Milk Allergy - San Jose, CA

Hi S.,
my daughter suffered from acid reflux until she was about 8 month old. She used to scream from pain and I was also frequent visitor of our pediatrician office:-) First, our MD was prescribing her medication that never seemed to work. So I switched pediatrician and he recommended just to be patient and wait until she outgrow the reflux. He recommended also to breastfeed her in more upright position, let her sleep also more upright, hold her upright for about 20 minutes after feeding....
Ask your doctor about what you can do instead of giving to your baby any medication (everything has possible side-effects).
I still think that breast milk is the best (and most affordable) what you can give to your baby.
I used to join "new-mothers-group" in Good Sam Hospital, San Jose. They meet every Wednesday morning. I got a lot of good ideas and help about how to deal with reflux and just being a first-time mom :-)

Good luck,

- K.

S.,

I had similar problems, though we never had to resort to medicating. I got a prop for our daughter so she could sleep on a incline which helped. As did figuring out what I ate that bothered her. Any sort of cabbage like veggie, pork, soy, peanuts, beans or lentils, these would all make her scream for hours! Poor little one. With my first she was bothered by chicken of all things among others.

Keep track of what you're eating and when he has problems later on. Watch for what shows up again and you might not need the medications or the formula.

There's an over the counter gas medication we've found very helpful until we got all the various foods sorted out. Simethicone, brand name is Mylicon, I bought it as Safeway under their brand. Give a couple drops to the baby just before or after he nurses and that should help wonders too if it's gas.

Hope things improve.

L. in Santa Cruz

how old is your little one? one of my twins (now 5 mos) went through a very fussy, gassy period. At 3 mos, it resolved itself. We found the best "medicine" for her was Gripe water & putting her to sleep in her swing. Formula made her gas & colic worse.

My sister in law tried to breast feed my nephew for months but he acted like his tummy hurt and seemed very very colic. She cut a ton of things out of her diet and nothing worked. After much convincing, she stopped and switched to formula. My nephew no longer had that problem. If cutting soy out of your diet doesn't work then I think you should try and switch to formula. Its a way to tell if he is colic or if his body just doesn't agree with breast milk.

Hi S., my 7 month old has acid reflux and was a very colicy baby. I took my baby boy into the doctor many times saying he's in pain (because of the screaming.. not crying and you know the difference). Many evenings I cried along with him, so I know it's hard. I tried all the medications, tricks etc. but two things that were new to me that I tried from a recommendation from my pediatrician.
1. Try putting the baby in a dark room and after 5-10 minutes if still crying, get him.(he could be overstimulated). Didn't work all the time for me, but it was a novel concept given all my tricks were rocking, singing, music, outside, inside. .just holding him.
2. Add rice to your formula. I used Good Start forumula (orange label). This helped keep acid down and worked wonders for me! Eliminated screaming, but not crying. I think the ratio is 1 tbsp of rice to 3 oz formula.. but check in with your dr on that.

Hope that helps, J.