2 Month Old with Possible GERD

Read "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Marc Weissbluth it has some really good insights on fusy/colicy babies and ways to soothe them.

Ahhhh...memories. My first baby had severe GERD and was very, very unhappy for much of his early days. I can relate to what you are saying. Everyone seems to have happy or "typically" fussy babies and here you are with a screamin' guy. Once my son was medicated, he was happier, but still not completely mellow. Keep in mind that he did have other medical issues that probably added to this. Hang in there and be open to some possible medical interventions (oral meds). It should make a difference! FYI, my son is now 14, pushing 15 and is a regular teenager! My best!

My son had really bad acid reflux and colic. I gave him some grip water with every feeding. That seemed to calm things down some. He would still have the reflux but it seemed to calm his tummy aches. Good luck.

You don't say if you are breastfeeding or not. This could and probably has to do with food allergies. If nursing, then start with dairy, soy, eggs and remove any and all things related to them (casein, egg whites, albumin). If formula, look into the www.neocate.com formula.

Another thing to make sure that you are well informed on is vaccines. You do not need to follow the AAP guidelines of too many, too soon. With an infant who is having problems already, you are best to wait until you get the digestive issues taken care of before assaulting the immune system too. Too many ways to mess up a perfect little baby. On the TACA website, you will find more information regarding the digestive / GERD issues and suggestions on what works and doctors who treat it.

Here are sites and books that I always recommend for people to start their research:

www.909shot.com
www.tacanow.org
www.generationrescue.com

Healing the New Childhood Epidemics: Autism, ADHD, Asthma, and Allergies: The Groundbreaking Program for the 4-A Disorders, by Dr. Kenneth Bock
The Vaccine Book, by Dr. Robert Sears
What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Childhood Vaccinations, by Dr. Stephanie Cave
Evidence of Harm, by David Kirby

My little girl was diagnosed with severe acid reflux when she was about 3 months old- she would not sleep, would cry for hours, and what finally made us think it was more than colic was when she would turn blue around her mouth. She rarely ever spit up, but our dr sent her in for an upper GI- and that confirmed it. We also have a family history of acid reflux. She has been on medication now for 3 months and she is a totally different baby!!!! She sleeps in her crib, hardly ever cries, and is generally a happy baby- a total turn around from 3 months ago! Good luck with your appointment!

I would suggest a couple of things. One thing to keep in mind is that many pedi's say a baby has GERD without any testing for it, when more often than not it is colic (very commonly mistaken for each other). Unless your doctor has said that your son has GERD for certain, I would employ the techniques in the book "The Happiest Baby On The Block". Our pedi said our son had gas and GERD, and he really had neither, but rather had colic. We used the methods in the book and they worked wonders to make him happy. Colic usually goes away by 3-4 months, and we started using the techniques at about 6 weeks, and the colic went away when he was about 3.5 months. Trust me it was worth doing for that short time.

The book is available at any library. But basically you swaddle, turn them on their side, swing (or rock or bounce) your baby, give them a pacifier, and shhh them, or play any other white noise such as a TV on the fuzzy station (snow) or heartbeat sounds or ocean noises or rain. Those worked the best. Anyway, our son was the same way and he hardly got any sleep because he was so unhappy. Then we started doing all of this to put him to sleep and he began to sleep 8-9 hours at a time at night! We even did it for naps and it worked wonders.

Best wishes to you. Check with your doc about the GERD first and make sure it is not colic. Have a great day. =)

Try sitting her up in a carseat or bouncey seat after feedings. there are meds they can give but if this helps keep the acid down it will stop the burning and that will help.

Have you tried the Mylicon Gas drops? Maybe he's gassy. My little guy was. And stretching him out can help move the gas through his intestines. Also, if he's on formula you may need to switch to a different type. Like someone mentioned below he could be allergic to something he's consuming - even breastmilk. You can pass stuff to him through your milk. Best of luck. I know it's terrible to have a fussy baby. Oh - and my little guy LOVED the pacifier. Said I wouldn't do it. But I swear, it soothed him like nothing else. And I had no problems getting him off the paci.

