Infant Reflux - Los Angeles,CA

Dear J.,
Try La Leche League www.LLLI.org it is moms helping moms with all breastfeeding and related issues.

Also Dr. William Sears at www.askdrsears.com has great advise on childrearing--all aspects.

You are so sweet to care so much!!!

Brightest Blessings,
Deb

My second son had this and he was only breastfed. It ended up just becoming the way of life until it ended when he was about 10 months old. The doctor didn't want to put him on any medicine or do any surgery because it did not seem to bother the baby or wake him up at night, and he continued to gain weight. Just constant throw-up during the day. My carpet was ruined once he started crawling because then he was on the move and I didn't see where he was throwing up throughout the day. I just warned people before they held him.

My daughter had reflux so badly! She was losing weight at throwing up about 6 times a day, it was terrible! I never produced any milk so I couldn't breast feed! She had to go on Progestimil which is pre-digested milk and it is gross and so so so expensive! The other thing is Zantac! She was on an infant form and it totally worked wonders! She started holding food down, gaining weight, and sleeping through the night! Your friends pediatrician should suggest some stuff! Good luck!
E.

I have heard of a baby who had a problem with reflux and after trying everything else the parents took him to a chiropractor. I probably wouldnt have made the connection, but they said it totally cleared up the problem. When they had a second baby, it had the same problems so they went back to the chiro and had the same results. It might be worth checking into.

Hi,
Well, I have two small girls (6 & 3 yrs). Both girls had it. 1st I changed my diet so that we could rule out what it may be caused from. Took out onions, garlic, spicy food. But that didn't change her symptoms.

Had her sleeping upright in a bouncy seat and a side rocking swing because she also had an undeveloped spincter muscle (I think that is what it is called) because if she was tipped or bounced EVERYTHING would come up and burn her throat, etc. Both girls really got into listening and watching Baby Einstein Mozart DVD. I think it calmed them somewhat too!

Finally, the doctor suggested Baby Zantac. I began squirting that down her throat before letting her feed. It doesn't taste great and I figured she wouldn't try spitting it out if it went in first while she was hungry. It took a few weeks and it did work! No more crying and she was comfortable.

We tried to take her off of it at 3 months and found she still had the problem. So, we put her back on and at 6 months she no longer had it.

My 2nd daughter had the same problem. However, this time, I just told them that I wanted her on it. None of this changing my diet business because I knew that it was the acid reflux. And same thing. Miracle baby! Happy Baby and Happy Mommy!

What is interesting is that my mom always said that I was colicky as a baby. I would never stop crying! Since we now know that acid reflux is hereditary I believe that is exactly what I had. I wasn't colicky I was in pain!

Best regards to you and the new mommy and baby! They have a great friend in you! God Bless!

i would disregard the PP... it was completely uneducated except for the part about contacting a LLL leader.
As a breastfeeding mother, I experienced my DD having indigestion when I would drink milk, so I cut dairy out of my diet and she has been fine since. many other breastfeeding moms that i know have also experienced this. have your friend check out kellymom.com. hope this helps

My son had had this to a certain extent as well. When I would nurse I would simply angle my body (and his) so that he would be more upright and not laying down. That was the only thing that worked for me.
The only thing that has been PROVEN to go through our breastmilk is peanut butter... she can lower her intake of dairy, but the truth of the matter is is that her body needs calcium at an increased level right now and this might be her only source. I found that it didn't make a bit of difference when I took it out of my diet for my son.

The best the doctor could tell me when my baby had the same thing was to not feed her as much. If it were me now, I would contact the La Leche League and take the baby to an acupuncturist.

Chiropractic has already been suggested and is a great idea ... but a very simple thing to check is whether she is holding the baby at a 45 degree angle when she breastfeeds. So many women use breastfeeding pillows, like a Boppy or My Breastfriend that hold the baby flat during the feeding and their immature digestive system doesn't keep the milk down -- gravity helps with that a lot! Tell her to have the baby's head above the baby's butt while nursing and see if that helps.

My daughter experienced the same thing and every day was a challenge with all the crying. I knew she was in pain but could not figure out the source. We tried everything and I mean EVERYTHING and finally the winning combination was Good Start Formula (liquid) and baby Prilosec, which has to be compounded at the pharmacy. It was truly a life saver. I was not one for giving my daughter medication at an early age, her onset was at 3 months, but I trust my pediatrician wholeheartedly and this was her suggestion. I hope it works for your friend, tell her with the right treatment there is hope, I promise :)

Babies with reflux symptoms could be soothed by feeding them babies magic tea. My LO had spitting-up problem and was very fussy. This tea did soothe him instantly.

