How to recognize reflux

[Iggy]

http://www.infantreflux.org/signs_symptoms.htm

# Projectile vomiting
# Excessive spitting-up
# Screaming and/or crying during and after feedings
# Painful and excessive gas
# Arching of the back (my boys did this)
# Legs stay drawn up
# Inconsolable
# Hiccups frequently (my boys did this)
# Runny nose
# Bad breath
# Pulls away from bottle or breast while feeding and is obviously still hungry (my boys did this)
# No sleep or only short naps (my boys did this)
# Very tense during feeding with fists clenched tightly and legs drawn up
# Very irritable and easy to agitate
# Sudden screaming during sleep and wakes up frequently crying (my boys did this)
# Constantly hungry and still feeds even after being overfed (my boys did this)

My boys were on Zantac for several months. They got on it at 9 weeks old and it helped a lot. They started napping good after we got their reflux under control. We weaned them off Zantac at about 10 months old. It's nasty stuff, even with the flavoring added at the pharmacy it's still so strong they hate to take it.

Anyone else want to share your reflux advice/story?

[gypsymom]

Oh man, what a nightmare this was. :newmom L had that list pretty well covered. He would cry and cry and cry after feedings, :puke nonstop, projectile and all. He was what I call a "frantic eater", pulling off all the time, crying out, grabbing and clutching like he was drowning or something (still does this occasionally, but not as bad). This was every single feeding. I always felt so awful for him because after eating he was in so much pain. Night was the worst. He couldn't be consoled. My dad would walk in circles with him in his arms outstretched and bounce him. When my dad had to go home after 2 weeks, I would put him in the bouncy seat next to the bed and keep it on vibrate. I would hardly get any sleep at all. When we finally got him on Zantac he turned into a different kid. He went from being fussy almost all the time to being one of the happiest babies I've ever known. He went through a spell when he started to get bad again, but the doctor said it was because his dosage was too little for his weight. She increased it and he was fine. I recently (within the last two weeks) weened him off of it to see what would happen and he's been fine! I'm so relieved that he's off the meds and that his tummy is doing better without them. He still overeats and wakes up crying occasionally, but it's just because when he wants to eat, he wants it RIGHT NOW. That's pretty much the only thing he ever cries about. :hmm I hope this means he won't be picky later on. :lol

Anyway, like Iggy said, the Zantac is nasty and we learned lots of different ways to give it to him so that he'd keep it down. Eventually he took it willingly. It's weird, I think he knew it was helping him. Let me know if you need any tips.

[Lola Starr]

My girls had it bad in the beginning. They were on Pepcid, which is like Zantac, just stronger. You only get it twice a day vs three.

They slept in their infant seats for 2-3 months. No amount of crib elevation helped. :cry I had their seats in one crib & I put a blanket down inside. I covered them with the other part of the blanket so they were like burritos. It helped tremendously!

By 6 months they outgrew their reflux all together. However, if you suspect your babies have see the doctor! We also did cereal in the breastmilk starting at 4 months. I know, that's not desireable, but our doc recommended thickening the milk to help. Also, formula is much harder on reflux than breastmilk. My girls would reflux formula through their noses & it was so scary!!! They did so much better with breastmilk, another reason I pumped for so long.

[Iggy]

Yeah mine eventually got to taking their Zantac willingly too, gypsy. Strange boys :lol

[Iggy]

The only time my boys ever projetile vomited was when I had to add artificial milk powder to up the calories in my breastmilk. When I stopped adding that, they didn't vomit again. They were 13 weeks old by the time we started phasing in formula, and it took a while to find a good match for them. They ended up on soy, but now drink whole milk just fine. They never drank soy milk. But milk protein-based formula made their reflux act up :shrug

We tried cereal in the formula too, it didn't help mine. They seemed to improve a lot when they started solids at 6 months. They sure ate enough jar foods :roll

[Super Goo]

Mine had reflux too :twitch

[Pop Tart]

Around week 3-4, I noticed that India was aspirating breastmilk. It was coming out of her nose. I remember Ruby telling me about her girls' reflux problems and talked to the ped. He put the girls on Zantac for about a month, then we went to Pepcid because the Zantac wasn't working as well. They stopped spitting up as much, stopped the 6 hour inconsolable scream fest at night and were much happier babies.

