Reflux Symptoms in a Baby

My son was diagnosed with GERD and he didn't spit up often either. He would wheeze (often after finishing a bottle); wouldn't sleep flat for more than a few mintues; had excessive drooling; and was "fussy" all day--he'd scream a lot, even though he wasn't actually crying.

finding a good formula can be quite exhausting. I finally used nutramigen which is expensive, but the doc always gave me cans of samples the merchants would leave. Ask for samples if they have any. put baby in semi upright position after a feeding helps too. My son eventually had to go on a medication called regulan. Check into that as well. Thickening the formula didn't really help my son much, seemed to just make him gain weight and he still spit it up projectile! I even tried goats milk, which stinks ungodly! but it is palatable for some babies when no other formula works. Also try a warm water bottle you can get at pharmacy section of your walmart, and place on tummy after a feeding while he/she is in infant seat
S.

H.,
I adopted my baby boy in November and shortly after we brought him home I noticed that he cried a lot and had a hard time using the bottle. He would act "weird" when I would feed him. He would act like he was very hungry; suck hard about two times and start crying and arching his back turning his head to the side. He would also wake up from a dead sleep screaming his head off a lot during the night. I did notice that he did better at eating when I placed him in his bouncy seat or prop him up on the couch. He was six weeks old and I thought maybe it was just part of an adjustment period or something. I thought maybe he just didn't like me to hold him while he ate. I did bring this up to the doctor as a struggled with this for a few weeks. It was SO bad. I cried a lot.
I felt unable to comfort him and very inadequate as a mom. My doctor was no help and really wasn't concerned because he was still gaining weight. Anyway, I decided to do some research myself and got on the internet and noticed that it sounded like GERD.
I ran up to the Walgreen’s and got some Mylanta Supreme cherry favor (It contains no Aluminum) and gave it to him (about 1ml). It helped the minute he sucked it down! The next day I called my doctor and was now convinced that he had heartburn and I wanted help. I was not going to let them brush me off again! So we ended up putting him on 1ml of Zantac twice a day and it works fine. I also used what is called a Tucker sling to keep him propped up while he slept to help keep the tummy juices in the tummy. I found a used one on Craig's list. (That's why he ate better propped up on something instead of in my arms).
I did notice that after going through all of this and talking to other moms that had the same problem that it is common to have a hard time getting answers from your doctor (?). So if you suspect something is up don't give up on bugging the doctor if you need to.
My son never spit up also and has what is called silent reflux. Their stomach contents are unable to stay down because of an underdeveloped sphincter muscle and in time burns or causes an ulcer to develop in their esophagus and can be very painful.
Hope this helps you,
C.

Sorry, I never experiance this, but everytime I have a problem, I always start my researching here:

http://www.babycenter.com/search/?BodyQuery=baby+reflux&a...

Hi My 3 year old started with reflux at 2 months. Emily has other medical issues but she has been diagnosed with GERD. Emily has taken a great deal of medications and finally she is on Prevacid which seems to work the best. Try to avoid Reglan. It really is not that great you can use Zantac and it seems to be a good starting point. Have you talked with your peditrician? Emily's ped Dr Gina Viktorin is absolutely wonderful and she also has a set of twins. Emily's GI dr is Dr An at Medical City Dallas. I hope things get better. http://www.caringbridge.com/visit/emily C. Lindsey

My son had reflux issues but not the kind with projectile vomiting (thank god!). After he would take his bottle and it was time to burp he would cry and cry and straighten his body out to make the pain subside. I didn't realize he had reflux and I casually mentioned it to my pedi. very early on. He prescribed Zantac and then later on added Reglan and he felt much better. At about the year mark he grew out of it and has been great ever since. If I have it correct the Zantac helps ease the pain and if it doesn't go away they give them Reglan which helps to move the food through faster. We had also used some cereal to thicken his milk before he could eat cereal because the doctor told us that would help a bit too.

Good Luck!

