reflux help

 This is my second baby with reflux! With Rowan, his pedi pretty quickly started him on prilosec, but the pedi here in Houston doesn't like to medicate (and I think they don't want to give Aran anything that has even a remote chance of interfering with his heart medication), so we've been getting creative. He was spitting up a lot and having to be kept upright for up to an hour after feedings, so I started looking into thickening his feeds (he gets both breast milk and formula, but almost all by bottle as his NICU stay really affected his ability/willingness to breast feed). 
I found a recipe to make a thickening gel with xantham gum and it has worked wonders! It doesn't lead to constipation the way rice based thickeners can and doesn't get thicker as it sits, so you can make bottles ahead of time.
You just get 16 oz of water spinning in your blender and then add 2 tbsp of xantham gum and whirr till it turns into a gel. I use 1 tsp/4oz of milk/formula and he almost never spits up now and hasn't lost an entire feeding since I started using it. Xantham gum can be found usually where they keep the gluten free flours in the grocery store.

The other awesome thing is this sleeper: http://www.amazon.com/Fisher-Price-Newborn-Rock-Sleeper-Yellow/dp/B002M77N22

Aran LOVES it and he sleeps great in it! It keeps him up at a good angle so he doesn't spit up as soon as he lays down!

Bless his heart and yours too!  Ruby was a reflux baby and it's so unbelievably hard on all of us.  I can't imagine having to do it without medication although I can see where your pedi is coming from.  People used to tell us we were spoiling her because we basically never put her down but they just didn't understand what it's like when your baby has reflux.  She was a fountain of puke until she was a year old.

That newborn rocker was a LIFESAVER.  I recommend it to anyone and everyone who has a newborn, especially with reflux.  We had tried everything before we discovered that thing and nothing worked.  Once she was sleeping in her crib the thing we couldn't have done without was the AngelCare monitor.  We were too afraid of her choking to put her on her back so we had her sleep on her belly and I never would have been able to do it without the peace of mind that monitor gave us.  If you aren't familiar with it, check it out.

http://www.amazon.com/Angelcare-Movement-Sound-Monitor-Delux e/dp/B002ZB82CU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1344892329&sr=8-2&key words=angelcare+monitor

They also have a version with a camera now.  That would have been even better.

PS...I really wish I had known about Xantham gum back then.  We thickened with rice cereal but nothing slowed down the spitting up...we just had to live with it until she was 1.

Are you for real? does this realy work?  Elliot still spits up like 30 times a day, NOTHING helps, not even meds (the meds help with pain but not spitting) I am trying this ASAP!  glad little Aran is doing better.  I know what it's like to deal with a baby with constant medical issues, although not as bad as his.

 It makes a big difference for us! The recipe said to use 1tbsp of gel in 4oz for nectar consistency. I'm using. 1.5 tsp in 5oz. Start with a smaller amount and increase if you need to. It will give him weird gel-like poops!

 They have finally put him on Zantac for the discomfort!