Hi P.,

So sorry to hear about the pain you and your baby are in! I know how tough it is! My second boy had reflux when he was your son's age, too, but my pediatrician just passed it off as colic (which I have learned tons of pedis do since most have not been trained in or taught much about reflux). My baby hardly slept, sometimes only a few hours in a 24 hour period, and he could not stay asleep long lying down. He would scream out in pain often and practically nothing would help him calm down. I had to diagnose him myself, at nine to ten months, after reading a book called Colic Solved (I forget the author, but his last name starts with a V and he is a GI specialist). Then I had to INSIST that my doctor give me a referral to see a GI because he still didn't think my son had reflux! Hmmph! Anyway, even though the book is titled "colic", it's really all about reflux. It's worth checking it out at your library or even buying it if your baby has the symptoms listed (there are around 6 or 8, not some mega long list from which everyone can identify!). It will help you through your reflux journey and understand what's going on at different stages or degrees of reflux.

You will likely start with a prescription like Zantac, which is an oral syrup. It has a strong, minty taste, and lots of babies do not like it, but your doctor will give you tips on how to administer it. You can also try flavoring it at the pharmacy, but it will only help a little. You have to try this first because it is less expensive than the one that really works for lots of people--Prevacid (go to Prevacid.com for a money saving card if you need to get it). Prevacid is expensive for insurance companies and they will want you to try Zantac first in order to even agree to pay for any Prevacid. It's much easier to give, though. You can even break the strawberry-flavored pill in half with your fingers and give it just by itself to your baby. The other thing with Prevacid is that lots of doctors only give it to older babies, around a year, so it depends on what your specialist says. The people at CHOC have been WONDERFUL if that's where you are going.

For now, just try to feed your baby 30-60 minutes before putting him to sleep, and try elevating his mattress at the head by sticking a book or something under the mattress pad. Anything stressful, such as crying or teething later on, will aggravate the reflux. It's a rough road, but it's great that you are getting help early. I wish I had help from a GI at two months! My life would have been and would be much easier now if I had. I'm trying to get my now 15-month-old to sleep through the night--we caught it too late and he already had formed his poor sleep habits. I do not believe in CIO (crying it out) and am not going to let anyone tell me otherwise. People do what they feel is right for them, so don't let others convince you to do anything you don't feel comfortable about! Plus, CIO will only aggravate reflux, esp if it is not under control.

I hope this helps you for now. It definitely sounds like your little one has reflux. I wish you and your baby lots of luck and peaceful sleep soon. Feel free to email me if you have any more questions.

Big hugs,
Y. :-)

Get a sling and wear him everywhere. It will keep him calmer and he will like the feeling of a semi-return to the womb. Being against your body when you move will help gently remove his air bubbles. I liked using orthodontic, silicone pacifiers too. Don't get hung up on worrying about future problems like addiction to a pacifier. Find something that calms you and your baby now. He needs to learn to trust you to take care of his needs, and you need to grow confident with your ability to do so as well. Carry him when he is sleeping too, so he can trust falling asleep and not feel that you are going to ditch him and put him down. I also recommend co-sleeping. One last thing, and that is burping. I had a baby nurse show me that my daughter needed to burp twice after each feeding. Some babies just swallow more air. It took patience to get that second burp, but was well worth it. Best of luck. Sending you loving thoughts and support.

Try out Hyland's Hompeopathic Colic tablets. They carry them at most pharmacies. Hope this helps!

We went through this with our first child, who is now 11! He was literally crying 24/7 unless he was nursing or asleep (which he would barely sleep because he was so uncomfortable). This was before the days of docs putting kids on Zantac. I thought I was going to go crazy, I was so tired, and so worried about the baby.
After much hesistancy (and me having tried a total elimination diet because I was nursing, and that did NOT help him at all), we gave him mylicon (baby Gas-X)after each feeding, and it cut his crying in half almost immediately! That, and we discovered he would sleep so much better upright in his car seat. The reflux was relieved and he felt snug. He slept in his car seat until about 3-4 months old, and then one day just decided he wanted to stretch out and sleep in his crib. Everything has been fine ever since. I hope you find some help for your situation.

