Spit up / Acid Reflux

I have twin boys that are now two. When they were three months old, the same thing happened to one of the twins. There were two things I did that relieved the problem: 1) Went to the chiropractor for regular adjustments (yes I did this when he was 3 months old); and 2) Got him on probiotics. Find a chiropractor that has worked with infants. You can mix the probiotics in with a bottle pretty easily. I would avoid medication if possible. There are so many side effects.

Good luck!

My daughter is three months old and was diagnosed with reflux about six weeks ago (right before she hit two months). She also screamed and cried, looking very uncomfortable and pained during and after nursing. She spit up a lot, though never out her nose and only very rarely was it projectile. We put her on Zantac 2x/day and it has helped a lot. She is much happier now, cries less, sleeps more, and doesn't seem to be in pain.

I would definitely take your baby in to see the doc when you have a chance.

K.
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Hi B.,
My son had reflux, but he wasn't a spitter-- it took me a month (I am a nurse!) to realize it was reflux b/c he wasn't spitty at all. He wouldn't sleep at all on his back, only when we held him, which happened to be at an incline. He did burp well, but he would make these 'hurting' faces when he would burp. I thought he just wanted to be held a lot, but once we put him on Zantac and Prevacid, he got better. We had to do a lot of work to get him to sleep; bouncing him, mostly. He still couldn't sleep on his back and needed some major help going to sleep, but he wasn't making 'painful' faces. We ended up letting him sleep in the swing, with it on... it really helped and he was weaned off the meds by 6mos, and sleeping fine in his crib with no motion, on his back. It was just something he had to grow out of. Sounds like your daughter has classic reflux, and your ped should get her on some meds to help her out. I hope this helps! Good luck!

Not sure about the spit up...my DS was "silent" reflux (he would bring it up but swallow it back down, rarely actually spitting up). To me the tell tale signs though is the grunting and squirming. My DS did lots of grunting. he started immediately after being born, they originally thought it was grunting to breath but quickly, even in the hospital, we found it was reflux.

When we brought him home family & friends would say he sounded like a billy goat! and the crying....wow...people would tell me it was colic. After some research I found colic usually occurs for a specific amount of time at near the same time each day. he would scream ALL the time. he would gag and choke sometimes when nursing that it would scare me to death. And even though he seemed uncomfortable and upset he wanted to nurse constantly!

What we found is that he was comfort nursing becuase as the acid came up it would burn, the milk has a cooling sensation. But it is a double edged sword, the fuller their tummies the more it comes up! Also, the gaggin etc was because as he was drinking it was also trying to come up at the same time so it would cause him to gag and asperate into his lungs.

I don't want to scare you....my DS had a pretty severe case of GERD (reflux disease) and Esophageal Dysphagia. Lots of kiddos with reflux out grow it pretty quickly, by a few months even. at times I thought it would never get better but at 30 months my DS is off all medicines and only shows signs every once in awhile, so if it is reflux it will get better. If you talk to your doctor about it ask about doing a trial of Prevacid 15 mg solutabs. They disolve on babys tongue (you hold it in his mouth) or even in a little water and give through a medicine syringe. it is the only thing that helped my DS and lots of other kiddos I know.

A good resource for you also may be www.kidshealthsupport.proboards.com It used to be called Moms Wearing Puke....support for reflux mamas. Got me through many a rough days & nights! Also, feel free to message me if you have any other questions.

Good luck and take care!

Hi B.
My second daughter had acid reflux. For the first few months we didn't know what it was. All I can say is that she would spit a LOT, sometimes the projectile vomiting and always screaming after meals that was out of this world. I have never heard a newborn scream that loud. When they finally diagnosed her, after doing some kind of scan where they could see that the little flap that is supposed to shut the esophagus from the stomach was not shutting, they gave her medicine and it improved.
So, for your own sanity, make sure the pediatrician really looks into it. My daughter's "flap" developed enough by 7 or 8 months and we were able to stop the medicine.

Good luck!

Start now giving much smaller meals. She will get used to it. One of the main sources of reflux is overfeeding babies. We think they are hungry so we feed them some more then they puke it up and want more. It's a vicious cycle and if you start now you can get her used to the smaller servings.

Also, sitting up more helps the food stay down. We kept J in a bouncy seat on the table top a lot during the day to keep him sitting up more. We also had it in his bed at night to keep him upright while he sleeped. When he got old enough to want to turn over he started fussing during the night. My hubbytook him out and laid him on the crib mattress and J rolled over and went back to sleep.

The doc gave us a prescription for a med that relaxed his tummy muscles and allowed the food to empty out the bottom quicker. That helped him keep the food in his system better too.

my dd was diagnosed with GURD she was spitting up like crazy. Our pedi had her have a UGI which I am thankful she ordered that while on the table she spit up all of the contents of the mix they made for her. Her doc put her on the baby zantac twice a day if did not help the spitting up but it helped with the acid errosion (sp) that can occur with reflux. she grew out of it by 5 months when she started solids. She was breastfed about 90% the other 10% was formula mixed with cereal very thin though but it was heavy enough to keep down. Be sure to burp throughout the feedings and elevate her bed a bit. But she will out grow it but in the mean time meds to help is always a good thing. also I gave that medician for gas that helped also.

One of my twins did that, and at about 9 months they finally diagnosed her as having reflux (GERD) and started her on Zantac 3 times per day which helped. Also wanted to note that she had aspiration pnuemonia 2 times from these episodes before the doctors finally understood that what I was telling them - it was not normal baby spit up, the volume was more and the force behind it seemed greater than just a wet burp. Good luck with your little one.

Well depends...Is she BF or Formula? Sounds like gas too. If BF you need to look at your diet and see if gassy foods need to be eliminated. If she is formula fed I would look at switching from the cow milk base to soy or a gentlease. There is also some acid/reflux called Prevacid that can be perscribed but I would wait to see if it BF issue or formula and go from there. All three of my kids had the symptoms that you are describing and we had to go to the Enfamil Nutramigen.

Also, you may be feeding her a little bit too much from the bottle unless you are breastfeeding.

Your baby could have a sensitivity to milk - breast or formula. My daughter arched her back, squirmed, cried when she had breast or milk based formula. She wanted to eat but felt terrible. She kept popping off the breast (later the bottle) and then wanting back on. She was very uncomfortable. Finally tried her on Nutramigen formula which is non milk based and hypoallergenic. She started feeling better and eating better within 24 hrs. Eating was no longer such a traumatic experience. Who wants to choose between hunger and feeling awful? Anyway, Nutramigen is very expensive so I tried her on a Similac Isomil Soy formula, which is regular price, and she did fine. My daughter is 2.5 yrs old now and she STILL won't drink milk. Not warm, cold, chocolate, strawberry - none. She eats yogurt, cheese and milk products just fine. Often babies have a milk sensitivity that they grow out of and many go on to transition to milk at 1-2 yrs old just fine. I think my daugher just simply does not like milk as well - funny -my mother won't drink milk either. Wonder if it's genetic? Despite what people say, you can have a senistivity to breast milk, not just formula. Good luck to you.

Hi, I know it seems like a big thing, but hopefully this will be a passing thing. I noticed that my baby was sensitive to the formula, so I switched her to similac sensitive and I also give her baby's bliss, gripe water in the evening and night to help her. She did everything you are describing, and the coming through her nose scared me too. But she's been doing so much better with the change. She's not spit up at all. I have friends who feel that Gerber Good Start is even less problematic than Similac and Enfamil. I do not think it's acid reflux, I just think that the baby is adjusting to eating, their little systems are so sensitive and still developing. I hope this helps, hang in there.