April 2014 Moms

The Big Reflux Thread

Just like the breastfeeders and pumpers, reflux mom's and babies often face many day to day challenges. So, might as well make one big thread to ask our questions and talk about our daily struggles. Let's start!

How old is your LO?
How long have you known about the reflux?
Bottle fed or breastfed?
What do you do to manage the reflux? Meds? Thickening?
Your daily struggle?
Any questions?

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Re: The Big Reflux Thread

  • My DS is almost 9 weeks and he was diagnosed with GERD at 3 weeks. He is bottle fed with similac alimentum due to a cows milk sensitivity. He is currently on zantac, but may be switched to prilosec and rice cereal. Our struggle is trying to get him to sleep because he always has spit up that burns him right before he falls asleep.

    What kind of rice cereal do you use?

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  • michaelad3michaelad3 member
    edited June 2014
    DD is 9 weeks, and we've been medicating for reflux since she was 6 weeks. She's breastfed, but at that point was on a nursing strike and was occasionally crying at the bottle as well. We have our ups and downs with eating, and I constantly worry, but she's doing okay. I also am pretty certain I have an overactive letdown and a very fast flow, so I think that contributes to our struggle

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  • DS is 3 1/2 months and was diagnosed at his two month check up after discussing his symptoms with the pediatrician. He has been on Zantac since then. We just upped the dosage this week to correspond with weight gain. DS is basically EBF. Might get a bottle of pumped milk or formula once every few weeks. Hoping we see a reduction in symptoms again since getting him the appropriate doseage.
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  • How old is your LO? 3 months 1 week
    How long have you known about the reflux? Around 6 weeks 
    Bottle fed or breastfed? breast, getting bottles of bm while I'm working
    What do you do to manage the reflux? Meds? Thickening? LO is on Zantac
    Your daily struggle? I'm constantly questioning if he still needs them but I'm terrified of taking him off b/c he's headed to daycare in a few weeks. 

    ~Chrissy 

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  • DD is 10 weeks and EBF. She suffers from silent reflux. She's been on Zantac since her one month appointment. She nurses quickly and swallows a lot of air, probably due to fast letdown and oversupply. She only nurses from one side per feeding and eats in 5-10 min. Always has from birth. No weight gain issues - she is riding the 75th percentile.

    She seems to be more comfortable on the Zantac and is less fussy but still chokes during the night when lying on her back. I have her on an incline but it doesn't seem to stop the stuff coming up. She also has raspy breathing sometimes and sounds congested, often during the night from the inflammation from the reflux.
  • Yay for this! Reflux sucks :(

    How old is your LO? 8 wks

    How long have you known about the reflux? Diagnosed at 3 weeks

    Bottle fed or breastfed? BM via bottle now & nurse in night a few times a week. Occasionally supplement with enfamil newborn rtf

    What do you do to manage the reflux? Zantac; tried prevacid and it was making it worse; oatmeal in bottles; nurse reclined all way back

    Your daily struggle? Choking/stopping breathing & lips turn blue. Pedi sent apnea monitor home and it was a nightmare! Way too many false alarms

    We have a barium swallow scheduled in 2 weeks. Anyone else?
  • LO was diagnosed at 3 wks and has been on Zantac since (he will be 12 wks tomorrow). He is FF but it started when I was still bf'ing. We also do oatmeal in his bedtime bottle. We couldn't do rice cereal bc he is also often constipated. I actually have a call into the dr now. I think we are switching meds. His Zantac dosage was upped at his 2 mo appt and it helped, but now he's choking and gagging at night again :(

     

  • We have an appointment to see the doctor on Tuesday and he is going to put our LO on Zantac. I was just wondering how long before you saw results? I am kind of losing my mind between the screaming and lack of sleep. Any responses would be appreciated. :)
  • Different baby in 2 days
  • Like @ImnAtari‌ said it takes a few days. We didn't see a real improvement until the 1 week mark. It did help for us until recently when the dose isn't high enough for him. We started on the prilosec today and he's been very fussy. I'm hoping something let's up. He was sleeping for 6-7 hours for his longest stretch at night before his shots on Monday and ever since then things have went to crap. I don't know if it's a growth spurt, his meds, or his reflux. I hope the zantac works for your LO @woodstephanie‌!

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  • LO is 12 weeks. Noticed silent reflux symptoms around 5 weeks as well as choking/stopping breathing during feeds. Was on breastmilk, switched to Alimentum due to allergy issues. We feed and rest on incline as well. Thinking about Zantac since he's better, but not significantly. Reflux blows. Poor dude.
  • HolljadeHolljade member
    edited June 2014


    How old is your LO? 3months on Monday

    How long have you known about the reflux? For about a month

    Bottle fed or breastfed? Ebf

    What do you do to manage the reflux? Meds? Zantac Thickening? Not yet

    Your daily struggle? Vins weight gain :( fussiness at night


    Any questions? Anyone else dealing with slow weight gain?