They stopped taking the meds around 6 months and we haven't had a problem since. Reflux is evil, but the cure is a life saver.

[Lola Starr]

Tummy sleeping helps, too. There are alot of cons to tummy sleeping, but during the day when I was watch them sleep I let them tummy sleep because of relflux. Hence the reason they slept in carseats at night.

[Smidget]

thanks for creating this thread! i honestly didn't know about reflux until i talked to Tarto tonite...and i definately think my girls have it. im actually gonna call the dr tuesday to make an appt for it. they're actually SLEEPING WELL AT NIGHT as we speak b/c i propped up one end of their mattress...FINALLY!!! so i'll post more details tomorrow about what's going on with them, because mommy's gonna sleep tonite!!!

[Iggy]

Reflux is VERY common nowadays. My mom has several conspiracy theories about what causes it :para But a lot of babies get it. Once you've got it cleared up, it's amazing what a difference it makes.

[gypsymom]

I'd love to hear your mom's theories...

[UnFun]

When the twins were two days old, we were all released from the hospital. Lilli was struggling with her body temps but managed to keep it up long enough for the doc to sign her release orders. Within two hours of getting home, the twins were ready to feed. My usual routine was to nurse one twin while DH changed the other. That feeding I nursed Lilli first. DH was taking his time changing Payton, so instead of just laying Lilli down, I decided to hold her for a few minutes so I could watch her. As I was gazing at my baby girls face, I noticed something looked strange. She was very still and her skin was changing to a gray color. I pulled her closer to see if she was breathing, but I couldn't feel her breath. I layed her on the bed, all the while my panic was raising, and started trying to pull her clothes off to see her chest. It was still. Then I freaked out. I started thumping her on her back, massaging her tummy and screaming at DH to come make her breath!!!! He ran over (leaving Payton on the changing table) and grabbed Lilli from my arms. He checked her over and said, "We're going back to the hospital!" and headed out our bedroom door. Strangely enough, that calmed me. I was so relieved that he was going to take care of everything. Then he walked back in and said, "Nevermind! Call 911!!!" :faint

I. Just. About. DIED!

He said she did finally start to breath, but it was very shallow and she was still lathargic. Within minutes the medics arrived with full lights and sirens. I had about 6 firemen/medics in my bedroom checking Lilli out. They said they thought she was ok, but they would transport us to the hospital if we wanted her to be seen by a doc. Thank GOD we said "yes" because on the way to the hospital, she stopped breathing twice! One of those times she needed the medic to stimulate her to get her breathing again. It was also good that it happened while he was observing her because he was able to document my "story". Apparently, unless these episodes are witnessed by a medical professional, they are very skeptical about believing the parents. :roll

Anyway, this whole story is to tell you why Lilli stopped breathing. Turns out she had what they called "silent reflux". She did not have all the traditional symptoms of reflux, but what she did have, overwhelmed her little preemie body. She was already struggling to keep her temps up so when the milk started coming back up, she was just too worn out to remember to breathe. Lilli ended up being in the NICU for a total of 12 days. They would not release her until she had five full days of no apnea episodes. Once released she was prescribed some medication that caused her to be "stiff"... she wasnt' a very cuddly baby while on those meds, and they put her on a apnea moniter.

We were very lucky that she never had anymore major issues once they were finally able to diagnos what caused my baby girl to stop breathing.

[gypsymom]

OMG that is one of the scariest things I've ever heard. I'm so glad that she's okay now.

[Baby Whisperer]

Im so glad you guys are so full of knowledge. Now all my girls can get some sleep.:crossed

[UnFun]

OMG that is one of the scariest things I've ever heard. I'm so glad that she's okay now.
I don't really share that story much because I sometimes still feel the panic I felt that night. It was really horrific.

[gypsymom]

I don't really share that story much because I sometimes still feel the panic I felt that night. It was really horrific.

Thank you for sharing. Maybe your story will help out someone else...

[Smidget]

OMG fun dee, that's so scary! thank you so much for sharing. i can understand why you don't too often...im glad everything worked out the way it did and she's ok now.

[zak frost]

Beak had reflux, but the doc didn't do anything about it. Part of the problem was that he kept gaining (he was in 12 mos clothes by the time he was 3 mos old). I also overproduce milk and I was overfeeding him. He cried the first six months from reflux/colic.

