Reflux moms come in

kleigh926

DS will be 2 weeks old on Wednesday. During his first 5 days, he had major issues with vomiting up entire bottles of formula, enough that he stopped having wet diapers and we took him to the ER. He had greatly improved over this past week with minor changes (more frequent feedings, more burping). He had a couple episodes of vomiting, but mostly no more than the normal amount of spit up.

Yesterday and today it's been worse again. He's had large amounts of vomit 4 times. He was in an upright position all but one of those times. I am calling the pedi tomorrow, but if you have any experience with reflux, does it sound like this could be the problem with DS? I don't know what else could be causing such episodes of vomiting. Since he's fine sometimes but not other times, I'm thinking it's not a milk/soy intolerance.... seems like he would be consistently throwing up or in pain if that was the case. I'd like to try Zantac and see if that helps, but I don't know if the pedi will agree to that or not. Any advice?

tamarar5

This is kind of what Amelia was doing, but she wasn't bringing up quite as much I think. She was bringing up several tablespoons, though.

Our biggest clue was she was crying and arching her back super bad, and just generally seemed miserable and uncomfortable, in addition to spitting up volumes.

MalRiggs

Try the Zantac. It worked wonders for DD. Also talk about the different formulas. There are lots that are specific for reflux. Emfamil AR is one we used for a while.

Tulips114

This was Leah, my DD1. She had terrible reflux and the vomiting didn't get under control until she was on solids. We did meds (Zantac and omeprazole) and that helped with the pain, but she still vomited all.the.time. I BF'd and I did cut out dairy and soy, for her that made no difference. Ally, DD2 also had reflux, nothing near as bad as Leah though she did her share of vomiting. We did Zantac for a while, I cut out soy and dairy again and for her dairy did seem to make a difference. I think I'd be inclined to try a different formula before meds, but I know sometimes Zantac can just work wonders. ETA - sorry no paragraphs, can't figure out how to make my iPad post in paragraphs.

Rosebean

Our situation with DS was like Tullips. It wasn't diagnosed until closer to 3 months and he was arching his back a lot while nursing. His spit up was constant. So constant. DD barely spits up and the difference still blows my mind. We also had to make sure that he sat up for 20 minutes after each feeding before he would lay down, and after laying him down, it usually ended to be on a sloped surface. He got Omeprazol and something similar to Zantac and it eased his discomfort, but not the spitting up. It also takes a few weeks to make a difference. Like 2-3 weeks to make a difference. Mind you, I didn't cut a lot out of my diet. I was a mean mom that way. I couldn't bring myself to cut dairy or wheat. I cut back on milk, and tried to avoid high acidic foods. That was about it.

lbonga1

I think DD2 has silent reflux. I can hear her gulping frequently after nursing, and she's been coughing, gagging, and crying more and more. She sounds congested often too. I'm going to call the pedi tomorrow because tonight was pretty bad. It's completely different from DD1's reflux though. She would spit up large amounts all day long. It got to a point within her first week where she started sounding hoarse, and thats when her pedi prescribed omeprazol. Like rosebean said, it eased her discomfort, and it helped the spit up some but not completely. I think she might have had a milk intolerance that we didn't discover until she was about 8 months when we switched to formula, but by that point she had been off the medication for a while anyway.

brachysira

M had horrible reflux.  When she was about 4 weeks old, she was screaming constantly, spitting up a lot, and arching.  She also sounded congested and was making other scary breathing noises in her sleep.  We did zantac, which helped, and then prevacid, which helped more, and never cut out any foods.  The meds, because of their mode of action, help with the pain, but do not help spitting up.  She continued to spit up as her fluid intake increased, such that we needed huge amounts of burp clothes and her shirt was always wet.  We got used to it.  At 6 months, she sat up and all her issues pretty much ended, although she does occasionally spit up a bit now if she is super wild.  

When M was 2 months, she didn't have a bowel movement in many days and we took her to the ER at a pedi's advice to have her checked for pyloric stenosis.  It turned out she was just super constipated because she had to eat formula a few days while I was having some medical tests, which was a big change from completely having breastmilk.  If your baby is having violent vomiting, this is a symptom of this, so ask your pedi about it.