Indiana Babies

::::Sarahann::::: re: reflux with our LO2

I honestly have been trying to post a response to you about this for a week now but we've been traveling. 

When LO2 arrived, he had horrible swallowing/reflux/choking issues, so much so that the pedi even doubted that he was a true 38 weeker.  They thought he might really have only been 37 weeks, he struggled so much.

We were told we were headed for reflux meds but our real pedi was on vacation so the pedi seeing us deferred the decision until we saw the real guy.

I was like, so what do I do in the meantime?  This is what he said, and it totally worked for us.

1.  Feed the baby as upright as you can get him.  This was, of course, tricky when I was still trying to nurse.  We opted for football holds with his butt on the bed and me sitting up.  This got him in the most upright position, but we had to experiment.  

2.  For 30 minutes after he ate, keep him straight up and down (or as close as you can manage).  This was a )*&%^&% to do, because he ate every 2 hours, so it was feed for 30 min, hold him upright for 30 min, sleep for an hour, get up and repeat.  It helped that I had lots of people around at first, so I could feed then hand him off to do the holding thing so I could sleep for an hour and a half.

3.  Don't lay him flat to sleep after a feeding (this translated into don't lay him flat to sleep, ever, since he ate every 2 hours).  We solved this dilemma by letting him sleep in this chair.  Sorry, they don't make it anymore, but they said any bouncy seat that keeps him at a 30 degree angle is good.

4. Burp burp burp him.  This is obviously more important when bottle-feeding, but it really seemed to help.

OK, you're thinking HOW IN THE WORLD can I do all this?  I don't know how I did it, esp when I was also pumping every 2-3 hours, too.  Guess I was in that newborn "who needs sleep" thing.  

The good news is that I eventually got exhausted and started cutting down on the time we held him upright after feeding.  At 2 months, I went down to 20 minutes, then at 3 months, I cut him back to 15 minutes.  I was afraid he would never start sleeping in his crib, but the transition to that only took a couple days (thank heavens).  We did jack up one side of the mattress, though, so he does have maybe a 15 degree elevation there.  I was also afraid he would be too clingy after all the holding.  Nope.  He's totally fine.  

He'll be 4 months next week, and although we still hold him upright for 15 min or so after feedings, his swallowing/choking/strangling reflux issues have almost disappeared.  We never had to do meds at all, which I liked.  It took longer than I had hoped, but we are out of the woods.

I don't know if any of this will work for you, but I wanted to share.  Sorry it has taken me so long!  

 

Re: ::::Sarahann::::: re: reflux with our LO2

  • THANKS!!!  We are doing most of that, and it still wasn't helping as much as I would have hoped so we did go to the meds.  We are doing Axid 2x per day and gas drops every 4 hours.  That, cross my fingers, has made at least today a little better. 

    Its going to be a learning processes but we'll get through it right?

    Deleted
  • We did all of that too - I hope the meds helped!
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