[Jennifer]

Ugh, I was just reading through some of the posts about reflux and it made me sick to my stomach remembering the drama we went through. We have two refluxers. One of our twins and our oldest daughter were both diagnosed with reflux (actually GERD which is the more severe form) as infants. I have a degree in nutrition so it helped us catch our first daughter's reflux pretty fast. She also had problems maintaining her temp and severe jaundice in the early weeks. It seems like a lot of those problems tend to go together, or it may be that they are all "problems of prematurity" as our pedi suggested. Anyway, she nearly starved to death and was labled "failure to thrive" before the doctors got more agressive and put her on meds and a high calorie premie formula. She did a lot better and soon became our "chunky monkey". It was hard though b/c we were very protective of her health and a lot of people just "didn't get it". They accused us of "overdoctoring" her and would get angry when we wouldn't let ten tons of people visit her during cold/flu season. Now at four she is (as you can tell from the pic below) happy and healthy and off of all meds for reflux.

When we had the twins the last thing that I was thinking about was reflux. I guess I was so worried that we would have TWO babies to take care of that the problems we had had with our first child slipped my (not working correctly anyway) mind. That is until the nightly scream fests and puking began with one of our twins Ella. E was showing the same symptoms as our first child and stopped gaining weght as quickly as she should have been. This was even more disturbing since, being a twin, she was small to begin with. The dr immediately put her on zantac and a higher calorie hypoallergenic formula. Her weight began to stabilize and we began to relax.

For the first time we left all three girls with (two) sitters. We wouldn't have but we had to go plan the memorial service for my husband's grandmother. While we were at the funeral home we got a call that E had stopped breathing and was being taken by ambulence to the ER. She had puked and aspirated on the vomit. Her eyes had rolled back in her head, she stopped breathing and started loosing color in her face. The baby sitter had her breathing by the time the EMT's got there and when we got to the hospital she was just fine and enjoying all of the attention. (She even smiled at me as if to say, "Hi mommy, how's it going?"). I was, of course, a nervous wreck and sobbing and looking like a complete basket case. I think the DR's were more worried about me than the baby. LOL. But seriously... my kid stopped breathing??? And I am still totally out-of-whack in the hormone department to top it off. I thought I was going to loose my mind right there.

We got to take her home and were told to get some sleep. (Are they serious?). I put E's crib right next to my head and watched her sleep for about a week... each night I was too scared to shut my eyes thinking she would stop breathing. We finally got her in to see the doctor and he put her on another medicine to empty her tummy faster and help keep her from aspirating. She did a lot better but it was at least a month before I could sleep without my head right by hers and she was six months before I let them sleep in a seperate room from me! You do what you've gotta do, I guess.

We still had problems with E, like we had with our older child, and getting sick. She seemed to get and stay sick so much more frequently. We also learned that both babies have reactive airway disease (what they call asthma in babies before the age of two years old) so that added to the worry each time they got sick. Again, people just don't get it. I wouldn't wish a sick child (any kind of sick; cold even) on anyone but I've always wished people would learn compassion at least! It is hard to be so vigilant about your child's health and especially when you have three children to take care of... but their health comes before someone's hurt feelings. Trust me, a lot of people didn't understand that!

Now at 18 months we were told that the medicine that E was taking to empty her tummy has to be tapered off. Apparently she should not have been on the medicine for longer than 12 weeks and she was on it for over a year!!! The medicine was causing neurological side effects and contributing to her inability to walk. Now that we have her phased off the meds she is doing somewhat better with regard to walking but we are still in for a long road of PT and perhaps (unrelated to the meds) orthopedic visits. We think that everything is just a matter of giving her the time to "catch up" to where she should be and that the PT will help her do that faster. There shouldn't be any long term side effects from the tummy med.

E is still on Zantac and does puke sometimes but knows (as an older baby) how to get it out of her throat and mouth and has not aspirated recently. I told you all this to say that I am well aware of how horrible reflux can be and would love to offer support to any of you other mommies dealing with it. I am also a volunteer for PAGER (Pediatric Adolescent Gastroesophageal Reflux Association) and work with parents and their feeding issues etc. PAGER has a website http://www.reflux.org that you can check out if you'd like to. They have a lot of info on reflux and the symptoms/treatments. There is also a message board to chat with other moms and us volunteers. I would also warn you that a lot of the moms on the message boards have kids with severe GERD along with other problems so don't let yourself get overwhelmed. Most kids with reflux outgrow it fairly quickly.