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  • HolljadeHolljade member
    edited June 2014
    Can anyone else see my post?? When I try to edit it shows up, but when I click on the thread it looks blank...


    Eta: ok I think ive fixed it!
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  • We're having problems with weight gain as well. He is only in the 30th percentile and just isn't gaining weight fast despite all efforts. The pedi isn't concerned with it yet.

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  • HolljadeHolljade member
    edited June 2014
    @Ambarnett1‌ I have to do weekly weigh in a bc he isn't gaining enough- I've written about in the the breast feeding threadA it's been super stressful.

    Vin in below the 3rd percentile. They aren't worried about the percentile so much as the fact he isn't gaining an oz a day. I have another weigh in tomorrow ugh. He's been on Zantac for a little over a week I am hoping it helped- I have a baby scale at home but I have tried not to stress myself out using it all the time. So far it looks like he is on track to be gaining ALMOST an oz a day for this week, I am hoping the "official" weigh in will reflect that.

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  • Poor Vin! Wishing you both good luck on the weigh in! Hopefully you'll get some good numbers. I can't imagine how stressful that is.

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  • @Holljade‌ our guy us in the 5th percentile for weight too. He's still swimming in his newborn clothes... we are hoping for 10 pounds at his 2 month appointment. Birth weight was 7.4 I hope your weigh in goes well!
  • Mason is 9 WK tomorrow. At 2 no appt, doc prescribed Prilosec. He will start it tomorrow.

    Bottlefed.

    He has ridiculous amount of spit up after each feeding. Sitting up afterwards and feeding on incline don't help. Cries more at night right before bed.

    I'm wondering if he has a milk sensitivity. He is 45% for wt ....was 11lb 5oz on Wednesday.
  • Thank you for making this thread! Everday is a struggle with reflux. When he was 3 weeks a
    Doctor told me he most likely had GERD. It wasn't until his 2 month appointment that he was diagnosed with reflux and given Zantac. He is EBF. My doctor told me if that it didn't seem to be working to take my DS off the medication. The other day at 11 weeks he was still being fussy and uncomfortable so i decided to take him off the medication. HORRIBLE idea! My poor DS had a major chocking incident last night before bed. Right away i put him back on Zantac. I feel so bad! With reflux he goes from smiling to screaming in 0 to 60. This has happened a lot in stores. It is also hard because he is mostly upset during the day.
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  • @embear22‌ It's like our babies are twins. my pedi wants me to feed DS more too, but he will only take 3-4 oz every 2-3 hours. I don't know how to get him to drink more without making him projectile vomit. We use alimentum too due to a milk sensitivity and failed pumping/diet change. It sucks. I wish I had an easy breastfed baby that could sleep anywhere at anytime... only in my dreams.

    @smashton14th‌ I HATE the choking incidents. My pedi suggested taking him off zantac a while ago and I refused. I know when I'm a few hours late giving him his meds that he will be in so much pain, let alone a whole day.

    On the plus side, we started DS on prevacid yesterday and have not had any spit up incidents!

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  • @Ambarnett1‌ and @embear22‌ Has anyone had any issues with their insurance covering the prevacid? The pedi preScribed it yesterday. Walgreens keeps saying there are "communication" and "coding" issues with Blue Cross. They are acting like it's their issue but I started Googling and I guess it's not covered a lot. Waiting for the pharmacist to call back now.

     

  • @jenskurn‌ I only had to pay $25 for his prevacid. It gets complicated because it needs to be compounded. I hope it gets covered for your LO!

    @embear22 thrush sucks and so does mastitis!

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  • @jenskurn‌  My LO was put on Prevacid and we ended up having to pay $71 because our insurance did not cover it.  As much as the cost sucks, it was worth it because he is doing so much better!
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  • A little late here but LO is 10 weeks and been diagnosed with reflux since 4 weeks. We started Zantac then and have seen major improvement. He was EBF but after major weight gain issues due to the reflux we went to supplementing with formula and happy bellies brown rice cereal. His weight gain has shot up. About two weeks ago he refused to nurse so I am pumping and it has worked out because I can add cereal to it and help him further. Because my supply sucks with the pump he is mostly getting Similac Organic (was on Alimentum but didn't see improvement so it wast an allergy) but I add whatever I can pump to the bottle.

    In the last week he has stretched his feeding from 3-4 oz every 2-3 hours to 5-6 oz every 3-4 hours. He has also begun sleeping through the night. Awesome, right?! Well, the past three days or so any time we try to feed he freaks out and cries intermittently. We stop and burp, we rock, I warm the bottle, we do everything and nothing helps. He will cry then suck. Cry then suck. Then after 15-20 minutes of this he will be fine and drain the bottle.

