Help for Friend's Baby with Reflux!!!!

also do some research on pre and probiotics. They certainly helped my reflux. I no longer take medication.

what a great friend - how kind for you to help her! i guarantee you will find all the info you need here and on infantreflux.org/forum and marci-kids.com .
those 2 sites helped me waaaay more than anybody else (including 2 pediatricians and a GI specialist...)
HTH!

I'm so sorry to hear your friend’s little one is suffering. Below, I listed some of the things we did to ease my daughter’s reflux symptoms.

elevated the head of her crib
fed her small amounts at a time at more frequent intervals, some days it seemed like all I did was feed her
fed her in an upright position
diligently burped her
Kept her upright after feedings, she frequently napped in her stroller (without the carrier)
limited time in car seat
often, when she was inconsolable, the best thing I could do for her was place her on her back on her diaper changer pad - I don't know why but that seemed to soothe her
little tummies - gas x for babies
changed bottles - significantly less spitting up with VentAire http://www.playtexbaby.com/Products/Bottles/VentAire.aspx
never warmed her bottles, room temp or cold right out of fridge
ran humidifier when she slept - she was always congested from the spit up
carried her in her Ergo*
swaddled her for bed time and when colicky
when I knew she was hungry but she arched her back and screamed, I just kept offering the bottle (while walking, swaying, singing) until she'd finally take it

I spent some time on www.reflux.org and found some of the information helpful. Unfortunately, the page is not very user friendly and is full of ads. However, your friend can talk to a volunteer via email or telephone. That was helpful for me because I felt like I finally found someone compassionate and empathetic with some helpful advice.

If your friend’s pediatrician dismisses her concerns, find a new one. Once my daughter was prescribed acid suppressers, she only occasionally experienced her reflux symptoms (for example, spending too much time in her car seat). She was on acid suppressers until a little after her second birthday but has been nearly symptom free since. We limit but have not entirely avoided greasy and acidic foods. Oranges are her favorite fruit and she loves Chick-fil-a.

Hope this helps.

I will pray that your friend’s child quickly outgrows reflux and that God will grant your friend’s family peace and rest during this struggle.

*I received an Ergo (without the infant insert) when my daughter was almost 4 months old. My daughter turned 3 in November, and I still use it. It is one of the best gifts I have ever received. http://www.ergobabycarriers.com

Is the baby in pain or just spitting up alot? My had reflux from birth but appeared unbothered by it...until about 2 months. From 2-4 months we tried reflux meds, elimination diet (i was breasfeeding) and every trick you could imagine. My son literally screamed 20 hours out of 24! He was inconsolable! We finally made it to see the gastro specialist and they immediately diagnosed him as milk/soy protien intolerant. he was put on prescription formula that cost a fortune but in 72 hours he was like a brand new baby! he had to stay on the reflux meds and the formula until one year. then we had allergy testing done and he had outgrown the intolerance. Definetely request to see the specialist. When they suggested I quit breastfeeding I thought they were crazy so I pumped for the 72 hour trial of formula but I could not believe the transformation! I never breastfed again, I was definetley making him sick! Good Luck and let me know if I can answer any more questions.

We had to use Prevacid for our child, however the new pedi I am using, Dr. Bain, stated that that is linked to increased food allergies later; she is right. My child is not intolerant to wheat/gluten/milk/casein so I wish I had known her then. She did state that chiropractic care can remedy reflux but I of course was past this point when I found out...thought I would pass it along. The one post about food intolerances is on to something I think. I wish I had known that then too. Good luck.

www.healthykidspediatrics.com

I had a terrible time with reflux in my baby too. She was a preemie and the most reasonable explanation as to the cause that I got was that the pyloric sphincter that usually keeps food down wasn't fully developed, thus the food pops back up out of the stomach. I actually watched an imaging study and saw this happening-she'd make these little peeping sounds like a bird but those sounds were actually food coming up out of her stomach into her esophagous. Who knew?!

