Reflux and other things

TheGoose34

Little G man is 4 weeks old today and his apnea and brady events have been getting better.  Only a few a day and usually just around feeding times now.  But he's having terrible reflux.  Today was pretty bad but finally a nurse decided to put his syringe with his milk in it lower so it went in much slower.  His next full feeding with the slower flow was so much better.  He only set off the alarm once and it was just a minor dip for reflux and not an actual event.  Anyone have experience with severe reflux?  Also, they mentioned bottle feeding might help a little because then he controls the flow and they're not just dumping 28 ml of food into his tummy.

I'm just frustrated.  He had SUCH a good day yesterday and today was alright but a little step backward.  He's on room air in his cannula and was on 1/2 a liter of air.  He's been holding his temp in the isolette so they're talking about putting him into a regular bed.  I just hit a wall today, I even cried in front of the nurse.  It breaks my heart I can't help him and feel so helpless.  I just want his reflux to go away because he does so well when he's not refluxing.  Every time discharge seem just a few weeks away, something like this happens and the light at the end of the tunnel seems to dim.

I know every baby is different but how long after bottle feeding and no more isolette did you baby go home?

lemen99

HUGS!

yes and yes - I'm a member of the famous Reflux Haters Club. 

We battled (and at 2 years old still battle) reflux.  It kept Andrew in the NICU until 3 weeks after his due date....it took the doctors a long time to figure out that's why he wouldn't eat so we sat there waiting for weeks. 

They did put Andrew's milk on a timer so it spread out over an hour, he couldn't handle the boulous (sp?) dump because his stats would drop.  I would ask about that.

HUGS. I hope your LO is home soon!

TheGoose34

Thanks for the advice ladies.  They doctor did put him on a pump yesterday.  He's now getting 28ml's over 45 minutes on the pump.  He seems to do much better with this than he did with just the bolus dump.  He's still having events around feedings but not NEARLY as many as before.  I'm not sure when they're going to start bottle feeding; the answer keeps changing depending on who you talk to.

He was also lethargic and not himself the last few days along with the events so they took xrays and cultures and found he was retaining fluid in his legs and lungs.  The cultures came back negative for infection.  They put him on lasiks for the fluid and he's a little more himself today than he has been the past two days.  They think maybe the major reflux just wore him out and he's just having an off few days but they're keeping an eye on him.

TriciaJoy

I'm also a founding member of the Reflux Hater Club. My son is 2.5 and we still fight it. He had a very hard time in the NICU because of it.
He was on on an NJ tube for a while which helped a lot. Then eventually we tried some meds. Eventually we found out that he had been born with a congenital stomach issue (not related to prematurity) that needed to be surgically repaired. After that happened, things improved a lot for a while. He stopped having As&Bs and his oxygen needs reduced dramatically and he ended up coming home w/o oxygen (which was unexpected.)

He came home exactly on his due date. 

There are things they can try. slowing the feeds down is a good one, and once he's nippling, they can try thickening his feeds as well. 

And really, meds can help a lot. Zantac (which is the usual first try) didn't do ANYTHING for Robbie, but prevacid helped immensely and now he's been on Nexium for about a year.