Infant Reflux - McDonough, GA

My little man had reflux too and I thought we would never get beyond the constant spitting up...I tried keeping him vertical after each feeding, but more times than not, he would still spit up (whether it be 1, 2, even 4 hours after a feeding). We put him on Zantac but he still spit up a lot. We couldn't show off his cute shirts cause they were always covered with a bib! Hang in there, it does get better and ulitimately will end altogether. I think my little man was about 6 months old when I noticed his reflux improving. In the meantime, you'll have to do lots of laundry, but as long as your daughter is gaining weight and isn't in pain, more laundry isn't so bad! Good luck.

have you tried the doctor brown bottles? i think they are amazing in preventing spit up in babies....good luck!

Firstly, solids make reflux worse, because they stay in the stomach longer. Second, remember that your baby has sleep requirements. She shouldn't be awake more than 1 to 2 hrs. (depending on the baby) during the day time. So don't forget this as you go through all this verticle time and refeeding. I kept my baby, by doctors orders verticle .5 hrs (not 45 min.), and even that really messed with her sleep rhythmns and cycles. But I was too ignorant about her sleep needs at first, so i just kept doing that, beyod her tired point. Didn't realize she was only able to stay awake for an hour at a time, but I kept keeping her awake and verticle (doctor directed), not realising she real really needed to go to sleep! I eventual stopped so much verticle time (10-15 min), when she started to show really bad symptoms of fatigue which she has conitnued to show for months. (now I've got these serious sleep problems I'm sorting out). Trying to feed her what she has lost is pointless because, overfeeding also makes reflux worse. The valve is not closed, so reflux babies can only handle so much food at one time (I used to do that too until advised otherwise). Perhaps you need a new doctor?? But my doctors and reading say, if the reflux doesn't hurt the baby, than it's really just a laundry issue you need to tolerate until that valve matures. My 6 month baby's reflux DID hurt her so she is on Prevacid which helped tremendously with the pain. Lastly, doctor brown bottles are great for helping with spit up. JBK

Hi K.,

Reflux is something that doctors tend to mistreat a lot. (Me and my infant daughter also.) Reflux is caused by the stomach not digesting properly. If there is no stomach acid in the stomach to digest the food, food or formula will sit and rot and burp back up causing reflux, heartburn and screaming. There are ways to jumpstart the stomach acid to formulate as it should (it may have been stopped by a formula you tried or an antacid ... AND don't feel bad, motherhood is a series of hits and misses and we usually don't figure things out til we're grandmothers, lol) Simple lemon in her water may help, discontinuing any antacids but my best suggestion is to go to a health food store and speak to one of the employees there about what they have. I have a product called "Florify" that has been given to infants to help with the digestion and if you would like to talk to me, please email me or call me at ###-###-####. If you don't want to do that please get with a trained specialist at the health food store or someone that they recommend. There is no reflux in our family anymore and I praise God that I figured things out when I did. Doctors mean well but they are at the mercy of the pharmaceutical industry.

I hope this helps your little one. Good luck.

Hi,
I am a mom of two toddlers almost 3 & 18mos. I am also a pediatric PT. Will was 3mos when he began tests for reflux, a persistant cough, and a heart defect. Like your little one, he is also unable to tolerate cows milk protien and is allergic to rice. (We figured this out after lots of spitting up and blood in stool.) He also sees a GI specialist in Atl. I nursed- and was trying to suppliment with the bottle-formula but he would not take Nutramagin or Neocate. So I eliminated ALL dairy from my diet. We did start him on Axid (a infant form of Zantac) because of his intermittant cough and poor sleep patterns. ( think he was an unhappy spitter - it hurt!) Positional adjustments did help him but sitting did not. I had to hold him upright on my shoulder after feedings for 20-30 minutes. He also loved our Baby Bjorn soft carrier because it held him up straight. Sitting in his infant seat or bouncy actually made his reflux worse. Because in the beginning he did not have the postural control to hold himself up- so he slumped forward. His spitting up got much better after he had enough trunk control to hold him self up he sat up at 5 mos and walked at 9 mos and this made a huge difference in the amount he would bring up.
Also I would discuss with your Dr. changing the cereal that you are using to thicken her formula-that is how we found out Will was allergic to rice. We had to use Oatmeal instead and it decreased his spitting greatly. This was after 6 mos though, there is a lot of research out there that supports waiting as long as possible to start solids in babies with milk protien intolerance. Also if it's not helping, omit the cereal all together until she is 6 mos (dev. age) because it is increasing the time it takes to empty her stomach.
I have also noticed with Will that his spitting up was closely related to his number of diapers a day. If he became constipated the spit up increased significantly.
I totally support your decision to stay away from meds if she is having no pain - just watch for other signs that the stomach acid may be burning as it comes up. Persistant cough, red throat ect. I do think that living with reflux has increased Will's tolerance to pain.
Drinking less liquid more often also helped but this was hard to do with nursing b/c of no measuring device!
I hope some of this helps. it is so hard because each child is so different. We went off Axid at 11 mos.
I wish you the best of luck as you figure out what works best!

As a mom of 2 spit up reflux babies that spit up every day of their lives non-stop from about 4 weeks old until they were over 6 months old, here are my suggestions are to try some or a combination of the following:

Dr Brown's Bottles- I did not use these, but many others I know did and swear by them. A pain to clean, but worth it if it helps...

Baby Zantac (or other form of it). This med didn't make my babies NOT spit up, but it significantly helped reduce the spit up. It also made them not cry in pain from their reflux. I did not find any negative effects from it and they were both on it until they were about 8-9 months old. If it can help, then it might be worth a shot.

One of my sons used Enfamil AR formula that is already thickened, but it is milk based, so yours may not be able to have that.

And get lots of bibs and burp cloths. I set mine up in the bouncy seat and in the boppy pillow if I wasn't holding them for the hour after they ate. Also make sure your baby doesn't get a flat head from laying in the swing or bouncy seat all the time. My second son did and they kept saying "it will round out...". Well, with extreme diligence on my part it has some, but he is 12 months now and his head is still pretty flat and most likely will be for life. :( Just wanted to throw that in just in case you weren't aware that could happen.

Good luck!