Hello J.,

My son had infant reflux and I did not discover it until he was 9 months old. It is common for pediatricians to miss diagnosing it because so many dismiss it as colic and do nothing about it. My pediatrician kept telling me there was nothing I could do about my baby's "colic"--and it was BAD. He was wrong--I had to find out how to diagnose my son on my own and had to convince my doctor to write me a referral to see a GI specialist. I ended up getting help at CHOC (Children's Hospital of Orange County) and they are GREAT. They also said it was common for doctors to not diagnose reflux at early ages. To get started, the best thing your friend can do is get a hold of the book Colic Solved by Dr. Bryan Vartabedian (he is a GI specialist). It discusses reflux in detail and gives you major symptoms to look for, plus suggestions on what to do to help minimize reflux as much as possible. She can probably find a copy at her local library. Then she will need to get her pediatrician to write her a referral to see a GI specialist. It may take a while to get an appt after the insurance co approves it, so she should get a move on it as soon as possible.

It doesn't matter if her baby is only breastfed--I mean, it helps tremendously, but a baby can still reflux no matter what kind of milk is given. The book explains it.

Hope this gives you a good start. Good luck!

Y. :o)

Good Morning J.,

This could be a sign of food allergies. You may want to go to site NAET.com. NAET.com is a group of allergists who eliminate allergies. Also, you may want to get the book Say Goodbye To Illness by Dr. Devi Nambudripad.

I have had food allergies my entire life and am currently being treated for them. My health is improving and my allergies are being eliminated.

Be Well.

N.

At the same age my niece used to do this. She was also breastfeed. The doctors told my sister that possibly a "tube" in her throught was not fully developed yet and reflux was a normal thing in this case. The doctor said if she was still having problems by six months to a year that the tube might need to be operated on since it likely would not have correctly developed by that point. The docotor was not at all worried about the reflux as he said it is quite nornal for babies. I hope this is the case for your friend's baby.

It's wonderful that she is still nursing!! I had two children, both with digestive disorders. The second had reflux so badly they told me to stop nursing and use a special formula. That didn't work and after about 6 months they sent me to a specialist who informed me that my children lacked a digestive enzyme that breaks down milk protein. If I had kept nursing, I could have taken an enzyme supplement and it would have passed through my breast milk, in effect curing the reflux. Hopefully, that is still an option for your friend!

Reflux in a baby is so scary at first--both of my children had it. It seems like the baby isn't eating anything because it all comes back up. The first thing to check is that there are many wet/soiled diapers each day (around 6) to make sure there is milk getting down. She can also check weight gain if she has access to a scale with ounces (one time when I was desperate I even used a postal scale in the lobby after hours!) She should also tell her pediatrician. Usually the dr. prescribes xantac (sp?) first which rarely helps. After a few weeks of the problem continuing, the dr. might prescribe prevacid or prilosec which seems to work better. Your friend should also keep the baby upright for at least 1/2 hour after nursing, and maybe have the baby sleep upright in a swing/bouncy seat/car seat. Please tell her that it gets better as soon as the baby is able to be propped up/sit up. We started both my kids on solid food at 4 months, and that seemed to help too.

My baby had the same thing and was on two medicines. I was only breastfeeding. I did a lot of research and found out a lot about dairy and wheat allergies. I myself went on a very strict diet and took all dairy and then wheat (gluten) out of my diet It was hard but I got her off all the medicine and she was fine. She never had the total projectile kind of reflux but had breastmilk coming out of her nose and would squeel in pain until I did this. It takes 2 weeks to get an allergy completly out of your diet/breastmilk. It's worth a try. I do know that trying to keep to a 3 hour feed helps some, but my daughter screamed too much with pain. I've also heard about putting cereal in the bottom of a bottle if you can pump that is supposed to help some. Didn't help us!!! I did put my daughter's crib mattress on an angle, and I tried to sleep her in her car seat as much as possible. That helps a lot of reflux babies. If she is supplementing with formula could be an allergy to the formula. Hope this helps. Oh and when my daughter was able to drink milk I gave her Rice dream, you can get it from a health food store.
T. (mom of 3).

Hi Ladies!

I'm J.'s friend - thanks SO MUCH for all the advice! Our son turns 6 weeks on Friday :) I'm just looking online now (very little computer time with a 5-week old). A little background is that the spitup/sometimes-vomit is constant throughout the day, but seems to calm down a little at night. His weight gain is slightly on the low end, but still in normal ranges. We have been working with both the ped and a lactation consultant.

The main problem is sometimes he gets so fussy and uncomfortable that I want to cry along with him - we can only hold him until it passes it seems. I know it is the reflux because he makes this grunting noise and I can see the milk coming into his mouth (even when it doesn't come all the way out). We want to avoid medication if possible but I don't want him to be in pain every day.

We went to the ped last week. We have a PPO (so no referral needed) and she did give us the name of a pediatric GI specialist. She suggested putting him on rice cereal before trying a prescription, but: (1) I'm concerned about doing that at only 6 weeks, and (2) we only feed pumped breast milk from the bottle 1-2x day.

