My 12 week old little boy has a wicked time with his reflux. He has been on Axid since he was 6 weeks & they are thinking of changing his medicine b/c he still has such a tough time with eating. At night he is swaddled in his bouncy seat in his crib (we hate having him in his bouncy but with the reflux, seems to be necessary now). We rock him to sleep b/c we can't put him right down after a bottle- we do want to steer away from this at some point. So that is the background info. Now here is the trouble:
He goes to bed around 7:30-7:45 after having napped about 4 to 5 hours during the day. He gives us a stretch of anywhere b/w 4-8 hours a night with one wake up for his bink & one wake up to eat. All usually goes ok but at 4:30 it all goes down hill. The little man is crying, sleepy, miserable. We can barley soothe him. Last night he ate at 3:30 a.m. & then still woke up at 4:30, so it's not hunger. We battle it out from 4:30 to 6:30, this has been the case since he was about 4 weeks old- we don't know what to do, we have tried feeding him, letting him sleep on us, in his swing, letting him wake up...we can not figure out what to do.
Any advice?
Thank you all for responding, it has been so helpful to hear other people's experiences. We went to a specialist regarding his reflux & it has been recommended that he switch to prevacid at this time. We are hoping that as his belly settles down his sleep will also settle down too. Thus far, that 4:30 to 6:30 time is still a real drag!
One of my daughters triplets had reflux. They put folded blankets under the top half of his mattress to make it higher and that helped with the sleeping part. This will allow him to know that it is in his crib where he needs to sleep. He was also on medication.
Barbara
Was his medication ever working well? I would guess he either needs an increase in dose (wt based), change his medication or it's not reflux but food allergy/intolerance related... We had the same issues with my ds. He slept w/me every morning so I could rub his belly, rock him, sit w/him, whatever to "keep" him resting if not asleep. Only after we found what foods he was intolerant to(not true allergies) did we get some good rest. There is an end to the pain, good luck.
Just a thought, our daughter was diagnosed in the first month with reflux. She didn't sleep well either. Seemed like we were lucky if she stayed asleep for a few hours at a time day or night. We tried bouncer seats, car seats, swings, and rocking her with little success at any of them. After several months and several different diagnosis', we were refered to a chiropractor who specialized in caring for infants. After only a few visits we noticed a remarkable difference and she really improved in her sleeping. We were told that the process of birth can cause the spine do be put out of alignment and decided to take our son soon after he was born and found that he too was not in alignment when born. you might find that if nothing else works for your son, maybe this would help.
Try laying him on his belly, using a crib wedge. It takes the pressure off of him. My son had acid reflux also. He was given Tagament, and Levsin droos. Both worked well. Avoid rice cereal, it can cause flare ups.
A.,
This may sound strange but if you are formula feeding, you may want to try switching to raw goat's milk. I'm not sure if it's even available in your area, but a few friends swear by it for reflux. After switching from formula to the raw goat's milk, the reflux went away!
I hope it works~
M.
first of all my now 5 year old daughter was diagnosed with acid reflux at 3 weeks old.. well come to find out there was an underlying cause. trachial malaysia. i know souds complicated. all it means is that the flappy thing in her throat that keeps acid from comeing up into her esophagus was actually getting stuck in the down postion so that when it returned to its normal position it brought with it acid... and although all they said about it was that she would grow out of it.. u would think of common sense senarios.. like if she were to take a deep breath in or cryed really hard the flappy thing would get stuck down... so i did all i could to keep her calm like just about on the verge of spoiling her.. but i noticed an improvement in feeding and the thereafter..
just thought i would add my story so that u would know maybe to ask if there could be any underlying causes so as to fix it where is starts not where it ends..
Sounds all too familiar. We went through the same thing with our son and had many sleepless nights. The bouncy seat was our best friend. We moved from that to sleeping on a wedge in his crib. For us, the reflux turned out to be food allergies. About 45 minutes to an hour after he ate he would be miserable and we had difficulty getting him settled. Turned out his stomach was always upset. Once we removed the allergens from both my son's and my diet he was much happier. If you are nursing, maybe consider what you are eating at dinner and through out the day to see if you both get more sleep and relief.
Having alot of experience with infants I came to realize that they change by the day. I noticed you fed your baby at 3:30 and he woke up again at 4:30. Did you offer him an other oz. or two? Also it doesn't hurt to let them cry a little. Babies are very smart. They know that you will pick them up at the slightest whimper.Ha. I made this mistake with mine and it took a very long time till they slept through the night. As long as they have a clean diaper and belly full they should be ok, unless their sick. Remember- they grow up way to fast! S. PS. Try not to rock him before you put him down. Put on some classical music,lay him on his side rub his little head gently and see what happenes. Good Luck !
I don't know if you ever heard about it or not but i would try Gripe Water. I used it with my daughter and it is amazing It. is used all over the world and is now finally available in the States. I think Walgreens and Baby r us is carrying it now. It is natural and wonderful. Worth a try. Hope it helps
A., my son who is now going to be three suffered from severe acid reflux, he was diagnosed at two days old with it. What worked for us to get some sleep was after a late night feeding we would then give Mylicon and sit with him upright for 30 minutes.
The only thing that I can think of is that he is sleeping too much during the day and he is waking at 4:30 am because he has had enough sleep. He might be crying because he does not want to go back to sleep and is getting frustrated because you are trying to get him to go to sleep. Just a thought...
A.,
I have been down the reflux road 3 times. Each of my sons had it worse than the one before. Have you checked out infantreflux.org? I thought it was a really helpful site with a great message board. I would be happy to answer any questions and share my expereinces if you want to email me.
My boys all slept in bouncy seats, swings, and carriers for months, and it took awhile for them to get comfortable with their sleeping. Lots of moms with reflux babies notice that when their babies go through growth spruts the sleep habits change a little. We changed meds numerous times. Our youngest is on Prevacid and I can't say enough good things about it.
It can be frustrating, hang in there. It really does get better. :)
Hello. I have two boys and they both had reflux. My older one was fine on zantac but it didn't work for the other one. They changed his to prevacid. It worked wonders. He was a new baby over night. We also put some rice cereal in his bottle at night which also seemed to help alot. He also slept in his bouncy seat until we switched medicine. He has been sleeping through the night since the switch. I took both of my boys to a specalist, if you don't you should try that. My younger son is now 7 months and off the prevacid. Hang in there. I no the nights are tough. Good luck!
Are you breastfeeding or does he take formula? If formula, have you thought about switching, and if nursing, try eliminmating dairy from your diet, and anything else he may be sensitive to. Although this may not solve the reflux issue, it may ease a little, and when you mentioned him getting bad after only eating an hour before it made me think he may be sensitive to something. I guess it's worth a try.
Have heard the Amby bed works wonders with some babies. Our daughter was not a fan, but it might be worth a try.
Dear A.,
Sounds exactly like my daughter. We had her sleeping in the bouncy seat until she was 12 weeks old. Then, one night she fell asleep in the car seat when we took her out to dinner, and I decided not to take her out or wake her up....she slept throught the night until 6:00 the next morning. So, then I had her sleeping in the car seat. It helped with the reflux and I think she liked being all snuggly in there. She slept there for another month, until the reflux got better and then we were able to move her to the crib at night, and a few weeks later during the day for naps. It seemed like a long process, and there were times I felt like she would be sleeping in her car seat until she was a teenager. It does get better eventually. She seems much better now that we have started the solid foods. Also, she is on zantac...not sure if your doctor has tried that yet. I hope this helps. Hang in there.
J. W.
