Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Anyone deal with (silent) reflux in their breastfed baby?
I'm close to diagnosing the baby with silent reflux. I plan to take him to the doctor next week, but I'm trying to gain as much knowledge about this as possible before doing so because I'm pretty certain she's just going to push formula. (We were told she was a pretty "natural" pedi, but we're finding it not to be true. Anyway.)
Since birth, he's had a bit of apnea - just will stop breathing and then gasp (sometimes multiple times) for air. Originally, I assumed it was because he was still "learning" to breathe, but it hasn't seemed to get any better. He will do this many times while just starting to BF and sometimes just randomly.
For about a week, he would spew the contents of his stomach all over the place about once/day. It seems much better now, but sometimes, it sounds like something is coming up, but doesn't come out.
He's a restless sleeper and many times, especially during the day, will only sleep for 10-20 minutes at a time. He does better at night (2-3 hours/time), but is so restless between the times.
Many times during the day, he'll want to eat every hour. Actually, this is most days.
I know many of these "symptoms" sound like a normal newborn (he'll be 4 weeks this weekend), but when I put them all together, I'm wondering if it's not something more.
Sooooooooooo, if you've had experience with silent reflux, does it sound like it? If you were BFing, what was the solution for the reflux? Or, am I just overreacting?
Re: Anyone deal with (silent) reflux in their breastfed baby?
You don't mention that any of this is upsetting him. Is he crying fussy, or just doesn't sleep well?
thanks to jennied
Forgot to mention that: I consume hardly any dairy. I have creamer in my coffee everyday, but nothing really past that.
For the first week, he was THE most laid-back baby; I never even heard him cry. Nowadays, he only does sometimes, but it does seem to be out of nowhere, like he can go from zero to PO'd in .5 for, seemingly, "no reason." He is able to be calmed quickly, though, and there's definitely no real colic.
Is the problem that he's spitting up a lot? If so, try to hold him upright for 30-45 minutes post feed and see if that helps. The girls were FF, but even with Enfamil AR which thickens in the tummy specifically to keep food down instead of having it come right back up...they still would spit up.
Holding them upright for a bit let the digestion process start, and they were less likely to spew.
Eventually the barfing turned into just a little bit of stomach bile coming up at random. That is when I started the following:
I also rarely laid them flat. Not for diaper changes. Not for bedtime. I propped the crib mattresses and MacGuyver'ed a sleep position with velcro that would make them stick to the positioner instead of them sliding out (they always slept in halo sleep sacks).
Not sure if any of this is helpful.
H was on medicine for it.
It seemed like when I ate chocolate or drank caffeine it was even worse. I would start writing down your diet.
Yep, you knew where I was going with that. I had to look back on it but DS2 probably had colic. My pediatrician suggested reflux and even gave us meds, but he just didn't fit the symptoms. I just assumed I had a super crabby baby.
I hope you get it figured out soon!
thanks to jennied
B has it. Sounds just like J -- crying for no reason, eating every 60-90 minutes during the day (I was lucky to get 3 hrs at night), not spitting up ALL the time, but when he did, it obviously hurt.... and just obviously not happy. We tried tracking my food and couldn't find anything, and then one morning, he hadn't eaten in 2 hrs, and spewed curdled milk. We had an appt that day anyways and told pedi about it... she said between the frequency of nursing and the chunky spit up, she was sure it was silent reflux.
She had us try a low dose of Zantac (.5ml 2xday) at first -- it worked immediately! Over the next 2 weeks, we ended up adding a 3rd dose, and by the time he was 8 weeks, he was on 1ml 3xday. He still spits up, but it doesn't bother him as much. The only time he wants to eat more often than every 3 hrs is when he's going through a growth spurt. Oh, and he still gets hiccups (another common sign of reflux), but they don't bother him.
I think we're going to try weaning it down at 6 months.
Picture courtesy of Heidi Keene Photography
Here's an article that may help you with diagnosis:
http://www.coliccalm.com/baby_infant_newborn_articles/signs-of-reflux.html
Good luck!