reflux: tell me about it

zoogster

whats the difference between refkux and regular spit up. how often does it occur? tell me all u can. i think abby may have it

loree

it sucks, i can tell you that. my girls cry when the eat, and do this thing with their head like they are trying to stay above water. emma spits up a ton. they are doing much better now that they are taking zantac twice a day and we add oatmeal to their cereal.
 

JillRock96

It is heartbreaking.  Ava would go through this cycle when she eats -- she would start gulping her bottle like she was starving, but after a few gulps, spit it out and start screaming.  Her belly would be rock-hard, and she would grunt and squirm.  She would also make this wheezing noise, which the pediatrician attributed to the acid backing up in her esophagus.  She also spits up a ton.  We just started rice cereal and zantac on Tuesday night, and already we have seen a HUGE improvement.  We have only had one of these "episodes" since then, and it was really mild compared to what it was before.

From what our doctor told us, the rice cereal helps to weigh down the formula to keep it from coming back up as much, and the zantac helps with the acid.  He said that the spitting up isn't really an issue as long as it isn't causing her pain -- it is the acid that they really work to get rid of.  HTH!

TheShellSeeker

Exactly as the other posters said, also, a classic symptom is back arching while feeding, and also milk refluxing up into the sinuses.  DS has projectile forceful spit-ups that sometimes come out his nose.  It is sad.  DS is on prevacid that does help some.

TheShellSeeker

Also, my pedi said it usually starts around a month old.

regenab

My smaller twin has reflux, she has had it since 4 weeks old. She was having large spit ups several times a day, when I say large I mean spitting up almost her entire meal, like vomitting, not just spitting up and it rolling down her chin. But the clue to my pedi. that is was truely reflux was that when she ate she would have a stiff arched back, you could not get her to bend to sit on my lap and burp. She would grunt and squeal like she was in pain and could not relax her back. He said a stiff back when eating is a classic sign of reflux. We put her on Zantac 2x a day and she was much better within 2 days. She has hardly spit up ever since we had her on the medicine. Now that she is on oatmeal cereal starting solids she only needs the Zantac 1x a day. I am hoping as we continue solids going forward she will be able to be off the medicine completely in the next month or so. We are going to start feeding solids twice a day after we get back from our holiday travels. I am hoping this can move her towards no more medicine.