Breastfeeding

Reflux?

Hello!
I have a 3 week old little boy who I've been breastfeeding successfully. He is a great eater and already very efficient-only nurses 5-10 minutes on each side. He had gained back his birthweight, plus almost another pound as of his 2 week checkup, so I'm not worried about weight gain.
But he spits up a LOT several times after each feeding. Sometimes up to an hour after eating. At first it didn't seem to bother him and when I asked the dr, she said as long as he's a happy spitter and gaining weight, not to worry. But I've noticed the past few days, the amount of spit up seems to be increasing and he cries about half of the time he does it now. Other times he's totally fine and just lets the spit up fall out of his mouth. He also seems to be eating more frequently during the day-about every 1.5 hours.
I can't decide whether to call his dr back and ask about reflux medicine or not. Anyone dealt with reflux and have any advice?

Re: Reflux?

  • No advice here, but we are dealing with the same thing with our 5 week old. It seems like burping makes it worse (causes her to spit up a lot, which begins an hour long spit up cycle) so I've actually been avoiding burping her for a day or so. I feel ok when I great her burp on her own, but I know it's not a great solution. I'll be asking my doctor about it soon.
  • Thanks for the reassurance. I'll call the doctor today to see what she thinks.
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  • We're starting Zantac this evening. Let's hope this helps him feel better. His fussing breaks my heart and this laundry is killing me!
    @ArkansasMom22‌ - so your LO stopped spitting up after the medicine?
    That would be great-I thought it was just going to make him comfortable, but I'd still be cleaning spit up constantly.
  • ILikeMikeJr13ILikeMikeJr13 member
    edited January 2015
    My daughter was the same, I am an overproducer of milk and she nurses efficiently and quickly. I found that she also vomited quite a bit and had reflux. Feeding her using a nursing pillow, with her upper body/ head slightly elevated than the rest when eating helped. Also, burping her and keeping her upright for 10 minutes helped her digest the milk better. We did find that she was pooping too much and the doctor found small traces of blood in her stools-turns out I had to cut out all dairy products from my diet! Baby was sensitive to cow's milk!! Try changing your diet (soy products are delicious). Give it a week before you notice a difference. My daughter is less fussy, less gasy, happier and has stopped vomiting! Her reflux has also gone away.
  • No advice here either as we are dealing with the same thing. Lots of spit ups. Last night was a projectile vomit after eating. He is always fussy and always wants to eat. After reading above they eat a lot to soothe them. I think I will call the doctor as well. Poor babies!
  • We went to the dr yesterday and think mine may have MSpi (milk/soy protein allergy) so you may want to ask your dr about that. :)
  • We went to the doctor today. Said he has the start of acid reflux. Did not give medicine however, they want me to express breast milk and feed him 2 ozs plus a tablespoon of rice cereal for a week and see how he does. I need to do this every 2 hours. I've been nursing directly so I had nothing in freezer or refrigerator. Thankfully I pumped before we left and had 3 ounces so now after each feeding I will have to pump. I have enough now for a couple bottles. He is a night nurser so I'm worried about how he will do. They also said to position him at a 30 degree angle. Hoping this helps. Not excited about giving cereal every feeding though.
  • Sorry you're going through this. My dd had really bad reflux after four weeks. We tried Zantac but she didn't keep it down. (Why it's flavored peppermint, I'll never know.) I started eliminating anything that could potentially cause the reflux from my diet: milk, soy, spices, chocolate, acidic foods, etc. (I followed a breastfeeding book by Kathleen Huggins to see what foods to eliminate.) DD is so much better. Eliminating some foods to see what your lo is sensitive to might be worth a shot. I was really skeptical that food was a problem but it really helped.

    We also bought a rock'n'play so she could sleep on an incline in our room without having to lie flat on a mattress.

    I remember how hard it was to see her in pain. I hope it gets better for you soon!
  • @AmyG*‌ I haven't started. I was just dumb founded she said to stop nursing and pump and add rice cereal. This wasn't his regular doctor I'm half tempted to call his doctor and talk tomorrow.

    He's not spitting up a lot and doesn't seemed pained. I just got worried because he projectile vomited and last night didn't sleep well kept gasping for air. So I called the doctor.



    @Redwingchica‌ My mom said they gave my nephew medicine so she was confused too. I might call my doctor and see what they say.
  • ambular81 said:

    We went to the doctor today. Said he has the start of acid reflux. Did not give medicine however, they want me to express breast milk and feed him 2 ozs plus a tablespoon of rice cereal for a week and see how he does. I need to do this every 2 hours. I've been nursing directly so I had nothing in freezer or refrigerator. Thankfully I pumped before we left and had 3 ounces so now after each feeding I will have to pump. I have enough now for a couple bottles. He is a night nurser so I'm worried about how he will do. They also said to position him at a 30 degree angle. Hoping this helps. Not excited about giving cereal every feeding though.

    I wish you the best of luck if this is the route you have to go! I pumped and fed formula for two days trying to get started getting milk and soy out of my diet and they were the roughest two days since we brought lo home. :( definitely gave me a whole new respect for exclusive pumping mamas!
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