Baby reflux questions
The doctor thinks we are dealing with reflux, so I have a few questions for those of you who are in the same boat.
Burping - do these babies need more, less, or the same? I burp him by sitting him up in my lap, resting his chin on one hand, and rubbing his back in an upward motion, but sometimes I have to pat lightly to get a burp out. Is there a better method to not upset the tummy?
Does anything in your diet make it better or worse? Not sure if it works that way, but if I can do anything to make it better . . .
Do you "cut off" DC's feedings to keep him from overeating and then throwing up? DH sort of has reflux and he thinks it's overeating that is causing Jackson to puke, so I should only give him smaller feedings. Easy for him to say, he doesn't have to do the feedings!
Thanks for the advice girls. I feel better knowing that it seems pretty common and is not something I was doing wrong or a problem with my milk. It's hard not to blame yourself when your baby throws up while your breast is still in his mouth!
Re: Baby reflux questions
I am not sure on the burping...I would guess that all babies would prefer the more burping the better, not just reflux babies. So I think that's a subjective thing.
The only thing I did in my diet was cut out dairy and it didn't help.
What helped us was the Rx our doctor gave and we would always put her in the bouncer (mostly upright) for 30 minutes after she ate. She also preferred to sleep on her belly or upright in the swing. I didn't want her getting used to sleeping in the swing too much so I let her sleep on her belly for naps where I could keep an eye on her and at night she was okay on her back. Ocasionally she did sleep in the swing too.
In terms of overfeeding, DD also seemed to regulate herself. She was not a kid that loved to eat anyway (so strange!) So, we never really had an issue with that but we did notice the few times that she did eat a little more than normal, she would spit up more.
DD went on the Rx at about 2 months of age and we took her off of it at about 7 months of age.
We've been dealing with reflux too and the Prevacid honestly has helped so much. I also cut out major dairy (milk, yogurt, cheese, etc) and he seems SO much happier. I'm not sure if it's a coincidence, but I'm afraid to test it out to see
One of the nurses recommended we burp DS every 5 minutes when we were feeding him to reduce spit up...I tried that and it only pissed him off and made him scream since I kept taking him off. So you could try it, but just realize that you're going to be dealing with a lot of spit up for awhile. Invest in some good burp cloths! I think we go through 5-10 a day.
I would not cut him off from feeding. BFed babies know how to regulate how much milk they're getting. So he may eat for 30 minutes, but not get a ton of milk, KWIM? So putting a time limit on how long he eats is not going to ensure that he gets more or less milk. Let him give you cues that he's done - I highly doubt that he's actually overeating.