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January 2012 Moms
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Oatmeal cereal in bottle

hmsnbl103hmsnbl103 member
in January 2012 Moms
Alright, so my DD has had reflux since early on and we have tried Zantac with mom success and we are now on Prevacid 2 ml two times a day.  We have been doing this for a month and a half and my poor girl is super constipated and spends half her days and nights grunting and miserable.  I am desperate to get her off the med and have heard about adding oatmeal cereal to her bottle.  I called her drs office and they said to try it.  Until now, I have been ebf except the two days a week I work.  Has anyone else done this for their little ones?  I'm curious about whether or not I need to start exclusively pumping so I can add oatmeal to every feed and also, how much oatmeal you guys put in the bottles.  She currently takes about 5 oz every 3-4 hrs.    Thanks so much!
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Re: Oatmeal cereal in bottle

  • Brit's Luna154Brit's Luna154 member

    I tried this early on before we started Prilosec and it just resulted in her waking up covered in oatmeal spit up every time she went to sleep. Still, every mom and grandma out there says that it works, so it might be worth a try.

    I'm not sure if this is true of adding oatmeal cereal to the bottle or not, so you may want to ask your pedi about it:

    Many of the formulas out there that are 'for spit up' work on the same principle as adding oatmeal to the bottle. They have rice starch in them which thickens when it reacts with stomach acid. (Think like using flour to make a roux.) Many reflux medicines supress stomach acid production, which is why they make the baby a 'happy spitter' instead of an in pain spitter upper. When there is reduced stomach acid, the thickening of the rice starch does not occur, so the formulas for spit up do not work on babies medicated with most reflux medicines. I'm guessing that the mechanism behind oatmeal keeping the milk down is that the oat starch thickens the same way that the rice starch does, so it may not work on a reflux medicated baby.

    In answer to your last question, I was told to add a teaspoon to a 3 oz bottle. In order for DD to suck the oatmeal laden milk out of the bottle, I had to widen the hole on the bottle's nipple. I did that by taking a pearing knife and twisting it around the edge of the nipple hole to shave a bit of it off. I only did it with one nipple that I just kept washing out during this experiment.

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  • NiniJ55NiniJ55 member
    I responded to your other post... but I would like to add that I would probably do rice instead of oatmeal.  The rice cereal will blend in better - vs. the oatmeal settling at the bottom.
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  • talitha712talitha712 member
    We add rice cereal to DD's bottles for severe reflux and it has made her more constipated.  If you're doing it to help with constipation I'm not sure it will actually help.

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  • LoriB210LoriB210 member

    Hi There, 

    We are currently adding rice cereal to bottles when my daughter has them.  

    She has reflux and is on Zantac.  

     This happens to her at day care and usually at night when my husband gives her a bottle.  I noticed right away issues with constipation - or just delayed bowel movements.  So last night I did rice and prune juice in her bottle.  Today she had 3 bowel movements - phew.  Tonight a did a bottle with just prune juice no cereal as I am concerned about her getting to backed up. 

     So to wrap up - we have had two improvements.  I - less spitting up and 2 less fussiness between feeds.  I am still breastfeeding and even then there is less spitting up.  I think a couple bottles a day is plenty.  Infact too many may cause more constipation issues. 

     And be forewarned - cereal poop is nasty.  Thicker, stinkier and way harder to clean up compared to breast milk poop.  

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  • Rachel*NeocateRachel*Neocate member
    My LO has multiple food intolerances and wasn't able to handle grains, they were too hard on his stomach.  Have you considered that maybe your LO is having trouble with something in your diet?  Reflux and constipation are both common symptoms of a dairy intolerance.  Obviously not all babies who have reflux also have a MSPI (milk soy protein intolerance) but it is something worth considerig IMO.

    My LO had reflux that we were trying to control with Zantac, but nothing worked until I took dairy and soy out of my diet.  Here are some additional resources on MSPI if you're interested:

    Common CMA Symptoms YouTube Video: https://bit.ly/sYdNi5

    You could try eliminating dairy and soy from your diet for two weeks while also supplementing with a hydrolysate formula like Nutramigen or Alimentum.  You have to give it some time, at least two weeks, to see if the diet/formula change is working, so try to stick with it.  These helped me read labels and make sure I had removed ALL dairy from my diet:


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