Need Help~Question About Enfamil A.R. Formula, Bottles and Possible Acid Reflux

use a knife and make the holes in the nipples bigger. That is what I had to do when I switched to the AR. Beware with AR it makes it very difficult for my 12 week old son to poop as his digestive track wasn't ready for the added rice. Good luck

You might want to see if your ped will do an u/s on her tummy. It sounds a lot like my sons' case of pyloric stenosis. The muscle between the intestines and stomach is too thick for food to pass through (they end up spitting up 90% of what they feed). My son was rx @ 3 weeks b/c i knew something was wrong but sometimes people dont find out til 3 weeks. good luck and I hope that you find the right answer (i too tried to switch to the ar and it worked for a couple of days but had the same issues)

Some moms do a little cereal in the bottle to thicken it up. With the AR, you might not need that. I also find that mixing it first in another container helps.

2 of my daughters were spitters. One was projectile vomiting. The first was so many years ago they didn't know anything about acid reflux to speak of and had mentioned surgery if she didn't gain wait. She still gained weight and it took at least a year for her to grow out of it.

The last daughter came a long at a time when there was at least many choices with formula. I tried everything on the market and I did not wait for doctors approval. Maybe that is one good thing about being an older mom. I realize that the doctors don't know everything and I can't afford to pay a co-pay every time I want to try something.

With my youngest I had to stop formula all together by the time she was 6 months old. Fortunately by then, I had her on a lot of foods. We finally settled on vitamite which is a soy drink. She's happy and healthy today and if she is soy intolerant, it's not unmanageable. She still gets diarrhea easy. But she doesn't feel too sick with it and we don't really see it only with milk.

Suzi

When the hole in the nipple was to small, I would heat up a needle on the stove, and poke a new hole or if necessary 2 or 3 more what ever was needed to get the milk out better. You have to hold the needle with some pliers to heat it up hot enough to melt through the nipple. hope this helps you.

Hi L., first of all, CONGRTULATIONS on the baby!!! My son has reflux. He would spit up 3 to 5 times per feeding and then every time we laid him down to sleep, for weeks he only slept in his swing or in our arms. We tried the Enfamil AR, we were unabe to use it only because of the nipples we have to use(our son was born with bilateral cleft lip and palatte so we use a special nipple). I would be super careful about taking so long to feed her. We were told by the doctors at Childrens Mercy Hospital not to feed for longer than 30 minutes because after that they are burning more calories than they are taking in. Also, our doctors and surgeon told us not to use soy unless it was absolutely nessecary beause the soy does not have the proper makeup for good bone growth and development. I would deffinetly try talking to your doctor and see what is recommended. Have you tried feeding her in different positions? Or having her sleep on her side or with the head of the bed raised up? Good luck!!!

Hi L.-we ran into the same problem with our twin girls. We used the Enfamil AR formula and we used the Platex drop in bottles. We actually ended up using a straight pin to widen the nipple on the slow nipple (just a little bit). The problem is that since there is cereal mixed into the formula the formula is a lot thicker, eventually she will get used to the thickness of the formula and it will not take her as long to eat. Make sure that you are burping her after every ounce, (I'm sure that your pediatrician went over this with you already) and make sure that you are holding her at a 45° angle when you are feeding her. Keep her upright for at least 30 minutes after feeding her (during the day at least).
You can always try the soy formula but they do not make an AR version of the soy formula. It will get a lot easier once she is started on baby food in a couple of months. Good luck until then and I hope this helps.

Thanks,

J.

my first was like that. He spit up after every bottle. We called him the geyser as he and I were both soaked from the projectile spew. Anyway I started out bf and thought it was me that caused it because when I gave him formula for 2 days he didn't spit up at all so I decided to quit bf. Then after 3 days he started it again. We tried several formulas and did end up sticking with soy but he still threw it up but not every feeding. We used the regular bottles that were bent. He didn't seem to have any problems with the flow of the bottles. They have step 1,2, and 3 for nipple sizes. He used step 2. He was a very happy baby and nothing seemed to bother him. He also had bronchialitis where he wheezed and coughed all the time but was still happy and hardly ever cried or fussed. He just didn't gain much weight and was always off the growth chart. He spit up until he was around 14 months but wasn't every feeding. When he started eating cereal and baby food he didn't spit up every meal. He is 16 yrs old now and eats pretty healthy as he likes fruits and veggies. He was very small for his age all through school until about 10th grade when he started getting taller. He is still skinny but at least his 5'6" height helps him not be the shortest in school now. The doctors didn't expect him to grow past 5'2" according to his growth chart when he was little. He was so tiny he wore a size 2T in Kindergarten but he always made friends easily and is very smart so his size didn't affect him at all.

My daughter did something similar for her first few months, she projectile vomitted as well with regular formula. They said it may have been acid reflux but pyloric stenosis runs in my husbands family and leaned more toward that. We switched her to Enfamil GentleEase which did help and fed her smaller amounts more often instead of a full bottle every 3-4 hours. We also used Dr. Brown's bottles and she did great with those. She occasionally did still spit up a bunch but it wasn't nearly as much or as often and eventually she outgrew it. Also, we started her on rice/formula bottles earlier than recommended but only on her last bottle of the evening. She slept much better and so did we! Good luck!

Enfamil A.R. is the only thing my son could tolerate, and it is the bomb, although pricey. We used it with the one-piece bottles that are sort of hour glass shaped and plastic, I don't remember the name of them, and we had no problems. These bottles also have various sized nipples available with more holes for older babies or for easier feeding. My doc also said you can kind of loosen the nipple up by pushing a toothpick (or just part of it even) through the hole of the nipple. You might try this first with your bottles? Good luck.

My grandson had that problem. Whenever I had him, I'd mix the formula in a measuring cup with my hand blender. I got mine at K-Mart for about $9 a few years ago. It foams the formula up more, but it really helps dissolve that powder. My son and his wife had trouble with the powder even clogging up the hole in the nipple. I didn't have that problem with the hand blender. They did eventually change nipple sizes because they didn't have a hand blender. They had a small whisk that they'd stir the formula with, in the bottle. I think that with using drop-ins, you'd probably have to do that in another container (like a measuring cup)and then pour it into the bottle. My grandson still spit up but not NEARLY as much as before they started with the A.R. formula.

I know exactly what you are thinking. My first daughter was a spitter as well. We both went through a dozen outfits a day and towels like crazy. She ended up having acid reflux. What our Dr. did for us really helped her out. We swtic her her to a pre-digested formula, enfamil gentlease or you can also use the other brands like that. Then they put her on prevacid which is really what helped do the trick. But also some simple things like when you feed her, hold her as upright as possible, that helps everything to settle down into the stomach, then when she is done with the bottle just putting her in a swing (not swinging) or a bouncy seat to just sit for about 20 minutes or so. This helps it to just settle and them to relax. Nothing fixed her completely she would still spit up some, but it wasn't as bad and she wasn't uncomfortable anymore. By the time she turned 1 and was started eating more solid foods she grew out of. There is hope with that. My 2nd was a silent refluxer and would never spit it up, but was still refluxing and she is just now starting to outgrow it at 13 months. So keep your head up, I understand it is no fun but it will get better. Good Luck!

Did u try dr brown bottles-- good for slower flow.