The good news is that she outgrew it eventually, around age 1. Here's what we tried up until it wasn't a problem anymore:

1. Bottles-we went with Avent after trying several different kinds (Drop ins, Vent Aires, Dr. Browns). Basically I would buy one bottle at a time and see if it worked out for about three days before buying a bunch and these were the winners.

2. Formula-we were on Neosure because she was a preemie. We switched a couple of times including using that ghastly Alimentum that's $25 a can. That stuff made things WAY worse within the first 24 hours. Save receipts for formula, Walmart WILL take back open formula and that saved me $50 on this experiment. Ultimately, the Gentle Ease was what worked the best-it takes about 3 days for formula to settle things down, but it should NOT make things worse and if it does make things worse, then you have the wrong stuff. I went against Dr. advise on this one and used my mom-radar, but your friend definitely needs to check with Dr. before messing with the formula.

3. Meds-we tried both prevacid and zantac-baby had "silent" reflux meaning nothing came all the way up but when I gave these meds she outright blew up. So I tried gripe water. I started with wellements but it was terrible tasting and required refrigeration. Also it had sodium bi-carbonate which I did not know was bad but I found out more about that later. Next I tried colic ease (they sell this at Family Health Market in Frisco). The taste was much better, it smells like pickles but tastes cinnamonny and does not require refrigeration. Also, I was impressed with their website's info about the ingredients. We are 2 years past our reflux now but the whole family uses this gripe water for stomach upset in general and it works great as an anti-nausea medicine and antacid. http://www.colicease.com.

4. Feedings-instead of a full bottle every 4 hours I gave her half bottles every 2-3 hours. More calories and less stuff coming up.

5. Rice cereal-ask the Dr. about this first before doing it. We added 1 TBSP to bottles and used the special adjustable flow nipple by avent so she could get the thicker formula out of the bottle. We only did this for 2-3 bottles a day but it helped some.

6. We kept her upright for at least 15 mins after feeding.

Good luck to your friend! Tell us what happens!!

Try putting him to sleep on his tummy. If this makes the parents nervous, tell them to do it just during naps and in a location where they can watch him (like in a pack&play in the same room as them). Babies with reflux often get much needed rest because sleeping on your tummy actually helps position the stomach/esophagus in such a way that the acid/food won't come back up. If they aren't already doing this, they should try to keep the baby upright for 30-60 minutes after each feeding (the longer the better!).

colic calm gripe water. www.coliccalm.com
read the testamonies. the stuff is awesome!
my baby had reflux too. we were able to manage with colic calm instead of prilosec for babies. way cheaper too!@'

Both of my kids had serious reflux. it was horrible when i was pregnant. a remedy that i used on each one of em was having them sleep, eat, & rest propped up. for ex: the youngest i had him in his infant car seat @ all times(strapped in to ensure he wouldnt fall) for 6weeks, & it went away!! 6weeks is nothing compared to hurtful reflux for almost 9mo to a year! i guarantee that w/in a month to 2 months it will go away if she has her baby propped up.. let me know if you have any q's

i am a mom of a 6 month old now but i also have twin boys that are now 19 and a 21 year old . so yes i am starting
over and loving it. my 6 month old girl! had reflux bad
for the first 3 months and it was frightning , she would gag on her formula, trying to get her breath back during and then it would come out her nose, i wanted to panic but i didnt, i went to my doctor she said yes she has reflux and gave me prvicid tablets to cut in half and dissolve in a teaspoon water , bitter i tasted , did not work. then she gave me liquid zantac, sweet but did not work. so i then used a couple of drops of malox in her formula along with a scoop of baby rice cereal. helped alot. less through the nose , also with the advise of another dr. she slept in her
swing. it was a big big help. the cereal gave her hard bowl
movements so i was instucted to add half a teaspoon of clear karo syrup to her bottles as well. it worked !!! its
a process of try everything and for me it worked and at 3 and a half months she stoped completly with the spitting up and gaging and coming out her nose and breathing fine. it was alot of attention paid to her but as you know they are worth it . Good Luck everthing will be ok. best wishes sharon ..

