Symptoms of Reflux in One Month Old

I agree with everyone. My youngest (now 4mo) was very irritable. We tried taking "obvious dairy" out of my diet as he is exclusively breastfed. That seemed to help I thought a little at first, but then he would just cry almost all day. He was very difficult to console and at times inconsolable. I took him in at about 5wks old & we saw the nurse practioner. She luckily had been through this with one of her kids. She asked about arching, coughing, sneezing, hiccups.....I said he cries and gets so worked up I cant tell if he's arching from reflux or being upset! We never did any tests, just put him on zantac which has worked wonders for him. He also would make a high pitched noise sometimes, usually soon after a feeding. He never was a spitter and never really had weight gain issues. He ALWAYS wanted to nurse because the milk soothed the throat but as others have said he'd pull off and fuss quickly after having some milk because of the reflux. So diagnosis of silent reflux is what he got. Good luck with your little one! Hope he feels better soon! And yes, the stuffy nose thing he had too.

I don't feel qualified to diagnose reflux per se, but my son had similar symptoms as an infant. Turned out he had a fairly serious milk-protein intolerance. I eliminated all dairy from my diet, and his symptoms cleared up almost immediately. I really recommend trying that.

I've had two with reflux, and they were similar, although the first one had much worse reflux than the second. With both of them, they didn't really spit up much, but they would be fussy like they were starving and then would only nurse for about five, sometimes ten, minutes before stopping. When they stopped eating, they would cry and become very squirmy. They wanted to eat frequently but would never nurse long. (This ended up messing up my milk supply with both since they didn't eat enough to keep a good supply going.) They also both had trouble with sleeping because lying down made the reflux flare up. They didn't ever lose weight, but they did stop gaining weight, which usually reflected in their growth charts at about 4 months but corrected after they started receiving medication.

A baby with reflux will cry for multiple reasons, including pain (the stomach acid burns like heck) and hunger (if they are controlling their intake because they are trying to avoid the pain). Also, for the record, having reflux does not mean your baby will cry all the time. The first child of ours who had it is a very easy going guy. He only cried at feedings and bedtime. The rest of the time, he was extremely happy, curious, and in all other ways healthy.

my boys were bottle fed as I never produced any milk, but all 3 had reflux. My 2 year old would cry and fuss and push the bottle out of his mouth or turn his head away, sometimes screaming throughout the feeding and he spit up tremendous ammounts of formula. we had to put him on lactose free formula and he was on reflux meds until he was almost a year old. My twins, 7 months old, both have reflux as well and we have them on the reflux meds as well. One of the boys we had on Gentle Ease and the meds but he was still spitting up soooo much. we just put him back on regular enfamil and the spitting up has lessened a lot. Talk to the doc, go with your gut and see what happens.

Kate,
Your babe may not only have reflux, but may have a lactose intolerance - intolerance to YOU drinking cow's milk! My sons has/had this and once I quit - tough but there are substitutes (soyless! thank goodness!) that taste almost as good or better.

Yep, they'll have reflux - and really bad gas, it was horrible the first time around becuase the doctor was SNIDE about us not wanting to do medications so her thought was 'suffer' you don't want want to do meds, don't do them!

Well he didn't NEED meds for his reflux (I'd be surprised if they actually did a study to find out that MOST DON"T, but hey, that wouldn't sell drugs would it?)

he needed ME to eat more sensibly (green leafy's and no cruciferous veg's - check it out on wikipedia there's a list) and avoid COW like it is the plague.

That being said, I tried r aw milk, and presto - he's not lactose intolerant, he is pasteurized intolerant. He tolerates COW just fine. He just doesn't tolerate what they do to it when they heat it up so it can sit on a shelf unrefrigerated - what the heck!

Good luck,
M.

Do you breastfeed only? It sounds to me like he may have a little bit of reflux, OR he could be getting gassy by something you are eating...I say this b/c you said he is passing a lot of gas and the dr said he looks like he needs to have a bm. Is he pooping regularly for a breastfed baby?
Reflux is when food contents mixed with stomach acid back up into the esophagus which causes burning. We all have it sometimes, and when we do, we usually make a "sour" face and try to swallow it back down. This happens with babies too. Other symptoms are, they arch their back when they eat, spit up, and seem to be bothered throughout the day or night (they seem like they have colic....) A lot of babies lose weight (failure to thrive), or develop a cough from the spit-up which can develop into pneumonia.
If he continues to gain weight, is not arching his back when he eats, or crying for most of the day, and doesn't start spitting up with/without a cough I would say, start looking at what you're eating and try to start eliminating some things that commonly cause gas in breastfed babies, one by one and see if there is any difference.
If he starts to get worse, I would get him another appt with your pedi office.
Hope this helps! Good luck!

My son had reflux but he cried to eat, not when he was eating. The milk soothes their throat going down. But then when it hit his tummy, he would throw it back up. He also cried a lot if you laid him down flat. The acid comes up in their throat and burns and so they cry. He was a lot happier if he was upright. During feedings he was a very happy baby, didn't cry or fuss, just ate and ate. I would frequently have to stop him because I knew he was going to throw it up.

I'm not sure this is reflux, but babies can react very differently to it, so it might be. Did the pedi suggest any testing or anything else to see it if is reflux? Here are a few things that helped my son. Keep him upright as much as possible. Burp, burp and burp some more. Feed him slowly.

It really might be gas. He might be uncomfortable and that is why he only cries sometimes. Try burping him and also do the bicycle motion with his legs and bring his legs up really high. If he needs to pass gas, that might help him do it. A lot of people say give them gripe water. I never did, just the mylicon drops. Also, how are his bowel movements? Could he be constipated?

GL and hope you get some answers fast. I know how hard it is to see them uncomfortable and not be able to snap our fingers and make it go away. Hang in there Mama and congrats on the new wee one!

Maybe something u ate gives her gas. I had to stop eating dried fruits bc it caused my baby gas pain after I BF her. Check your diet. If reflux would be every meal, no? And more spittingh up bile than just gas pain. Gripe water and a belly massage may help. Just hold your hand on her belly when she's gassy.

My newborn (he's 9 weeks now) always wailed at the breast and I thought it was my production but he wasn't losing weight. We went to a pedi pulmonologist and he told me that I needed to omit milk and whey from my diet if I wanted to continue breastfeeding because it was effecting his reflux. It turned out to be more difficult to do than I thought so my son was put on Alimentum by similac, a hypoallergenic formula with a tablespoon of cereal to thicken it up. After his tummy ajusted, we really saw a difference and my soon's general demeanor improved as well.

Maybe you have a strong let-down?
Or a slow let-down?
either way a baby gets frustrated.

Do you burp him?
Gas does impede a baby.
Have you tried Mylicon Infant Gas Drops?

Is he latching on properly?
Maybe he takes in a lot of air as he suckles?

Or maybe something you are eating?

Do you exercise? Sometimes, if nursing right after exercise, the breastmilk tastes different. Yuckier. And maybe the smell too.
So you have to wait a bit, after exercise, to nurse.
Its the lactic acids, per exercise, in the milk.

Or maybe you have perfume on sometimes?

Gas pain, can look like the baby has to poop. Too.

I have never heard, personally, that a stuffy nose means Reflux.

The best thing to deal with infants tummy problem is babies magic tea. I used it for my acid refluxed baby who was also having terrible gas pain and it worked with him.