Severe Acid Reflux in Infant

Hi. It looks like you've tried a lot of things. Have you taken her to the dr yet? If you've tried just about everything at home, it might be time to take her in and get a prescription. I know it's difficult to consider medication on a child so young, but if it's the only thing that will help....

A friend of mine had a little girl that had bad reflux, and the finally had to get a prescription. It really helped.

I have a couple friends who had the same or similar problem. Let's see - there was something about having like a sling in the bed so the child wasn't flat. They switched formulas. And she was dipping the pacifier in Mylanta. And I think they were feeding him like all the time but little bits. Sounds like you are already trying most of that though.

My Daughter went threw this and luckily with daily medicine and nutramigen formula she was able to curb her spitting enough to gain weight. It eventually went away at about 14 months. There is also some perscription formula we tried but it was very expensive and had to be specially ordered in by our pharmasist. Nutramigen worked almost as good and at half the cost. Don't wait, babies that young can dehydrate in a matter of days. Good luck.
P.s. My daughter always slept in her swing or car seat.

Hi, K..

I have had babies with this, too. (We do foster care and most of the babies are medically fragile.) Given that yours is now loosing weight at a time when you would expect to see a gain, it may be time to try some medication - have you talked with your pediatrician? It sounds severe to medicate an infant for acid refluex, but... but I have had good luck with a couple of meds - I think it is worth a conversation , at least.

Good luck!

C.

My son had problems with reflux. Actually what helped us the most was taking him to the chiropractor and getting his stomach pulled down. It was amazing. I'm sure this doesn't help everyone, but it may be worth checking out. I have info for the person I used if you want it. She said sometimes babies tummies can get herniated and pulled up through the diaphram a little which causes bad hiccups, the constant spitting up, and lots of other issues. We were actually able to stop medication shortly after this appointment. Good luck!!

My son was diagnosed with GERD when he was 4 months old. I had him sleeping on his tummy (he refused to sleep on his back, even propped up), taking Zantac and changed his formula to Enfamil AR. Before the Zantac life at my house was awful! He screamed all day long and wouldn't keep anything down. If she's already on medication and she's not feeling better maybe the dosage is off. When we first started the Zantac we gave it to my son twice a day and he was still crabby. After talking to his doctor we increased it to three times a day and he was much better. Like a different baby. He is now 7 months old and has been off of the medication for about a month. I'm sorry I don't have much advice. I guess I would just continue to work with her doctor to get the problem solved. My thoughts are with you, it's so hard to see our little ones suffering.

My daughter was a preemie and had reflux. Not nearly as bad as your daughter's though. I was told if she wasn't gaining weight then we'd talk about medication or surgery. My daughter was on a specific formula for preemies a high calorie one so I was fortunate that she gained. And she wanted to eat just spit alot of back up.

It's pretty serious if she's not eating and not gaining. I'd go back to your pediatrician and if you don't get anywhere there go for a second opinion.I'd do this ASAP she could get dehydrated or malnurished being so young and not taking anything in. I'm sure there are other things they can do , noone likes surgery or feeding tubes etc. But your poor baby's gotta eat.

My son has very bad reflux also. When he was about 3 months old he started nursing and taking 2-3 ounces of formula every 45 min. to an hour, he was very fussy, and would spit up a lot. He was not gaining any weight, he had only gained 3 ounces in 2 months. The specialist put him on Prevacid and had us thicken his formula with 1 tablespoon of rice cereal for every ounce of formula. That made all the difference in the world! He rarely spits up anymore and is hardley ever fussy. The doctor told us that the Prevacid did nothing to stop him from refluxing but that it neutralizes the acid so it's not painful, and the rice cereal is what will keep him from actually spitting up all the way.

We also had him on Enfamil LactoFree and that helped a bunch. I was breastfeeding but I couldn't keep up my milk production since he was nursing so often. Before we found this formula we had tried regular Enfamil, Good Start, Prosobee, Simalac, Nutramagin, nothing helped but the Enfamil Lactofree. I tried to eliminate dairy from my diet with no change. Also I don't know if you are giving breast milk or not but the doctor also said that if I were to pump and put it in a bottle not to thicken it with rice cereal. She said not to do this because the breast milk will actually break down the rice cereal and it wouldn't even work, she said to use Thicket instead.

