Help Breastfeeding

Hi J.,

It looks like you got some great advice from everyone. If I may add my two cents - it always comes back to diet. After all, in us adults, we know that certain foods cause heartburn for us. For my second child, I discovered that in addition to dairy, TOMATOES in any form were the number one problem. Also, acidic fruits and even fruit juice. Now, I eat my turkey burgers plain, I drink plain seltzer, no juice and she's doing great and latching on just fine with no colic or reflux. I got this advice from my terrific doctor who always focuses on nutrition. Thank goodness he told me to keep a food journal and he also listed the possible culprits. I never would have thought tomatoes. Best of luck to you.

A.

I read some of the respones and they were good, but I wanted to point out something to you. I wouldn't give up unless you tried everything and I mean everything and then to no avail, then you have to go to formula. I lost milk for my second son at 4 months and no one knew why. When my third son was born, I have learned natural ways to increased breastmilk. I tried and searched and got the mik to increased until my son was 8 months and nothing would work anymore. Garlic, natural peanut butter, like Teddy Bear (beause I am allergic to the junky kinds...ie. Jiffy, Peter Pan, etc.) and an herb and all worked but at 8 months I was loosing it and nothing helped anymore and I had to accept it. As long as you tried and really tried, then you may have to give it up. If you have more kids in the future, don't assume you can't nurse that child. Try again. Check your diet again, are you eating anything gassy because that was something I had to check out with my second son and he was gassy and I ended up giving him Malacon (sp?) only twice and he was fine after that and I made sure I didn't eat broccoli, pepperoni, brown beans, onions, etc. It worked. Also call la lech league and get more ideas, their perspectives. Check the website someone sent you and I haven't looked at it so I don't know if it will be helpful. Try sitting him up and feed him like someone suggested. If all fails and you really try then go to the formula and don't feel guilty. Just know that you tried and it's just not possible with him. I will pray that God will give you wisdom, His wisdom what to do and he will help you if you ask Him.

I understand your frustration, my daughter was on Axid for her reflux but still had problems. I cut out dairy and everything that had milk in it - that was really tough becuase a lot of food has milk or whey which comes from milk. I also cut out other gas causing foods like broccoli and onions. This seemed to do it MOST of the time. There were some times where she still had a problem but it was much less severe. Also, making sure she stayed up right after eating helped, she also slept with her head elevated.

When she got to about 12 months I started slowly phasing foods back into my diet and she was fine. She is 16 months now and off the AXID for about 5 months. We still nurse and she has no problems.

Good luck!!

Hi J.,

This must be a really difficult situation to deal with. I am glad that you are reaching out for help. Here are some things you can try:
1. Try feeding your son in an upright position and keep him upright in a sling or carrier for a while after the feeding.

2. Some exptets say that short feedings are helpful, to keep the baby from getting over-full. Other evidence shows that sucking produces waves of muscle contractions along the espphagus that move food toward the stomach. Continuing to suck for comfort, even if the breast is emptycan help the meal from coming back up. Check out the la leche league website, and look for a pamphlet entitled "breastfeeding the baby with reflux." You can also call your local la leche leauge leader for support. the website www.breastfeedingonline/newman.shtml is helpful. Also, there are great discussion boards at www.mothering.com dedicated to breastfeeding where you can read a multitude of posts on the subject and connect with other moms facing the same situation. Alot of moms also find help wiith chiropractic for the baby.

Breastmilk is acutlaly much more digestable than formula- keep up the hard work- your baby will outgrow this, and your breastfeeding relationship will flourinsh long after this is just a memory.

C.

Hi J.,
Just like you, I'm a busy Mom with not much time to write here, but, I nursed 2 children 1st till 15 months and my second is 10 months and still nursing, both had the same problems you mention. What helps... a bunch of things and with each child I was in touch with La Leeche and the lactation consultants at the hospital...
the problems could be one of several and it really doesn't matter which one it is cause the solution is sometines the same....Does he nurse for several short sessions...could be an oversupply. The whole idea of this nursing thing is to get the baby to nurse on that side till its empty. If you switch sides too soon then they will only get the begining milk which is low in fat and high in volume so they fill up quick and then are hungry again soon. THe milk that is at the end is high in fat and is what keeps them full. So how di you know. What worked for me is that I would nurse on the same side for more that one feeding. SOmetimes I would not switch for a whole 12 hours. This makes sure that that side is getting empty. If the other side is feeling very full then you can pump until you are confortable, but not till empty. What you are trying to do is regulate you milk supply so that there is a balance of high fat to low fat milk. Also call fore and hind milk. And nursing babies don't feed like formula babies. They eat much more often. Also the high fat milk helps with reflux. Hope it helps. If you mneed more help, i can put you in touch with some very helpful people.

C.

A little about me: part time wk mom to a 2.5yr old and 10 month old with a traveling husband. and A 7YO JACK RUSSELL

Nutramigen has dairy in it! It has "broken down milk proteins", so if your child has issues with dairy, no Nutramigen. I would go to a gastroentrologist.

