Babies: 0 - 3 Months
lifewrite
member
Reflux and not on meds
lifewrite
member
I'm pretty sure my LO has mild reflux. My pedi says he has to do an Xray before he will prescribe any meds. I really don't want her to have an Xray. I've read that reflux will clear up as they get older and their esophagus matures. Has anyone noticed the refulx get better without meds or does anyone have any suggestions to help without having a prescription? Or do you feel like the negatives of reflux outweigh the negatives of a Xray? Like I said its pretty mild and only seems like she has problems with it a couple of feedings a day.
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Re: Reflux and not on meds
We tried to go without meds but her reflux (silent) was causing her a great deal of pain and she was starting to refuse to eat.
Elevate her crib so her head is above her feet when she sleeps. Place a wedge or a thing pillow under the mattress. Only elevate it about 2" or baby will slide all the way down. My baby is wiggly so even the 2" cause her to slide down but since she wakes to feed at night I just put her back at the top!
Keep her upright for a good 20-30 min after eating.
Thoroughly burp her after each feed. Otherwise the burp will bring up food later when it comes on it's own.
My daughter is also very gassy...before we started meds and when her dose needs adjusting her gas aggravates her reflux and causes pain so we give gas drops to help bring the gas up easier.
My doc didn't require an x-ray but did have us try without meds first and had requirements symptom wise to prescribe meds since reflux is in most cases a normal part of development.
Personally I wouldn't medicate until necessary. My little one is very easy going and never cries unless hungry. When her reflux is bad she screams in pain, she wakes suddenly screaming then projectile spits up, calms and goes back to sleep. She projectile spits-up (clears a few feet), she projectile spits-up out her nose, she frequently chokes and gags on liquids coming up this happens while sitting and lying (when meds need adjusting it is a few times an hour), she normally loves being burped and sings through it (sounds like tarzan) and gets upset when we stop. With the reflux she would arch her back and scream in pain if we even gentle patted her back. She normally eats every 2hrs but when reflux is progressing she starts to want to nurse every 30-45 min (to coat throat) then after a few days will ask for nursing then will freak out and refuse when you bring her to breast because she learned that eating hurts.
Basically for us the refluxes caused her behavior to completely flip and we had a totally different child. Then on meds she returned quickly until she outgrew her dose and then her behavior would completely flip again until her meds were increased.
if it's mild, then i wouldn't worry about it. My LO has silent reflux, and the only reason i wanted to put her on medication was because I was certain she was refluxing stomach acid throughout the day (she would be sleeping then scream in pain randomly) and the Zantac dilutes that acid.
But it does't STOP the reflux. I wish i could give her something to stop it, since it tends to make her choke when she refluxes in the middle of the feeding. How we manage the reflux is
-Burping as often as we can. With refluxing babies you find they tend to not want to burp, but it's important. I feed her in the sling often, with tummy-to-tummy and that pressure has a tendency to bring up air. Sometimes I only burp her after a bottle, because she'll loose interested after being burped
-Keeping her upright 20ish minutes after she feeds, either in a bouncer, my arms, sling, etc. I keep her fairly upright when she feeds as well.
-Allow her to take a long time to eat. She has a tendency to take FOREVER to eat a bottle...she has 2 oz, will stop and get distracted and then when i put her down wants to finish the rest (2-3 oz). I've heard this is a common theme with refluxing babies
-Pacifier. One thing to combat the choking/gasping/sputtering that accompanies a refluxing (often silent) baby I've started doing is recognizing when some of that reflux rises into her throat. When it does, I switch the bottle out for a pacifier. She'll suck on the pacifier for a minute, and swallow the refluxing material without being drowned in milk as well. After she does this for a couple swallows, she'll aggressively suck the pacifier (trying to make milk come out). Once she starts doing this, i give her the bottle again. I have to do this a couple times in a feeding if she's frantic, but it's helped her finish bottle without being freaked out