We had also tried a few other reflux medications that did not help like Axid and Zantac. Prevacid seemed to do the best. My son gets 1/2 of a pill, they disolve, we were told not to put it in water or anything in a bottle to give it to him because inevitably you are going to loose some of the medicine when you do that. Instead we take it and rub it on the inside of his cheek for a couple of seconds and that way he gets all that he is supposed to, plus we're not just giving him extra liquid to spit up before the medicine has a chance to work.

Once your baby starts to sit up on her own the reflux should improve some. I've been told that most babies "out grow it" by about a year or so, just because they are more mobile and their little bodies are maturing. My son also did not eat very well at all when I was gone even if it was just to the grocery store. In fact one day while I was at work he refused to eat the whole time! From then on I decided I needed to stay home and work. I don't know if your daughter is in daycare, but maybe right them out a list of all the things they need to be doing with your daughter like keeping her upright, burping her after a certain number of ounces...

I hope this helps you some, good luck.

I had a 28-week preemie who had severe reflux. It was diagnosed while he was still in NICU, so he started on prevacid twice a day even before he came home. It seems like you're doing everything we were told to do. The only other thing is I started feeding my son actual rice cereal (not just thickened in his bottle) before bed when he was about five months old, or 2.5 months adjusted. Some people thought that was early, but it really helped. He stopped choking and gurgling (which scared me the most at night) and slept 7-8 hours straight.

You didn't say which medication you use, so I'd ask your ped if it can be changed if you don't think it's helping. Also, I did not breastfeed, so I fed my son Enfacare, which has more calories than the regular formula, and also mixed it with less water (my ped figured out the formula) so it would be even richer & he'd gain weight. By the time he was one, he did outgrow it and has been off medication for about two months now.

It is a handful, especially on top of what you go through with a super-preemie, but you just have to do everything you can, every day, and she will grow out of it. Good luck!

Hi there K.,

My daughter had some reflux when she was a tiny one. Your daughter's condition sounds a little more severe than ours. The only thing that worked for us were the simethicone drops. They have them at the grocery store or pharmacy. Usually they just say "Gas Drops" on them. There is another product called "Gripe Water". It is not something that is as easy to find. It's all natural. I know I found it online for pretty inexpensive. It didn't work for my daughter, but again, her condition wasn't as bad and everybody is different. :)

Good luck!

C.

My son had pretty bad acid reflux also when he was a baby. My son was hospitalized for the first month so they had a longer time for observation. But they realized before he was discharged that he had reflux. He was prescribed Previcid and that helped greatly. I would talk to your daughters pediatrician and see if you can try something like that. Good Luck!!

my daughter had this for a while and we masked it with certain formulas, foods, medicine, etc. Then we decided to treat it--we went to the chiropractor and had her adjusted at 4 months old--GONE! Give it a try--we take our children for regular adjustments and for ear infections--we do not use antibiotics.

good luck.

Hi. Our daughter was born at 30 weeks & spent 10 weeks in the NICU & had the same problem. She actually had to have the surgery to correct the problem (called a Nissen, I believe) and that has helped tremendously. It is a hard, hard decision to make, but if your baby is not thriving, your doctor may suggest it. Our baby is doing fine, she had no problems with the surgery & is a chunky-monkey now. I just wanted to let you know that if it gets to that point, the surgery does work. She will have a little scar on her chest, but the difference in how she eats is a complete turnaround.

Best of luck with everything! (our little one is 4 months corrected today, so they are very close in age!).

Hi Karlin,
I have a 4 month old little girl who also has acid reflux. We have her on Enfamil Gentlease for formula. It is the only formula that she seems to be able to handle. We tried the AR with the added rice cereal and that just made her tummy hurt. We are now feeding her several small bottles (4 oz) per day instead of lfewer 6 oz bottles. This seems to help alot. She is also on Zantac. I would recommend trying different formulas if you can- This seemed to make a huge difference for us.
Good luck, I know it's really hard to see your baby struggle with this.

