Spitting Up & Choking While Sleeping

jessa1228

DS is 10 weeks old and has been sleeping in the RnP next to our bed. The last few nights he has been spitting up in his sleep about an hour after he nurses. I know that this is fairly common, but what concerns me is that he chokes on it. He'll start violently coughing, then make no noise so H and I jump out of bed to get him on his stomach and hit his back until he starts making noise again, and then he starts hysterically crying (from us or from the choking, I don't know). 

We wanted to transition him to his crib in the next week or so since I go back to work in 2 weeks, but I am now terrified to have him sleep in a different room (we have a video monitor but it still scares me). He has his 2mo appt on the 26th so I will talk to the pedi about it then (or before then if I feel like this is getting worse), but I'm wondering if anyone else has gone through this and can give me some insight/calm my fears/tell me I'm crazy.

sarah&francesca

Yes it usually happens to me if I can't get a burp out or she's got one stuck. Apparently it bothers some babies more than others when they can't get burp out. Only advice I can give is to try for at least 5 or 10 minutes to burp him before putting him down if that doesn't work maybe hold him upright for awhile.

jessa1228

sarah&francesca said:

Yes it usually happens to me if I can't get a burp out or she's got one stuck. Apparently it bothers some babies more than others when they can't get burp out. Only advice I can give is to try for at least 5 or 10 minutes to burp him before putting him down if that doesn't work maybe hold him upright for awhile.

I hold him upright for 10ish minutes before putting him back down. I'm thinking of trying 20 minutes and seeing if that helps.

KatieOz920

I have to keep my daughter upright for about an hour for it to help I sit her high up in her bouncer- it's a pain in the middle of the night but it makes a HUGE difference. I think babies usually need 45 min or more. We also have a wedge in her crib to help her stay elevated (for a little while at least- they slide down off of it pretty easily). Hope that helps! I know how scary the choking can be

SarahHeck

Does he drool a lot or choke other times during the day? Don't want to cause alarm, but it could be a sign of aspiration and that's scary stuff. You may want to ask his doctor about a barium test.

jessa1228

SarahHeck said:

Does he drool a lot or choke other times during the day? Don't want to cause alarm, but it could be a sign of aspiration and that's scary stuff. You may want to ask his doctor about a barium test.

He's definitely drooling now but rarely chokes during the day. He does cough a lot though. I've thought about reflux but he doesn't really have any of the other symptoms. I'll definitely bring it up with the pedi though.

jilltibby

Ours did this once or twice before he was diagnosed with reflux and we started meds. He's 6 weeks and hasn't choked since. But he also had a lot of other reflux symptoms in addition to scary nighttime choking (I.e. Intense spitting up after every feeding, vomiting, coughing, generalized fussiness, gassiness, etc). He also can be difficult to burp so we make sure to work it out before laying him back down now. Hope you get it figured out bc I know how scary that is!

jessa1228

Thanks ladies. I don't know why I didn't even think of silent reflux. Last night I held him upright for at least 25 minutes after each feeding and we had no issues. I'll definitely be talking to the pedi about silent reflux. Thanks again!

Sarahbeth612

Hope they can figure something out to help; that sounds so scary!