My child cried constantly at a certain time everyday until the doc could figure out what was going on. She had a test at the outpatient center where she had to drink this liquid (barium, I think) and then get x-rayed. The x-ray actually showed the fluid backing up on her and that's how we figured out it was GERD. She was prescribed a liquid antacid and it just went away with time!

I also recommend Dr. An. My daughter had a mild case of reflux as a baby but now has out grown it. She had other gastrional issues such as severe constipation and Dr. An was wonderful. Talk to your pediatrician with your concerns first.

A.

My son was diagnosed with silent reflux at 5 weeks old. He was put on 2 types of medications. He would cry for hours on end with no relief, he would only sleep in his carseat (if we layed him down flat the reflux would get worse), when we tried to feed him he would arch his back like he was in pain. My son did not spit up either but every once in a while he would gag.

My daughter had the spit up type and did until she was 4 months old... NOT FUN! She's outgrown it now, and that's the good news. Most outgrow it although its no fun in the beginning. If they don't outgrow it there is a pill they can take...

Is he fussy. Similar to colic? If you rub his belly does he settle down. That's what my daughter loved because it helped settle all those gasses down. She wasn't much of a burper after she'd eat either so that contributed to the problems.

She also liked being on her belly. I'd lay her on my arm face down and cradle her neck (hard to explain) and she loved that. Bouncing, believe it or not she liked. These were in the EARLY days when we couldn't get her to settle down at all... That seemed to help with the gasses and stuff too...

We were using Aliamentum (sp?) by Semilac which was VERY expensive and helped but didn't cure anything. We simply had to work through it and wait for the day that she was over it. She took a pill for a while but I don't know whether it really helped much or not...

She was (and still is) a very tiny kiddo but never actually lost weight over it so we were fine.

Best of luck! Let me know if you have any more questions. Wish I had more info for ya! ~T.~

I have 13 month old twin daughters and one of mine has severe reflux. She still takes Prevacid now but no longer needs liquids thickened. Her symptoms as an infant were major back arching, refusing to eat, and very fussy. She did not spit up either. At her swallow test you could see her refluxing as soon as she tried to take a bottle. It was very sad. We thickened her bottles with Simply Thick nectar consistancy and she also takes Prevacid. That combination seemed to work the best. She gained the minimum allowed 1/2 ounce weight gain a day. She is still very small for her age but she has come along way. Her sister is 23lbs and she is just 15lbs. Eating just isnt one of her favorite things to do because of the reflux. Teh eating is a struggle still for us but she is happy and healthy even though she is small. If your son is gaining weight appropriately then hopefully it wont be a long term battle. however if weight is an issue please feel free t o contact me. I have alot of resources that can help...especially if one twin is "normal" and the other is smaller.

My son is almost 10 months old and at 6 months he was just below zero percentile. He gets his nutrition primarily from nursing and there was suspicion I wasn't producing enough milk. We saw GI and he felt it was genetic that he was the right weight for his length and so on. Well, now he is way off the charts for his age and really hasn't grown so GI advised he get an endoscopy to see why he wasn't gaining weight and also was not eating well and starting to have some episodes of vomiting. The endoscope was done and the biopsies revealed that he had reflux. He is now taking Prevacid and eating very well without spitting up or vomiting. Hopefully we will see some weight gain very soon.
Pat

My daughter was diagnosed with reflux around 3months of age, even though I think she had it at birth and they just never found it until they did all of the tests. She would gasp for air everytime she was taking a bottle. She never really spit up she was just a very fussy baby. We would give her gas drops before and after she took a bottle. We would also feed her in an upright position. Once they told me that she had reflux, I was told to thicken her bottles with rice cereal. Once I started to do that, it was kind of like it all went away. Good luck!

my daughter was diagnosed with silent reflux at a couple weeks of age. The way we found out was she was crying inconsolably for an extended period of time. The reflux normally acted up in the evening hours but sometimes during the day as well. You could smell kind of a fruity smell on her breath, which was one of the symptoms. inconsolable crying was our biggest symptom. Good luck