Reflux

So, talk to me about newborn reflux...  How did you know or suspect your baby had it?  Besides the obvious spitting up.  Did your doc want testing to confirm it or did they give you a prescription and see how the baby does on that before going through the horrible testing?

Malena,

I have been through the ringer with reflux. First, really they can't reduce the amount of spit up just the pain/discomfort that accomanies it. Does he cry, cough, etc when spitting up? Does he appear to have colic? Does he appear to arch his back and let toots?  They consider reflux an issue when they watch his weight and he is not gaining steadily or etc. 

Can you describe the spit up and when it happens? (after burp, later while laying, etc). Regarding medicine, they could try him on prevacid or zantac to see if either help (those are usually the first ones they put him on). Are you breastfeeding of formula? They might try to see if he is lactose intolerant.

We didn't really do a test until Aiden was 6 weeks old. He had a sonogram looking at his pyloric valve to see if he had pyloric stenosis (throwing up bad). It is in first born males. He didn't have it. He didn't have the endoscope, and more testing until it became an issue of him gaining weight (around 4 1/2 months).

Well, Riker was strictly breastfed until the last few days, but he has only had about 6 oz of formula total in those few days.  He doesn't spit up much, very little, but like 2 hours after he has already eaten.  He will eat for 45 minutes on the breast and then be fussy, arch his back, he does toot at times when he is doing it.  I have tried gas drops and they don't do much.  He seems to always want to eat, which at first I thought was a growth spurt, but it keeps happening.  He gets extremely fussy on the breast, too.  Oh, and he is extremely nasally and figidty.  The figidty is only after he eats, and keeps me awake since he sleeps in our room.  He was given breast milk out of a bottle once and choked and I swear he stopped breathing for a few seconds.  It scared the crap out of Russ and I.  We have to take him this week for his 1 month check up so I think I will mention all of this then and see what the doc says.

I can just judge from my experience. Aiden would spit up horrible. He was EXTREMELY irritated. He had horrible colic, lots of gas, arching his back, and the spit up was REALLY bad.

Your pedi would be better at judging the symptoms you descibe.

Tristan would throw up alot. Especially if he was horizontal... at all. They decided he was lactose intolerant almost right away (it's the easiest thing to try) and changing bottles can help. Sometimes they are getting too much too fast. We use the Nuk ones, they worked best for us. I never produced much by way of breast feeding so I pump what I can and bottle feed it and then suppliment. I am lactose intolerant so there isn't lactose in my breastmilk to worry about it. The pedi (who I love and trust--- he was my pedi) tried formula with added rice starch which reduced it alot, then we tried soy and hypoallergenic which constipated him. We decided to go back to the rice starch formula. He gave me the option of trying zantac, but I didn't want him medicated. The RS formula seemed to eliminate the pain and we had rigged up all kinds of stuff to keep him upright by that point... so I figured constant spit up (the trowing up had decreased about 75%) was something that I could live with. Plus, he was gaining weight fine, so that wasn't a factor.

I would think that since he isn't throwing up/ spitting up that it might not be reflux, but more a reaction to something in your diet that's coming through in your milk. In everyone I've heard of spitting up is normally a constant. (I am not a doctor... just an observation) I would definately talk to your pedi about it asap. Poor little man, and poor you... it sucks alot at night with the midnight feedings. I remember those all too well. I am hoping that some of that isn't as bad with this baby.

I actually had a theory that my prevacid might have been to blame for some of Tristan's stomach issues. I was told by my surgeon and my OB to continue taking it during my pregnancy with him... then we had all of those issues. This time I stopped it as soon as I found out I was pregnant. (I haven't had any problems myself) So we shall see if it made a difference.... who knows....

Good luck.

Rowan would fuss sometimes while bfing and also arch his back and turn red, it LOOKED like he was hurting. Also, if I tried to lay him down too soon after feeding everything would just slide right on out. it wasn't even that he was spitting up, it would just burble right out like flowing out of a cup with no lid.