Hi there. My 11 week old has just been diagnosed with silent reflux. We have her on Zantac now - and need to give it some time to see if it works. I also need eliminate nuts and dairy from my diet.
With that being said, she is a horrible napper. She wakes due to pain, and I am constantly trying to console her and get her to go back to sleep - the poor thing!
She wants to feed again to soothe her throat, but then that milk comes back up, and the vicious cycle continues. I am not sure how to stop that cycle and how to get her some more sleep. I have elevated her mattress and she is swaddled.
The other day she woke from her nap (she will sleep 10-40 min) screaming. I was on my way to get her when my 3 year old said - I have to poop - ran to the potty, fell and hit her head. By time I was done consoling her and wiping her, my other one fell asleep. I felt awful for letting her cry. But you know what? She slept for over an hour! Should I be letting her cry?
I don't know what to do here!
I dont know about the reflux much but due to that sounds like she,s overly tired and is,nt getting much sleep and is cranky and zonks. If thats the way to sleepyland then sleepyland it is. Hope everything gets better for you. You may need a nap too. Is there anyone helping? All mothers need help. Getting it is another story. Take care.
Zantac never did anything for my guy w/ slient reflux. He had to be on a PPI like prevacid. I wouldn't ever let a little baby with reflux "CIO" b/c you do not know if they are crying from pain or not. I can't imagine being a baby with horrible reflux pain being left to cry alone. (Not trying to make you feel bad at all, you did what you had to do it that situation, I'm just talking about purposeful "crying it out") Also, www.infantrefluxdisease.com is a great resource for baby reflux related info. HTH! : )
Both my kids had reflux issues...and they always slept best at this age sitting up in the vibrator chair or carseat (belted in of course!).
My son was also having the same problem with silent reflux and colic. I coped with this problem by giving him babies magic tea. It soothed him from colic and reflux and now he's a great eater and sleeper.
Try a nap nanny. Used it with my second who had horrible reflux. And she would sleep great in it. Wish I had it for my first who had silent reflux.
I am not going to presume to tell you whether to let her cry or not - I just want to share my own similar experience. Both my children have reflux. They had completely different symptoms, by the way. In any event, my oldest daughter was similar to yours - very hard time napping. Oddly could sleep all right at night, but during the day at naptime she just would cry and cry. For my daughter, the more she cried, the worse her acid reflux would flare up. It was a vicious cycle. It got so I learned that the key to happiness was to prevent her crying. (And no, she's far from spoiled - now my other daughter - that's another story - LOL!) Anyway - this will horrify you likely - but I found that if I held my daughter to nap that she would nap peacefully - for 3 hours straight - and I learned to do a thousand things one-handed (hey - there's plenty of handicapped people worse off than having only one arm and they can do far better than I did). My dear mother was going to be my daughter's babysitter when I returned to work from maternity, and she was horrified at the thought of holding her for 3 hours. I told her that was fine, she could handle her any way she wanted. But for me - I'd rather hold her sleeping than hold her crying. Well, sure enough, after I was back to work a couple of days my mother said to me "You know what. You're right. I'd rather hold her sleeping than hold her crying." I know you probably didn't want to hear my story - and it wasn't easy - but I got used to it and it worked for us. One more piece of advice. My oldest is on Zantac (and loves it - apparently it's an acquired taste because I think it is horrible). Anyway, what no one clued me into was that as they grow, they need the dosage increased. And it takes up to 2 weeks to get into their system to help them, so as she grows, if you notice that she seems to be getting some worsening of symptoms, you might want to ask the doctor if she needs a dosage increase. They grow so fast at that age, my daughter needed a lot of dosage increases. Good luck in whatever you choose to do!
Is she on the correct dose of zantac? She may need more.
If you are looking for a good sleep training book I highly recommend Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child by Weisbluth. I think 3 months is a great time to begin sleep training from what I remember.
I don't know if you're comfortable with this, but you can try getting a breathing monitor and letting her sleep on her belly. Face down is much more comfortable with reflux than on your back. You could also try letting her sleep in a swing or her bouncy seat in her crib. Don't worry about "habits" at this point. When she outgrows the reflux in a month or two you can work on getting her to sleep in her crib again.
I wouldn't make a habit out of letting her cry for extended periods. A few minutes to settle in is okay, but she's too young to "ferberize." I am not anti-CIO, but 11 weeks is still a tiny baby.
Good luck.
My babies had reflux too and slept best in the swing until they started feeling better.
No, I wouldn't let her cry either because she's hurting :( I do understand why it happened though, and you couldn't help that. Sometimes that's just the way it is when you have 2 or more.
Someone mentioned the NapNanny- I've heard of them before, but didn't know what they were, so I googled it, and found that they had been recalled last summer. I would guess they've fixed the problem by now, but just wanted to mention it so you don't get a used one as it may have been one of the recalled ones (and the person might not know they were recalled). Here's some info about the recall:
http://www.walletpop.com/2010/07/26/nap-nanny-infant-recl...
Hang in there :)
Hugs, it is terrible to see your little one in pain due to reflux. At 11 weeks, I don't think I would let her CIO, but that is just me. Have you tried to feed her smaller amounts more frequently? We had to feed my son only 2 oz every couple hours, that was the only way he could keep it down. We also held him upright for 20-30 mins after every feeding. Good luck
I would let her cry it out. baby's cry for a reason. Having more than one kid is had and some times the other one has to cry.
As for the reflux, both my girls had it, Zantax never worked. We eventually put then on prevacid Amazing! I would also recommend getting a front pack or a Moby wrap and have her sleep up right on you or hubby as much as possible until her esophagus heals. the smallest bit of reflux can really burn and if she is vertical it will help it stay down. In a week or 2 her throat should be healed enough to go back to sleeping on an elevated crib.
good luck!