Hi P.,

My baby was very colicky and a "happy spitter". I eliminated a lot of foods I was eating (if you are breastfeeding): milk, soy, chocolate, peanut butter, beans and other gassy veg like broccoli, eggs. There is a cookbook out there -- google this: The Calm Baby Cookbook -- that you might find helpful.

I also got a Tucker Sling with Wedge to help her sleep elevated. I was going to sell mine (very good shape) if you are interested. You can also google that to find out more (they are expensive new!!).

But most importantly know that it will pass!! My little girl is doing great now and I can eat whatever I want. Of course teething is another matter... ;-)

Oh, I remember it well. My son had issues with reflux and Zantac seemed to help, but not completely. Raising one end of his mattress did absolutely nothing. What did help him sleep (at our pediatrician's recommendation) was lowering his crib mattress as low as it would go and letting him sleep in his bouncer in there. It kept him more upright, plus we bought an extra set of rechargable batteries and we would switch them out each night so he had the benefit of the vibration as well. Three months was the turning point for us; I think their little digestive systems need a bit of time to mature (mine was a month preemie, too). It was like a switch was thrown and he suddenly was way less fussy. My son was off the Zantac at 6 months, eats any and everything I put in front of him, and sleeps through the night (though he was around 9 months before that happened). Hang in there, it's bound to get better!

I too had a very colicky baby and it took us 6 months to realize that it was severe GERD. She was a silent spitter in the first few months, so we thought it was dairy allergies or colic. We listened to the advice of our Pediatrician who said that GI specialist are too busy to deal with babies with Reflux. But after 6 months of suffering and sleepless nights for both of us, we finally met with a fantastic GI specialist who ran some tests and prescribed her prevacid. 2 weeks after starting the medication, she was a different baby. Now that she is a year old, if we miss even one day of her prevacid dose, she goes back to screaming fits and coughing, gagging and throwing up (it used to be spit up, but now she is on solid foods). Knowing what I know now...looking back, I should have trusted my instinct as a mom that something was really not right and made the appointment much sooner to save my DD from having to suffer all those months.

P.,

Are you nursing or formula feeding? My son was like yours - miserable, uncomfortable, crying, never sleeping. I was nursing and did an elimination diet (dairy, soy, eggs, caffeine, chocolate, fish, shellfish, nuts, peanuts, citrus and tomatoes). Within a week he was noticably better and by the end of 3 weeks he was an entirely new, happy child. I was then able to add everything back into my diet except dairy, soy and eggs (I was able to add eggs back when he was close to 1). He's 2 years old now (and weaned) but he's still very allergic to both dairy and soy. If your baby is formula fed, you should check out hypoallergenic formulas. Similac Alimentum is the "1st" level of hypoallergenic (nothing is truely non-allergenic but some things are more or less allergenic). If that doesn't work, Elecare or Neocate is "more" hypoallergenic. It takes dairy close to a month to leave your system entirely. If you are nursing you do an elimination diet, you'll need to make sure you are reading the labels on everything you eat. Dairy and soy are hidden in many other foods.

Is an elimination diet a pain? It is hard to start but not all that hard to maintain - after you figure out what you can eat. Is it way better than having a miserable baby? Oh, yes.

My son was on Zantac and then we went to Prevacid, we also did gas drops and tried gripe water, chamomile tea and all that but nothing really helped until we identified the foods that were bothering him and eliminated them. After about a month of me being on the elimination diet we were able to half his dose of prevacid and after a couple of months (for his GI tract to heal) we were able to eliminate the medication entirely.

I found that doctors - including our pediatric GI doctor - were clueless (or disbelieving) about food allergies in babies (much less the idea that food proteins could cause problems in a breastfed baby) but moms who have been there and done that believe.

Good luck!
T.