My son's acid reflux was caused by an allergy to dairy products. His reflux medicine only made things worse. You might want to ask your doctor about an allergy test, or trying a different formula, either a soy (which has its own allergy problems, but works for many babies) or a hydrolyzed formula.

Both my girls had acid reflux horribly. We had them on meds which took awhile to tweak perfectly for dose. My first tried zantac then prevacid and then back to zantac at a different dose. My second ended up on zantac and prevacid both and then I had to quit eating dairy because she couldn't digest the milk protein. It is a large protein and often babies can't break it down. Talk to your dr about eliminating dairy from your diet---it helped wonders. Also, we went to a chiropractor. It helped also but---and he told us this---she went back to having the problem the next day. He fixed it so her stomach was not coming up through her esophageal (sp?) spchinter but it can go back to that way because that muscle is weak in babies. Anyhow, he showed us how to fix it but I couldn't re-do it so we used medicine until she outgrew the problem---at about 9 months for the reflux, still on soy for the milk allergy though. Anyhow, I can totally understand where you are with the frustration--both my girls were small so we were worried about weight too. Also, this hurts them so it is very hard to watch. My oldest loved her swing but my youngest liked the bouncer. I can go on and on but a lot is different per child. I would totally try to not eat dairy and see how this helps--also stay away from chocolate and caffeine as though can cause problems too. I just re-read your post too so maybe you aren't nursing??? I just assumed--bad me. Anyhow, if you aren't nursing try a soy formula...

Feel free to email me if you want to ask me anything ____@____.com.

M.

Oh K., I feel for your little one! Having gone through this with both my boys, I know how awful it is. You seem to be doing all the "tricks" that I know of. A saw another poster mention Nutramigen, and I found that it helped to be on this for a month or two. The downside is that it's VERY expensive. Another suggestion is to talk to your ped. about the kind of medicine she's on. Some people do better with a neutralizer (like Zantac) that neutralizes the acid as it comes up (kind of like Maalox for us). Others do better with a proton pump inhibitor, like Prevacid or Prilosec. Mine did better with the latter, but the weird thing is for a while my second son didn't respond to Prevacid as well as my first did. So we put him on Prilosec, which helped. But then as he got older (3+ months) he perfected spitting it out because it tasted so hideous, so we switched back to Prevacid. That's what we're on now, and NOW it seems to be working. (My doc said that perhaps since my son is more developed now--5mo--the previously less effective medicine is now fine.) In other words, there's a lot of problem solving involved, but it will get better in time. In the meantime, good luck on making your daughter more comfortable!

When our youngest daughter was 6 weeks, I had to call 911 because she was having difficuly breathing. Very scary! Spent 4 days at Childrens and it turned out to be reflux, stage 3 I think, which is the worst kind. Anyway, we went through some tough times as well trying to get it under control. We met for 2 hours with the sleep apnea nurses at the hospital who gave us SO many good ideas. Do you have anything for her when she sleeps? We received a "sling" (something the apnea people gave us) that we put her in when she slept so we could really get her crib upright, but she wouldn't fall down in. We could NEVER lay her flat, sleeping or not. We didn't use our swing anymore because it crunched her up too much, the bouncy seat was the only thing we used and we still had to put a blanket underneath her to keep her as upright as possible. After feeding she shoudl be upright for at least a half an hour (not fun in the middle of the night!). Those were the main things. Good luck and I hope it improves soon!

If you are nursing, stop eating/drinking dairy and anything that is acidic like OJ, tomato sauce, etc. When I really watched what I was eating and excluded any of the above aggravators from my diet she was like a new baby. If she is not getting breast milk, I would check with her ped about switching to a formula that is easier on her little body, like Enfamil Gentlease or Nurtagamin (s/p?). This will all go away once she develops more. Good luck!