Thank you all for sharing your stories... especially the one about the baby that stopped breathing. It is so close to our story with Ella that it is scary. It is sometimes hard to get people to take GERD seriously since it is such a different disease in adults than it is in infants. It is nice to know you are all getting the message out as well! God bless you and your babies.

-Jen and the girls

[JudieDJ]

WOW, this has been one of the best threads I* have ever read.

My oldest daughter was diagonised with Colic. Basicly, all they did was put her on a soy formula and send us on our way with a great big "good luck, it will get better". My second daughter had to stay a few extra days in the hospital for what they called "reflux", I had no idea what they ment, and her symptoms were a little different then the older daughter. Hers cleared up quickly and we had no trouble.

With one of the twins, we had (and still do) many of the problems listed in the first post. At one point, the doc had them taking a bottle mixed with cereal. They released them from the hospital after 10 days in regular nursery. They put them on Neosure (FREAKING EXPENSIVE) after I told them that my second daughter had reflux when she was born. They gave me no perscription and no further instrutions.

Frankly, one of my twins is ALWAYS spitting up. Ill feed him 6 oz and he gives me back 3. No matter how much I burp him. They are going for their 4 month apt on Sat, and I think I am going to print out the first post.......show him and see what he thinks.....

[YoMomma]

UGH...how I hated that crap!:rant
Mine were super bad...screamed their bloody heads off, spit up (many times across the room, quite amusing for party guests), arching backs...you name it!
They got put on Zantac, and while that didn't help the spitting up (as my dr. said, the spit up is worse for the parents!), it stopped the screaming.
They became happy spitters. It didn't bother them.:teehee
We went through tons of outfits, bibs and burp cloths in one day. My dog would lick the puke off the hardwood floor TMI!
UGH...started to wean them off the meds around 11 months, and introduce whole milk. No more puking here!:clap

[Smidget]

:yeah

D. still spits up, but it doesn't wake her up/hurt her like it used to. she actually spits up and then gives me a huge grin. i think she thinks its funny :shrug

A just doesn't spit at all anymore...it's pretty nice!

definately ask your dr. there's no reason why you can't try and see...that's what my dr. did. he said he didn't believe in it, but here's a script to try it and sure enough, it worked! ask for it specifically if they don't offer it. tell them you want to try it for the boys.

[twinmommylife]

wow! my guys have it too!!! theyre on zantac!! it helped tremendously for about a week but now theyre back to the same thing again!!! u think they need something stronger?

[SEEK]

The twins were on Zantac for a while, then had to be switched to Prevacid. It never seemed to help the amount of spit up... but definitely helped to make them more comfortable, thereby helping their little dispositions :lol

[JoaNNy]

omg.. I think my babies have reflux. I never really thought of it but reading this post has definitely made me consider it.. they almost have all the symptoms described!! I'm def. going to be telling this to their doctor at their next appt in 2 weeks.

[Blended]

Is this something that starts right away or can it develop later?? My boys just started puking more the last couple of days.

[LizzardFace GizzardBreath]

Sydneys started at 5 weeks I think. She was projectile vomiting and eating like a maniac at night. My doc. told me to give her over the counter Mylanta. It is working a little

[Blended]

Ok I finally read the symptoms in this thread and they have every single one of them!!! I'm calling the Dr tomorrow!

[LizzardFace GizzardBreath]

Ok I finally read the symptoms in this thread and they have every single one of them!!! I'm calling the Dr tomorrow!

I am so sorry! It sucks. I hope they put your kiddos on something good like Prevacid. Mylanta and Axid did not help Sydney at all :comfort

[JoaNNy]

The doctor gave my babies Axid and I think it's working out very good... also I wouldn't wanna give them something super strong either :shrug so I'm happy with the results. Since they've started taking it she's only thrown up twice and him never again and the spitting up has gotten way better, they still do it but not as often.

[Blended]

So i got them their meds today!! How long did it take for you to see a difference. I gave them one dose before there evening feeding and I had no problems with and they went to sleep without to much fuss. I'm hoping that this will make our life a lot easier :fingerscrossed