat, etc. Both girls really got into listening and watching Baby Einstein Mozart DVD. I think it calmed them somewhat too!

Finally, the doctor suggested Baby Zantac. I began squirting that down her throat before letting her feed. It doesn't taste great and I figured she wouldn't try spitting it out if it went in first while she was hungry. It took a few weeks and it did work! No more crying and she was comfortable.

We tried to take her off of it at 3 months and found she still had the problem. So, we put her back on and at 6 months she no longer had it.

My 2nd daughter had the same problem. However, this time, I just told them that I wanted her on it. None of this changing my diet business because I knew that it was the acid reflux. And same thing. Miracle baby! Happy Baby and Happy Mommy!

What is interesting is that my mom always said that I was colicky as a baby. I would never stop crying! Since we now know that acid reflux is hereditary I believe that is exactly what I had. I wasn't colicky I was in pain!

Best regards to you and the new mommy and baby! They have a great friend in you! God Bless!

I have heard of a baby who had a problem with reflux and after trying everything else the parents took him to a chiropractor. I probably wouldnt have made the connection, but they said it totally cleared up the problem. When they had a second baby, it had the same problems so they went back to the chiro and had the same results. It might be worth checking into.

My second son had this and he was only breastfed. It ended up just becoming the way of life until it ended when he was about 10 months old. The doctor didn't want to put him on any medicine or do any surgery because it did not seem to bother the baby or wake him up at night, and he continued to gain weight. Just constant throw-up during the day. My carpet was ruined once he started crawling because then he was on the move and I didn't see where he was throwing up throughout the day. I just warned people before they held him.