Reflux Sling/sleep Question

Hi. Sorry to hear about your daugther. Our son also has reflux and it got pretty bad around 3 months. He is on Zantac and that seems to work really well for him. Can I ask why she has been switched from medication to medication in such a short time? They all take time to work. We've been going to a gastrointernalogist, and they are adjusting his medicine dose based on his weight...it changes every couple of weeks. As far as the swing, I spoke to our pedi. and he assured us that our son would eventually sleep in his bed. At 6 months, I'm happy to say he sleeps in his bed, and only in his swing for naps (on occassion). Also, we bought a wedge for his crib and over time it has helped. We bought it at BRU, it's called the 'Safe Lift Crib Wedge'. Hopefully you all will get something figured out. At her age, let her sleep where she will and then you can worry about getting her in her bed later...you all need some sleep. :) Good luck. If you have any questions, let me know.

My son had reflux very bad. I had him sleep in the Fisher Price papasan cradle swing until he was 9 months old for all his naps and at bed time. I had it swinging the whole time. He would wake up at night if it stopped swinging. You can talk to a Radio Shack about how to convert the swing to be plugged into the wall instead of using 4 D batteries every few days.

Also, I took my son off axid and zantac. Instead, I talked with a holistic pediatrican that recommended giving him whole grain infant rice cereal in his bottle at 3 months old. This helped his reflux alot. Just be careful because rice cereal can constipate. Later on, I found the best thing for constipation was 1oz of apple juice (or up to 4 oz of apple juice if your baby is really constipated). Costco carries a apple juice that does not come from concentrate. Also, I found that Baby's Bliss gripe water was the only way for my baby to burp and get relief from a gassy tummy. If he hadn't burped with gripe water, he still had reflux.

I found vitacost.com where you can purchase Baby's Bliss gripe water for $7 (instead of the $11 you normally see in most stores). Make sure you don't buy the Baby's Bliss gripe water with the sour apple flavor.

This all helps but basically my son outgrew his reflux by 9 months old. He is 13 months now. I still have him on the gripe water.

Our son had the same problem. He was "colicky" until 11-12 months, so sleep was an issue for a long time. My best advice -- use the swing while it works. Our son didn't get hooked on any sleeping method we found, so use whatever you can while you can! We used the swing, a bouncy seat, his carseat...us, unfortunately. The wedge never worked, swaddling never worked... Just do what you can for the time being. This, too, shall pass! =) (By the way, we ended up going to Riley's to their only diagnostic doctor. She was great & figured out his issues on the first & second visits. Don't waste too much time "trying" what your local doctor thinks. Our poor boy could have been much better off if we could have had him checked out by a good doctor sooner. I hope reflux is all you have to deal with!) =)

Let her sleep in the swing. Don't worry about bad habits. My son was up every 2 hours around the clock until 9 months. Some kids just need to be up more, especially those with reflux.
Go to askdrsears.com and look for his "Elimination diet" it could be that something in your diet is affect her and making it worse. To get my older son to take his Zantac, I had to put it in the corner of his mouth a little at a time WHILE he breastfed! It worked great. Never had to give a drop of formula, which meant I didn't have to worry if he had an intolerance to the hundreds of ingredients and chemicals in formula. Try that and if it works, cut out the formula all together.
Whatever you do, don't do anything to thicken what he's drinking. I know people will say you should add cereal to the bottle or start solids early, but the truth is, it doesn't stop the reflux, it just keeps it from coming up so far, which means it doesn't come out - it stays in the esophagus and then goes back down:( Wait until at least 6 months like studies have shown you're supposed to. Reflux babies have a higher rate of allergies anyhow, and starting solids early (before 6 months) has been shown to up allergies, so putting them together just makes it all worse for your daughter.
The cool thing about breastmilk is that it's a living food. It actually works to sooth the throat, esophagus, and stomach. Formula doesn't do that.

Oh, I forgot...there is one thickener that is considered safe for breastmilk. It's totally taste-free and digestible (cereal isn't every fully digestible and certainly not at 3 months). You can look into "Simply Thick". But it would mean you have to pump and feed from a bottle.

My ds has had reflux so bad that he is still on Zantac at 3yrs. The only way he slept through the night was on his tummy. I know, the official word is not. Desperate one night walking with him for hours I held him on his tummy and he totally fell asleep and I put him in his crib that way and he slept for 11 hours. I talked to so many doctors about it and they all said that that really is the way for reflux babies to sleep. Even though they have to tell you back to sleep, all these doctors admitted to sleeping their babies on their tummies. Once I started with sleeping him on his tummy he slept though the night every night.

Solid food by 3 months was the best ever. Every solid food feeding I added per day got him so much better. One doctor scolded me for giving him solids and one scolded me for not giving him more. Go with Alumentum mixed with rice cereal or bananas. Very very low allergy.

Make your formula with distilled water. I suspect it was fluoride that was upsetting his tummy but not sure. Accidentally discovered this when visiting my parents that had reverse osmosis water. Don't buy the nursery water. Defeats the point. Regular jugs of distilled water from the grocery store for $1 or less.

I too nursed mostly, but turned to formula a few times per day as he wouldn't hold my breast milk down and I needed to know it wasn't anything I was eating as I took every known allergen out of my diet trying to figure this out. It didn't help him, but at least I knew his puking wasn't me.

if she truly has reflux, do whatever you have to at this point to help her sleep. its such a painful problem. if you can just maybe not have the swing on asap or find other seats that give the positioning without the movement, but again, do whatever you need too until this passes.

are you seeing a specialist? if not, go to one. i agree with the other poster, those types of medications are usually build up medications that must be taken in a cycle to truly help. maybe she had a reaction or something, but specialists always no more about these things. do your best to keep going with the nursing, and maybe even getting her off the alimentum at a point. its rare to have a true allergic reaction to milk via breastmilk, esp if you yourself arent ingesting it. and with the reflux, im sure it would be hard to pinpoint the allergy(unless she is having a rash but agais, if you breastfeed most of the time, i dont see how it could be an allergy)good luck.