My son was on prevacid for reflux and it did help, but there was still a lot of spitting up until he was 5-6 months old (maybe sooner, it is hard to remember). He got a combo of breastmilk and regular sililac formula (I wanted to breastfeed but due to medical complications and low milk supply it didn't work out). I wouldn't give up on breastfeeding right away without trying laternatives like changing his medication or your diet but it is your choice. My friend has three kids and all did well on Nutramigen (the oldest had digestion problems but not reflux). If you wanted to give the Nutramigen a test you could keep pumping breastmilk for a few days and give it a short trial run. I did a lot of pumping and it is time consuming, so try and get some help if you can though. La Leche is a good resource and a hospital lacation consultant might be as well. If you want the name and number of an MD who is a lactation specialist you can send me a message--I don't want to post her number publically. She is in Westchester, NY. You would have to talk to her to see if she can help but she worked with me on increasing milk supply.

Hi J.,
I'm sorry that you're having such a roughtime with your baby and the reflux, poor little guy! The benefits of breastfeeding are so great that I'd suggest calling your local la leche league leader and talking to her, and see if she knows of a good lactation consultant who is experienced with breastfed babies and reflux, maybe this will get you some advice and suggestions that will help! Good luck.

Hi! My son had reflux also, but not as serious as yours (he didn't need medication). However, I read a lot about the condition and discussed with many doctors -- the message from everyone was that breastmilk is easiest on the stomach, especially for babies with reflux! Breastmilk is the best food that you can give your son, don't give it up! As you probably know, babies are fussiest around the 6th-9th week. Things will soon get better - hang in there!

Hi J.,
I hope you are feeling more upbeat today.
I know how frustrating breastfeeding can be sometimes. My second son gave me a hard time for couple of weeks before we could settle and understand each other.
Each case is different really but one thing I know for sure about every new mom/moms with infants (and especially you) is stress realted fatigue. And when a mother is stressed out, the baby picks up the vibe and there will be no amount of consoling that can help the baby unless the mother relaxes. And this goes further to the fact that when a mother is stresed, her milk production gets low. Having that said, possibly your baby is fussy and inconsolable coz he is not full or well rested.
Do you have help in the house wit hthe chores?
Is anyone guiding you through breastfeeding?
Try to relax.
Good luck,
L..

J.,

http://breastfeedingonline.com/newman.shtml

www.kellymom.com

You didn't mention anything about how he sleeps at night - or after feeding.

Keeping him sitting up - either in your lap, a wrap or car seat, will help immensely with the reflux (not a guarantee). My son has reflux - and went undiagnosed by the pediatrician (I was fairly sure) - and any time he was upright after eating, he was okay, and started to fall asleep. Put him down and he had radar for the 10 degree position or lower.

He slept in a swing until 9.5 months (he decided it was too warm when nature turned on the heat in June). The rocking helped, and the angle helped (he lost his car seat the bucket variety) when he outgrew it at 4 months.)

You are right about the breastfeeding - but have you cut out cruciferous veggies too? broccoli, ARTICHOKE, cauliflower and others. I had to nuke those (broccoli actually went during pregnancy :)

Good luck,
M.

My son (12 weeks) also has reflux. At first he was on pepcid but this did not work well. Now he is on prevacid (7.5 mg a day) and this is helping a lot. It is also a pretty low dose of it. Not sure what your baby is taking but i think it is worth asking the doctor to try some new meds. I don't know much about formula but it seems that the reflux will probably not go away if you switch him to formula. I always hear that 'breast is best' and if you've made it this far it would seem a shame to have to switch. Good luck...
L.

I know it must be very frustrating but stick with it! My son was just so unhappy those first few months too. I am not sure if he had AR or not but I know that he had to be held all the time and would spit up a lot if I laid him down less than 15 min after a feeding. I found that using the carseat for him to sleep in was a lifesaver. I thought that most babies outgrow AR over time...what does the dr. say? Maybe you can supplement with the nutramigen if you find it helpful. I tried using it in the beginning (until my milk came in fully) and it is really good stuff but extremely expensive. Good luck!

If you don't notice any improvement with eliminating dairy, try eliminating other foods from your diet like gluten, soy, nuts, corn, citrus fruit (these are the most common allergens). Try one at a time for at least 2 weeks.
My son did not have reflux but he had terrible gas when I was nursing him in the beginning. It completely resolved once I eliminated gas producing foods like garlic, onions, broccoli, etc. I say that to make the point the what you eat can cause a reaction in your baby.

I also have a daughter that had the same problem. You have to cut out more than dairy. Like nuts,soy, and anything else that might trigger him. You have to be very strict about a diet. Our daughter's GI said it would be expensive and hard. Well it was hard. I couldn't find things that didn't have soy. So it was mostly fruits and chicken not much of anything else. I don't know what meds you have him on. She was on axid and it didn't help her either. It was more like watching and a special formula. I wish you relief.

I would definitely give up the breast feeding to try and give the little guy some refief! It doesn't seem worth both of you going through so much to try to accommodate something that seems as if it simply isn't meant to be. I also had a baby with reflux and colic, so I feel your pain. Good luck~ mms