Hello P.,
I know what you are going through... You should take a look at this website on reflux on Parent-2-Parent:
http://parent-2-parent.com/forum/index.php
You'll see that GERD is a lot more common than you think! Also, it WILL pass... the reflux is just a horrible circumstance, but that does not mean your baby is not normal nor happy!
Maria

Oh do I feel for you! And let me say it does get better.
My son had really bad acid reflux as a newborn, was cranky he had it so bad he would stop breathing and therefore came home hooked up to a monitor. Here's a few things we tried, Soy based formula, don't remember what it was called but Emfamil in the green can. I put him to bed on his stomach, I know this is not the "recommended" method but it was to force extra air out while he slept. This seemed to help, he grew out of the colic as soon as he could roll himself around. As I'm remembering it I also had to bounce him around and burp him a bit harder than his twin brother.
He's 8 years now, and no troubles...so it does get better.
:)
L.

I'm so sorry for what you're going through. Gerd and/or allergies make for VERY trying times. Rest assured you are not alone. My daughter was a preemie diagnosed with gerd. She received pumped breast milk exclusively until the Dr. prescribed a high calorie diet and we had to switch her to a combination of breastmilk/high cal formula. Her ped. had personal experience with gerd and allergies and we were able to rule out allergies by the time she was 3 mos. She was prescribed zantac and took that until she was a year (basically when she was upright more than horizontal). She slept in her papasain chair until she was 10 mos old (set in her crib). Keeping her upright certainly helped. Also, smaller feedings. Solids also helped, but not until she was older (thickened formula didn't help). Unfortunately, she developed a negative response to food - Food = pain. It took a few months for her to really want to eat after we discovered the gerd. Hang in there! There is a lot of good advice from the ladies here!

Hi P.,

Please google: Chiropractic and reflux in infants......the chiropractor my son sees treats many infants for this and usually within a few visits the problems is resolved.

He can explain it much better than I can, but during the birth process the nervous system can become upset.....within a few treatments, everythings gets back in alignment and the nervous system calms down.

I'm not sure where you live, but you should be able to find someone who treats infants. I'd be happy to put you in touch with my chiropractor.

Best wishes!

gerd is a possibility, but having just recently gone through this check with the doctor about a milk allergy. especially if your family has a history of this. i know its hard....just stick to your guns, you as a mother knows what a very unhappy baby is, the doctors like to believe we are exagerating....if they prescribe medication for gerd and it dosent get better in two days go back untill it is settled, good luck.

I know EXACTLY what you are going through! We went through the same thing with our first son, who is now 4yrs. old. I spent soooo many days/nights crying because nothing seemed to help. We went to see a specialist-Dr. Malphus in Santa Monica, who is great! Our son was on Zantac and then previcid for a while.
I must say that to this day my son is a picky eater and eats in small amounts all day long but for the most part the reflux is pretty much gone.
Emotionally it takes a huge toll-I get that! E-mail me directly if you need to talk, otherwise, hang in there and good luck to you and your family!
L.

Are you breast feeding? If so I would look to your diet. My cousin had these problems and it turned out to be a soy allergy. They though it was gluten at first and cutting it out helped but only because in doing this they also unknowingly cut out a lot of soy in the process.
You can start with dairy and go from there also try having him sleep in the positioner co-sleeper thing that comes with a wedge. This helped my baby a lot in the beginning as she would scream from what seemed to be gas at bed time. In the beginning babies have immature digestive tracts and until the two month mark or so they are really fussy when it comes to food. Make sure you are getting lots of burps as thie also helps.
Good luck.
T.

Take him to a good chiropractor.

