Reflux moms please come in

mamatotwins0812

My LO was diagnosed with silent reflux a while back. We have him on Prevacid for a while now and it made a remarkable difference on how he eats and his comfort. However, sometimes he wakes during the night whining nonstop (no crying) until I go in to get him. When I go to feed him (assuming he's hungry) he is beyond squirmy and uncooperative. He literally is like a wet little piggie and I have to wrestle him to take the bottle. He thrusts his body down, flails his arms causing the bottle to fly out and, my initial telltale sign, leaks the formula from the sides of his mouth. If I take the bottle away though he looks starved and distressed so I know he's hungry. All of this leads me to believe its his reflux but I just don't understand why it only happens randomly and at night? Is that common for reflux to just flare up on random occasion? It just seems odd why the meds would work all day somedays and other days he's uncomfortable. Any experiences with this? TIA. 

myheromyworld89

Both of my babies are Reflux babies, my son is much worse then my daughter, and we've been weaning them off the medicine for the last month.  I don't know if the flailing around when eating has to do with the reflux or not. Both my babies have been doing that over the past month.  Like you, I've had to wrestle with the babies when it comes time to eat, and they've been doing the same thing as far as spitting the milk out the corners or their mouthes and acting like they don't won't the bottle, then freaking out when I take it away. I've just been chalking it up to them just being at an active age where they don't want to sit still.

As far as sleeping goes, they're excellent sleepers.  I don't know if we just have good sleepers or if it has to do with putting them on a sleep wedge, but litterally the first night we used a sleep wedge in their crib when they were 2 months old they started sleeping at least 6 hours a night.  Now they sleep between 9 and 12 hours a night.  You might try that.  It'll elevate LO's head that way the reflux won't bother them and startle them awake.

kimmyberly26

It sounds like his reflux is bothering him at night. We elevated DD just like PP but we instead put a few blocks of wood under the legs of her crib to elevate the one side more and we didn't seem to have anymore issues after that.

mamatotwins0812

kimmyberly26:

It sounds like his reflux is bothering him at night. We elevated DD just like PP but we instead put a few blocks of wood under the legs of her crib to elevate the one side more and we didn't seem to have anymore issues after that.

thanks ladies. We did this exact thing and I have to assume it helps but he's still waking after 6 hours starved but difficult. It sounds like I'm not alone in this it's just confusing. It makes me wonder if it is the reflux or something else.  

Jeep Doll

One of my girls does exactly this during her last bottle before bed... we give the second daily dose of Zantac at 6pm and their last bottle is at 8pm and we just recently upped their dosage, so I don't think it is the reflux.

She arches her back and screams so loud!  She sometimes will take the bottle, a couple of sucks while it is drooling down her face and then keeps screaming with the nipple in her mouth.  She acts like she is hungry and wants to eat, but doesn't take the bottle.  I asked the pedi about this on Monday and he said he is not sure if it is reflux or something else.  I just try and feed her some but I also think she happens to be really tired since swaddling her and putting her to bed without feeding has calmed her down.   She slept for 9 hours that night, so I guess she wasn't hungry!

erinruns

As an adult who has reflux, if mine isn't well controlled, when I eat after a long break (for me breakfast in the morning) I can often feel the food coming right back up my esophagus.  I cough and choke and generally flail, and I'm an adult.

Has it been awhile since the last time he ate?  If so, it might be that those first sips come right back up for him and it's uncomfortable.  Have you had his dosage weight adjusted lately?  That might be something to check into.  Also, ask your doc if you can give probiotics.  Those are so helpful for me to keep things controlled. 

mamatotwins0812

erinruns:

As an adult who has reflux, if mine isn't well controlled, when I eat after a long break (for me breakfast in the morning) I can often feel the food coming right back up my esophagus.  I cough and choke and generally flail, and I'm an adult.

Has it been awhile since the last time he ate?  If so, it might be that those first sips come right back up for him and it's uncomfortable.  Have you had his dosage weight adjusted lately?  That might be something to check into.  Also, ask your doc if you can give probiotics.  Those are so helpful for me to keep things controlled. 

very good to know. This is his middle of the night feeding so about 6-7 hours since he last ate so that does make sense. He was just adjusted but I'm definitely going to ask her about probiotics. Thanks so much!!