    Anyone have any experience or advice?! He's totally fine and happy leading up to it and after- but during he is pissed. I don't wanna spend $$ on new bottles or formula if it's just a phase. I'm not being paid right now and budget is tight.

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  • Ps- I'm so thankful we have a common thread to share on now. I've wanted to post like a hundred times but didn't want to keep starting different threads. Yay for support! Reflux is awful.
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  • Dax has clear spit up sometimes too! I found it weird and mentioned it to the ped but he didn't act concerned at all. And Dax doesn't seem bothered by it so I'm not worried.
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  • How old is your LO? 12w tmrw.

    How long have you known about the reflux? A while but diagnosed at 2mo appt

    Bottle fed or breastfed? Mostly breast but gets bm bottles while I'm at work, sometimes spit up similac formula.

    What do you do to manage the reflux? Meds? Thickening? Zantac twice a day even tho he hates the taste of it & I have the hardest time getting him to take it so I have to do a teeny tiny bit at a time.

    Your daily struggle? Giving him the meds but it's so worth it.

    Any questions? Anyone have tricks to get the meds down better? It's grape flavored, I've tried one of those pacifiers you can add meds to, adding it to a bit of breastmilk in a bottle, giving him a little at a time while bf'ing, just straight from the syringe... I've ran out if ideas.

    NTNP 11/2011 CP 11/29/12 BFP 8/6/13 EDD 4/16/14 ♥ 
    Logan Timothy - Born 4/5/14 @ 38w3d, 7lbs14.8oz, 20½in.
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  • DD is 10 weeks
    Diagnosed 6 weeks
    Put on Zantac last week
    EBF

    This with the clear spit up. Freaks me out. She does it so much she soaks her onesie.
  • ambarnett1ambarnett1 member
    edited June 2014
    @adheaton1387‌ when that happened with DS it meant it was time to up the zantac because he was having pain during his feeding. It could be a phase tthough. If it persists I would call the pedi for advice. It's probably not the bottle unless the nipple flow is to fast or slow for him.

    @Mrs.Kohalic17 for DS we just use the syringe and squirt it in real fast then pop a bottle in. Maybe you can do that and pop him right on the poop

    Eta- spelling

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  • Can you try a different flavor? Our Zantac is mint flavored and LO has no problem taking it. He likes it in fact haha.
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  • @Ambarnett1‌ thank you so much! I'll have to call. We upped the size of the nipple since we use the cereal but he has packed some weight on since his last increase so it could he time. He does cry out like he's in pain and then he will eat ferociously like he's really hungry but then cry out again within a minute. I think you're right. Thanks!!
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  • @embear22‌ thanks! Hey it helps just to know we're not alone!
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  • Same here! I cannot pinpoint reason because it is hit or miss. I usually just do something else to distract him and we try feeding again like 10 minutes later & by then he is fine.
  • This may be a fluke but we tried giving him a new bottle today to help with the freak outs. He is a freak about his Mam pacifiers and I noticed in babies r us today they have Mam bottles! The nipple is shaped similar to the pacifiers and it boasts to be anti colic and anti gas/fussiness. So I bought one. Brought it home sterilized it (has directions that show how to easily sterilize it in the microwave), widened the nipple hole to accomodate the cereal and gave him a bottle. He latched right away and went to town! He didn't arch, didn't shake his head, didn't scream or kick or swing his arms. He didn't have any dribble out of his mouth, I never heard any bubbles or slurping. Those were the usual lately with his Avent natural bottles. Afterward he burped and has had far less spit up. So if your LO is acting similar maybe try a new bottle? If he keeps this up we're going to go buy some more for sure! Bonus- they are cheap! 13.99 for a 3 pack.
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  • @adheaton1387‌ we switched to Dr. Brown's bottles a few weeks ago and that has made a world of difference. I guess sometimes a bottle change means everything.

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  • Let's compare weight & zantac dosages?

    DS is 13.6 lbs & gets 1ml twice day, with option of third dose as needed (have not needed a third dose yet).

    Also if anyone suspects a milk allergy, you can ask for their stool to be tested for blood. A GI specialist told me almost all allergies will show a positive for blood in stool, even if you cannot see it.
  • Just stopped zantac. He is 11.4 lbs and was on 1.7 ml twice a day, but it wasn't helping. Now he is on 1.5 ml of prevacid in the morning.

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  • The clear spit up one to two hours after feeding was what cued me in to the reflux because he would scream when this happened. We just increased our dosage and seem to be doing a little better.
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  • My LO was 14lbs at his 2mo appt & he gets 2ml twice a day.
    NTNP 11/2011 CP 11/29/12 BFP 8/6/13 EDD 4/16/14 ♥ 
    Logan Timothy - Born 4/5/14 @ 38w3d, 7lbs14.8oz, 20½in.
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  • My DS was 14.7 pounds at his 2 month appointment and he is on 1.5ml twice a day.
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