Colic Calm is Homeopathic Blend of Chamomile, Fennel, Caraway, Peppermint, Ginger, Aloe, Lemon Balm, Blackthorn and Vegetable Charcoal. Your child is reacting only to ONE of this. See professional Classical homeopath to determine which one. Then there will be no need for any medical treatment. Make sure you see classical homeopath – one remedy at a time prescribed based on detailed interview, never over the phone and never on the 15 min “evaluation”
Good Luck
V

Oh my dear- do I ever know first-hand what you are going through. I would say that the first year of life with our first son was a little like walking through a kind of nightmarish hell. And hope must spring eternal, because when I got pregnant again I thought the same thing COULD NOT happen twice. Well- our second son was born 2 weeks ago and he has the exact same thing. Here are all of the things that I can think of to share with you that we learned from the first time.
1. Elevate his head- always- especially during and after a feed- for 30-40 minutes.
2. Learn how to do a good swaddle- and do it often.
3. Get an exercise ball and hold him on his left side facing you and do a gentle bounce- sometimes we are "on the ball" for 6-8 hours a day.
4. If your are breastfeeding- eat oatmeal for breakfast as often as you can tolerate it- for some reason it makes very good breast milk and was always my re-set food when the GERD got really bad.
5. This is a hard one: take all dairy, butter, yogurt and hidden forms of dairy in processed meats, etc out of your diet. I can send you a list of foods if you email me. You will probably see a difference in about 5 days. Although it wasn't a magic bullet for us, it was a component in making our lives more sane.
6. GET HELP- even 1-2 hours a day to walk away from the situation will help. Believe me- I tried to tough it out myself the first time and I remember getting close to feeling like I was going to have a nervous breakdown. I am a very feeling person and watching my baby suffer after every feed for hours and the lack of sleep was killing me.
7. Do see a specialist. He or she will probably suggest Zantac to try. It helped us- although again was not a magic bullet- just kept the crying from escalating to the absolute desperate panic cry that he had had before. We saw a Ped GE this time right away- his suggestions? Everything we already knew, but he added that a glass of red wine every night for Mama would not hurt baby and would help me :).
8. Prepare for the long haul. I know that this is hard to imagine, but most children outgrow this at about the time they learn to walk. It is bittersweet to look at your child and think how sweet it is to have this little baby, but to simultaneously wish for the year to pass as quickly as possible.
9. Hire a photographer to take some pictures of your baby. We realized that because our little guy was crying 24/7 we had no time for pictures and now we have so few photos of him in his early days. Although we are in the same boat now, I don't want to make the same mistake.
10. Try a bunch of different swings, motion things- the ball was the only thing that worked for us, but a friend said a swing worked for her.
11. Try a recording of a heartbeat- it seemed to help our little guy stay calmer.
12. This is very stressful on a new family so if you can get therapy together do it. We had no time for it, but there was part of me that got "shell-shocked" by the experience and I think it is pretty common. Dr. Sears, I believe mentions that a hurting baby can cause a "hurting family".

Hang in there and email me anytime- I will be going through the same thing along with you. I'll send you some good thoughts while I am on the ball at all hours of the night. I feel for you- but remember that in time he will outgrow it.

S.

PS- added later- forgot to mention two things- ear plugs- This might sound awful, but when you are doing everything you can to help your little one and he is still screaming, using ear plugs can help you not get as rattled by the experience and helped me keep my stamina up during those especially long periods of crying. We are even considering getting some for our toddler who is also feeling the stress of the baby's crying.

Taking enzymes. I can't prove this worked, but my acupuncturist mentioned it and I am starting to try this- he said that the issue is often a food that the mother's system is not fully digesting- which ends up in the breast milk. He said that enzymes could help my body break those foods down and may help a great deal. I think it's worth a try- and I will let you know if I see an improvement.

Hi P.
Hang in there!! I know exactly what you feel like. This was my same experience with my son who is now 11 months old.
Have you thought about allergies?

I took him to an allergist because after removing cows milk, chocolate, soy, etc from my diet he still had a very hard time. He was on Zantac - didnt work, he was then put on Previcad and that is when I said enough because I didnt want this little tiny being on adult meds!

After allergy testing, scratch test on his back, we found out he has an allergy to tomatoes (which includes everything under the botanical family of the deadly nightshades - potatoes, bell peppers etc). He was also allergic to brewers yeast.

I cut out all the offending foods from my diet and after about 1 week of cutting out the final item he did a complete 180! He stopped crying, he stopped throwing up, stopped arching his back. He was a new baby!