Here are the things we have done so far:

-we burp him often

-We keep him upright as much as possible. I breastfeed on an angle, he sleeps on the basic wedge available at Babies R Us, with a blanket underneath when it is obvious reflux is striking (we purchased the Tucker Sling/wedge combo but he doesn't like it), we hold him upright for at least 30 minutes after feeding, and I bought the Moby Wrap so he can nap upright and close to me (my back has just got to get used to it).

-we were giving him Gripe Water, which does seem to produce burps, but plan on stopping because it doesn't seem to be helping with the reflux. His poop has a green tinge to it since we started the GW a few days ago, so I want to stop for a few days and see if the GW is causing it.

-We tried feeding small quantities at more frequent intervals but this has been hard - he is pretty insistent on feeding until he is full and lasts between 2.5 hours to 5 hours between feedings.

My next step is an elimination diet. I know dairy is a big offender, but I've been resisting giving it up because it is my favorite. Now that I see how much luck some of you have had, I will definitely try it!

Our baby went to the chiro at 4 days old, but we haven't been back - mainly because it is so hard to get him out of the house! I'm taking him back in tomorrow.

A few more questions I have:

1. For those moms whose children responded to eliminating dairy, soy, etc. - have your kids been able to reintegrate them into their diets, or is it a permanent sensitivity?

2. For those who have been on meds - are there side effects I should worry about? Long term effects?

J.,

the first thing I'd recommend is doing an elimination diet.

the most common problem foods are:

Dairy products
Caffeine – coffee, tea, soda
Soy products
Peanuts
Shellfish
Chocolate (sorry!)
Citrus fruits
Wheat
Chicken
Beef
Eggs
Nuts
Corn
Prenatal vitamins (The iron may be irritating to baby. Ask your OB for an alternative if this is the culprit.)
Gassy vegetables:
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Cabbage
Onions
Green peppers
Tomatoes

www.askdrsears.com

When I had this issue, I looked at the list, looked at my diet and eliminated accordingly. I started by eliminating dairy, soy, eggs, caffeine, chocolate, nuts, peanuts, tomatoes, citrus. My son improved within a few days and continued improving for about a month. If he hadn't improved dramatically, I would have added corn (including corn syrup) and gluten to my list. Once my son was healthy and happy, I started adding foods back one at a time (one about every 2 weeks). I was able to add back everything but dairy, soy and eggs. I was able to add back eggs about the time he turned one. At 2.5 he's still highly allergic/intolerant to both dairy and soy proteins. Colic is basically unexplained misery in a baby. To me that was unacceptable. My son was miserable and he had pretty serious reflux. Once I eliminated the problem items from my diet we were able to reduce his Prevacid dose by more than half and within a few months we were able to eliminiate the medication entirely. Before I removed dairy and soy from my diet, treating him with medication was like throwing a bucket of water on a forrest fire - if it did any good, you seriously couldn't tell.

He went from a miserable, fussy, uncomfortable, non-sleeping baby to a happy, content tyke that slept for 4-6 hours at a shot (at 6-8 weeks old) compared to a baby who didn't sleep much at all.

Elimination diets are kind of a pain in the butt but they are really effective in determining if there is a food source causing the problem (and from the research I did, there is usually at least one problem food seriously contributing to the issues). I was dairy and soy free until my son self-weaned at 18 months. It wasn't easy and it wasn't fun but he was SO much healthier for it and it was worth it.

Tell your friend good luck. Doctors are absolutely no help with this type of thing. If she wants more info, she can email me teralee999 at hotmail dot com.

T.

Our son spit up a lot. He was mostly breastfed and he also didn't eat/drink a lot at once, but ate/nursed often. We burped him a lot and kept him sitting up for a few minutes after eating. This helped, though he still would spit up, but not as often.

J., there is nothing you can do for reflux, some Doctors might recommend acid medication. Our Daughter just grew out of it at 8 months. In the meantime make sure she has enough burp clothes. Good luck.

Is she burping the baby after each feeding? Some babies need to burp twice. It takes patience to get a second burp out of them, but is well worth it & helps them keep the food down. Also, don't lay the baby down immediately after eating. Prop the baby up so gravity is helping the digestive track move things in the right direction. Hope this helps!

I'm sorry to hear your friend's new baby has reflux. We learned that my daughter had "silent" reflux when she was 3 months and by that time she had developed an aversion to eating and had trouble gaining weight. We used the modifications below until she was walking.
She was put on a medication and it did help - but not fully. We fed her small amounts all day long,we eliminated all acidic foods from my diet (pumping due to her not latching from the food aversion) and her diet when she began solids, we kept her upright always (baby papasian chair was a godsend), she slept with a small wedge under her mattress when she was too big to sleep in the papasian chair.

My advice is to keep an eye, trust her instincts, and see the Dr. if she feels something isn't right. Infants often do spit up quite a bit and sometimes it's not a problem. I knew my daughters was reflux vs. plain spit up by the smell.... sour like vomit vs. the smell of breastmilk. And she would cry because it was painful.

I hope the reflux ends for her little one soon.....