One of the best things you can do for a baby with reflux is to have him adjusted by a chiropractor. Sometimes the stomach just hasn't descended fully and therefore the acid bubbles back up and causes the baby pain. There is an awesome chiropractor in Hurst - Dr. Haggerton at Lifetime Family Wellness. I would personally start there.

There are a lot of Gripe Water remedies that give some babies relief of this problem, but watch out for those that have Soy or Casein in them because they can aggravate the problem.

my son had horrible reflux from birth until about 18 mo. We used Zantac prescription and it worked wonders.

Start out by putting the baby in a carseat to sleep. Or if she has a bassinet elevate it. Or if she wants to keep the baby in the baby bed, go to a medical supply place and get a pillow wedge. Anything that she can do to elevate the baby. Ad cereal to the formula, makes it thicker harder for it to come back up. Causes I have no clue. But the treaments other than what I have already listed, there is a med that helps, it helped with my son. Not 100% sure the name think it was reglan. Oh Keep the baby upright as much as possible Keeps the food down.

try this web site www.infantreflux.org

Hi, my son had it pretty much from birth. He could hardly breath his reflux was so bad. He has allergic to the protien in the cows milk. I had to supplement inthe hospital till my milk came in, then he was fine. But whenever I had to us the formula it would start up. The doc put him on prevcid (sp) That help out sooooooooo much, and then put him on the hypo formula. I stop BF around 6 months. Now he's on the soy one, and I'm about to switch him to the silk soy milk.

Cheese makes him have tiny bumps all over his tummy, the cheese gold fish, ice cream... etc... He's a year old, but I think it's going to take him longer to get past it. He might not ever. Your friend needs to take her baby to the doctors. I hope it all works out for you friend.

I know where your friend is. Our little one had reflux but we didn't know it until 8 months. Boy I wish I had known at 2 months. Here is what we did, we ended up putting him on Enfamil AR which is the thickening formula. Then our doctor told us to have a swallow study done. We did that and realized he also had issues swallowing thin liquids. So we went back to the normal Enfamil and use a thickener called Simply Thick (nectar consistency) along with a prescription of Prevacid. He is know 18 months old and has grown out of both. The times we give him his prevacid are when he has a really bad cold with lots of congestion and if he has any type of stomach bug because the acid starts to overrun things. Have her talk to her pediatrician about prevacid. This is medicine that is design to combat the acid, it really did work for us.

My daughter suffered from reflux since birth. After a few weeks experimenting with different formulas per doctor, I decided to try Good Start because of my Mommy instincts and it worked. I noticed a major change after the first feeding. It didn't completely go away, but her formula stayed down and she was able to gain weight. We used Good Start 1 & 2 until she was 17 months old. Her pediatrician also prescribed her prevacid after she was 6 months, but we didn't use it for a long period.

The Good Start and more feedings, but less formula at feedings helped.

Hope this helps.

S.-

My son had horrible reflux and here is what we did for him....He was on an expensive formula called Nutramagin, the Dr. gave us meds for the reflux, we had to hold him upright or put him in a bouncy seat or a swing for an hour after eating so that he stayed upright. All of this helped a little but never made the reflux stop. My doctor swore that when his Spinkter muscle (sp?) matured (usually by the age of 1) the reflux would go away....sure enough by 1 my son had no reflux. good luck to your friend!

If the problem is sever and the child is loosing wieght, make sure they check for pyloric stinosis. That is what my daughter had and it requires surgery to correct.

My sons used prevacid and bethanachol together and it worked great!

also we liked infamil AR

Good luck
A. J

My 5 month old son is on Axid. It was prescribed by his pediatrician. It definetly makes a difference. Also, tell her that holding her baby upright for about 30min after eating helps alot.