My son who is now just over 2 years had very bad acid reflux. It took about 2 months to diagnose. He was miserable. He would cry and cry after nursing. He was not constantly miserable, but the good times were very short and infrequent. I was hesitant to put him on medication so young, but am really glad we did. It took only about a week or so and he was so much better. We finished the medication after one month. He was so much happier and feeding him was no longer such a stressful time for him or us.

When my son was an infant he was diagnosed with GERD and was put on all the medications to treat it. There was some relief, but it took time more than anything for the crying to cease and the spit up improve (about 6 months). 3-years later my infant daughter was miserable and cried all the time. She didn't spit up like my son, but she was more miserable than he was. We determined that she was allergic to cow protein (found in cows milk and dairy). Once I eliminated all cow dairy (milk, yogurt, cheese, etc.) out of my diet (as I was nursing), our lives were peaceful and wonderful. My daughter eventually outgrew her allergy and I now wonder if that was my son's issue also. We'll never know, but you may want to try eliminating cow dairy as a first step.

Hi there,
I can relate to every word! It was heartbreaking. I was first told to stop breastfeeding and try Alimentum formula (by doctor). That didn't work and was then told to put rice cereal in the bottles which helped immensely. A few years later I was finally referred to a specialist with my second daughter with similar issues and the specialist told me that it was too bad I had stopped nursing because I could have taken a digestive enzyme that would have come through my breast milk and taken care of the problem. Both my children lacked an enzyme to break down the milk protein. Hang in there and best of luck.

Hi P.,

Both of my girls had it. It was a horrible thing when you weren't sure what the heck was causing it. My doctor told me to change my diet, first, to see if any of the foods were helping cause the problem. Nope, that definitely wasn't it. So, at 2 months we put her on Baby Zantac. Pretty nasty tasting stuff. However, within a few weeks...it isn't overnight...it worked. My first daughter also had an undeveloped spincter muscle...hope I am spelling that right. If we gave her the slightest tip, out it would all come. Both girls slept in the swing and the bouncy seat for another month because it seemed to help keep the acid in and not creep up as much. Both girls we took off at about 4 months and then put them right back on. They were still having the problem. So, then at 6 months, off they came from the zantac and they were absolutely fine. I would highly recommend getting the prescription. You squeeze it into the back of the babies throat. I would do it first thing before feeding because otherwise the baby was more inclined to spit or cough it since it isn't very favorful, but your baby will definitely be happier. Also, I had "colic" when I was a baby. But I actually think it was bad acid reflux. I pretty much drove my mom insane. And since it is hereditary, I kind of figured out that it would make sense that is what I had and not colic. I'm really sorry that you are going through this. I was pretty miserable until we figured it out. No one should have to go through it. The good news is, if you have a second baby, you can push for it because your first child has it. Saves your sanity! Both my girls are now 6 and 3 yrs. Both are bright and beautiful! Play "baby mozart" a lot in the swing for him. He will really like that too! Very soothing!

Are you breastfeeding? If so stop consuming all dairy products. Dairy is difficult to digest and can cause intestinal bleeding and acid reflux.
D. Merlin
Mother/author
www.victoryoveradhd.com

My middle child was just like that- a major grump. It took me longer than 2 mos to figure out his projectile spit up might be causing pain. I was in denial. When he did see a specialist they took xrays and I don't remember what he was prescribed. but, it was such a great change. he was finally a pleasure to be around. He is now 5, and he can still be a grump.... he was on the med until he was 2.5. Most kids grow out of it by 1.

good luck

Hi P.
I have known a lot of moms who have baby's with GERD. I am sure your Dr. has told you to angle your baby's crib mattress. many times as much as a 45 degree angle. A tool out there to help with this is the 'Guardian Sleeper' this allows angling of at least 45 degrees and your baby will stay put helping to relieve some of the discomforts of reflux. He will also feel as though he is being held and many moms find that there baby's sleep for longer periods at a time. Check out www.guardiansleeper.com the site has lots of great information about reflux.
Good luck
Austin's mom