Hpw to Feed a Hungry Baby with Silent Reflux

You have to keep him as vertical as you can. My son also had to sleep in a very upright position or else he was so unhappy.

How do you hold him when he's nursing? Never use a cradle hold to nurse a reflux baby.

I nursed my reflux baby with him basically sitting on my thigh directly under the breast he was latched to, so that he was vertical. While he's very small, you can put a pillow on your lap to make him the right height, and get rid of the pillow as he gets longer.

Also, do not wait for him to get hungry to nurse. If you do, he'll try to eat too fast and too much, stirring up the reflux. I was told to nurse half as long, twice as often. So, often babies will nurse every 4 hours and empty both breasts. With a reflux baby, nurse him on only 1 side every 2 hours instead.

Good luck.

ETA: Oh, Helen has a good point about the letdown. If he's having a hard time when he first latches, you might have a strong letdown. I used to handle this with a hand pump. I would do about 5-10 pumps with a hand pump, which was just enough to catch the first letdown of milk. Then I put the baby on to nurse. He was much happier. It was about 1 ounce that I would get in the pump bottle each time and at the end of each day, I would put that milk from all those initial pumps into a milk freezer bag and I used it months later when my supply started decreasing.

find a lactation consultant near you and have them evaluate baby and breast. there could be a reason other than reflux causing baby to be upset at the breast. and a trained lactation consultant can help you figure out whats going on.

You have a newborn - don't be afraid to use your pediatrician's 24/7 number. There is, at the very least, a nurse on duty every day for basic questions like this. It's best to talk to someone who has your baby's records and info on the reflux (what's been done, what hasn't been). A lactation consultant can help too, but if you have a baby not getting nourishment, you don't fool around with it. Don't hesitate to call - and you can call for very basic, non-urgent questions. They expect it, and it's part of the service. There's support out there - just reach out.

Have you tried different positions? Usually I nursed while I was sitting, so baby was cradled (I guess). But I think you can do that with the heade elevated a bit? There's also the football hold. Maybe be just try to position him so that he's sitting up a bit and not lying down.

I have reflux, and sometimes lying down flat can really hurt.

Take him to the dr and have his ears checked.

Keep your baby upright during and for at least 15 minutes after feeds. Make sure you don't have overactive letdown and the baby has the best latch possible by talking to a lactation consultant.
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There isn't any breastfeeding advice I can give you but there should be lots of people in your town or at the hospital where you delivered that can help you through this, bring you in and make sure you're doing it right and then do something so that your little one is getting nutrition.

I'm assuming that he's not going hungry days on end. That you have contacted the doc or the ER or someone that will put an IV in your baby and keep them from being hurt by not eating. I don't mean to be mean, that's not my point. My point is that your baby has to have fluids and if he's not eating you have an emergency on your hands. He can't go even a full day without eating full meals. You need to address this asap. Please let us know what is going on.