Do you elevate your crib mattress?

nikkiuk

Hi ladies

As we are, hopefully, on the home straight with Zach, I was wondering what anyone here does to elevate the crib mattress to help with reflux? We have a Pack and Play bassinet that we'll be using as a kind of co-sleeper. I'm mindful that elevation helps with reflux (I never sleep lying flat for the same reason) and Zach is used to sleeping on his side, elevated. He's a serial wiggler so the nurses either swaddle him tight (he's not a fan of that) or pack a load of rolled-up sheets around him to stop him wiggling down too far.

If you do, how do you elevate your mattress?

KTZ17

No experience with elevating the crib mattress, but some moms swear by the rock n play for babies with reflux. It doesn't rake up much space and folds up easily. We used it a lot in the beginning even though dd didn't have reflux. It helped when she was congested.

brachysira

We had bad reflux and used the rock n play until about 5 months.  It seemed to help, but I don't know for sure.  She was so tiny that I couldn't bear to put her in the crib, and without monitors, I don't think think a towel nest is safe.  When we moved her to the crib, I put a couple rolled up towels under the mattress for a slight bit of elevation.  I think with anything more, you need to get a special incline pillow with straps to keep your LO from rolling.  We also loved the newborn Halo sleep sacks with velcro swaddle tabs.  They used them in the NICU and we bought some for home immediately.  They aren't a tight swaddle, but they do seem to provide some comfort.

nikkiuk

Thanks, ladies. We were looking at the bassinet earlier and thinking this one over and came to the conclusion that towels under the mattress is all that will work at the moment to provide a gentle, but effective elevation. We do have some sleep sacks and some swaddler-type things so I guess we'll just have to wing it when he gets home and see what works. 

nikkiuk

I didn't realize there were wedges for babies but we found one in Toys RU yesterday when we went looking for some sheets for the PnP. So we bought one and it fits perfectly. I was looking at the RnP but we have a bouncer so that might work if he gets too wiggly in the bassinet. 

Looks like we're bringing him home this week and he'll be on Prilosec as the reflux is still cropping up. It was all systems go yesterday though, especially when I realized we still had things to buy that had slipped my memory due to his early arrival. 

Pips09

The RnP was a lifesaver for us! Good luck!

ana_k

Just a word of advice, the country that I live in used to have a very high incidence of SUDI and one of the things we are constantly told here is to never ever under any circumstance raise the mattress itself, if you need to raise it, raise the bassinet or cot itself, we put books under one end of our boys cot to help with his reflux or when he is unwell.

nikkiuk

That's interesting because just last night we were specifically asked if we had worked out a way to elevate the mattress as Zach is probably coming home this week. We were also told about the Travis Sling which can help enormously with reflux. It's not cheap but will enable him to safely sleep on his side or tummy as he cannot tolerate being on his back, even elevated. Kinda blows my mind a bit that he can sleep on his tummy with this sling. 

ana_k

I'm not trying to criticise at all, just offering another option Amazing he can sleep on tummy in sling! Must be comfy

nikkiuk

Oh, no worries, I didn't take that as a criticism. It's really useful to hear what others in the same situation have to say I know the advice from hospitals can be conflicting so it can get confusing. I'm still on the fence about tummy sleeping as it's drilled into us all not to do that. I think I'll have to chat more with a doc. 

ana_k

Hmm how old is Bub? We he in NICU long, I've heard some that are in isolettes for a while are used to sleeping on their tummies and are just more comfortable that way. I would also say it depends on the mattress, my bassinet had a really soft wool mattress, no way I would let my Bub sleep on front it that, but the cot (crib) mattress is really firm. I don't live in the US, not sure if you can get something like this there, but Safe T Sleeps are awesome, especially once you're not swaddling anymore, helps them feel snug and secure and keeps them on their backs and in once place, my Bub lies on his side in it but can't roll to his front. https://www.safetsleep.com

nikkiuk

He is one month old today so has been in the NICU all the time. The bassinet I have is not soft at all - in fact it looks really uncomfortable if I'm honest! I wouldn't want to sleep on it anyway. Thanks for the link, I'll be looking into that

punky917

DS had acid reflux pretty bad and when he was still in the bassinet, we took the back wheels off (the ones by his head) and elevated it with books. I think it helped him, but when he got bigger, he would slide off to the other side. lol!