Reflux and Gas

My son (now 2) had a lot of gas and spit up quite a bit after each feeding (he was breastfed). If (s)he's just spitting up and isn't bothered by it (doesn't cry or refuse a bottle) then it's just normal. Some babies don't spit up at all and some loose a few tablespoons after each meal. The Mylicon drops (don't waste your money on the name brand ones, generic work just as well) really seemed to help with the gas. He still had a lot of gas, but he wasn't in pain because of it. I gave mine drops after each feeding. I would ask your ped. at the 2 month appt. about it just to rule out GERD.

Nestle Goodstart worked for my daughter. My cousin had to use Mylicon with the Nestle Goodstart for her daughter until she was about 3 months old.

What is she on now? My son was switched to the Nestle Goodstart w/ comfort proteins when he had reflux.

I have been there the best thing i got for my son was the Similac Sensitive and Infants Mylicon gas drops. Them together helped alot.

Hi There!

My 2nd son is 7 mos. old today. Since 2 weeks old he has had tremendous problems w/gas seemingly from his formula. We have since tried 6 different types of formula (generic and non-generic) and non have made any difference.

What did make a difference was putting him on Zantac (1.3 ml) 3x per day.

Have you been to the pediatrician about this? My son actually has "silent reflux", meaning he does not spit up, but had all the other symptoms such as refusing the bottle despite being visibly hungry, grunting, coughing sometimes and and a host of other symptoms...

We used the gripe water and gas drops all the time to no avail.

My suggestion would be to check out some acid reflux sites on the web and see if his symptoms are similiar.

Good luck...and the good news is, they do grow out of it
eventually.

Oh, and I wanted to add, the ped first suggested using Similiac A.R., which is thickened with rice cereal as a first tactic..however, my son had such problems w/constipation that we couldn't use the A.R., it would be my first go to though in your case, provided constipation isn't an issue.

do mylicon gas drops. unfortunately,the babies systems are developing. make sure to burp well after feeding. have a good baby bottle also so they do not get gas. i liked the advent bottles but every one is different.

Hey, my name is Ruth. When my son was just about the same age, he also had HORRIBLE gas and reflux. He even had projectile vomitting. After being told how wonderful Good Start is by my sis-in-law and cousin, I started Matthew on the Good Start Soy. He is now a little over 4 months old and he has been doing amazingly. He's never had any trouble with it. He absolutely LOVES it and I love seeing him feel better! If you don't want to go with the soy, I would try to regular Good Start, but the soy has been great for us. From what I understand, the Good Start is broken down into smaller proteins, so it works alot like breastmilk, so babies can digest it much easier.
I took Matthew for his 4 month appt. and the doctor said he is actually on the higher weight side of "normal" and to keep up whatever I was doing. I hope this helps.

With my oldest, she had colic and the doctor recommended Mylicon that worked great. My second child was 9lb 7 oz at birth,kept spitting up and got gassy-the pediatrician said since he was a big boy he needed more food. We started cereal (he was under 6 weeks old) and within a week he stopped spitting up and didn't have gas problems anymore. My youngest was fine.You can also elevate the top of the crib by putting blocks under the legs. I guess what I'm getting at is it depends on many factors. I would consult with your pediatrician since it can be anything from changing the formula to needing a prescription medication.

We had a terrible problem with gas and reflux...doc prescribed Pepcid twice a day and put us on Similac's Alimentum (the one with the purple lid). IT's a bit pricy but well worth it to keep my honey from being in pain. We are now nearing 10 months and have been doing great on it! It will take a week or two for the little body to adjust to the new formula but from there on out...smooth sailing! Good luck!!! Let me know how it turns out for you and CONGRATS on that new baby of yours!
J.

Mylacon drops are the best for gas!!! I used, when needed, for all three of my children. My 3rd had reflux issues and my pediatrician recommended Nutramigen formula............WHAT A LIFE SAVER!!! It was VERY expensive, but worth every penny. I tried to change formulas, because of the expense, throughout his first year but he was miserable if he didn't have the Nutramigen. He slept better and was less cranky and more satisfied because he was not spitting up as much. Good luck!!

PREVACID!!! Best stuff ever! We used it with both of our children. You'll have to get a perscription from your doctor!

Nestle Good Start with Natural Cultures is the best thing for gast. It has probiotics which help the gut maintain the right balance of good bacteria.

As for an experience tip (and my son has reflux until he was 12 months!) use those receiving blankets as spit-up cloths. For a baby with reflux, you need something big and absorbent! We kept a basket of them in each room we fed in, and covered the furniture around him with them. Made clean ups much easier!

Go to the health food store and get some probiotics. They should be kept cold in caps. If you are nursing break open the cap and put some power on your nipple and let the baby take it off when it feeds. If this is a bottle baby then put it in the bottle. A Ped chiro might be a good idea too. My kids see www.drviolacanhelp.com so good luck.

Similac Alimentum...also there is a heat pad that has calming herbs in it. It is called Happy Tummies or somthing like that. I found it at Buy Buy Baby in the formula section and it was a miracle worker. Mylicon as well. My son had colic and we thought we were going to lose our minds, then someone told me about this heat pad and it was wonderful!! Good luck!!

So sorry to hear your little one is having such a rough time.

I can't help with the formula as I breastfed my babies, but my youngest did have reflux and colic. The dr prescribed zantac which only made him even more cranky. I ended up taking him to my chiropractor. The change in my son was amazing. Don't worry, the chiro has a tool to use, he/she won't be adjusting the way they would with an adult. I used to take my son every Monday. He was finally able to sleep through the night after that. I started noticing around the 5th-6th day after his adjustment that he would begin getting cranky again...but nowhere near what he used to be before the chiro...and I would take him in again on Monday and he was fine again. This lasted until he was about 8-9 months old.

I know a lot of people are uncomfortable with the idea of a chiropractor, but after my son's reaction to the meds I knew I needed to try something else. The trauma of birth puts a lot of pressure and strain on a baby's spine, especially the neck. I hope you give this some consideration. We had one treatment a week compared to administering meds several times/day.

Best of luck!

Hi G.,
My daughter had reflux for the first year of her life, I understand how VERY frustrating it can be. I consulted two great books, "The Baby Book" and "The No-Cry Sleep Solution," which both had great suggestions. We also consulted a GI specialist, who didn't tell us anything I hadn't already learned through my reading.

What really helped is keeping her upright as much as possible, feeding her small meals often, and using Mylicon to decrease her gas. To keep her upright we raised the head of her bassinet and crib (which still helps with colds today) or just held her while she slept. Also, bouncing her or putting her in a bouncy seat helped too. It was important to keep her upright for 30 minutes after eating, which often meant I held her throughout her naps. It took a lot of work and many hours of holding, bouncing, and rocking. But, it all meant quality time with my daughter. Even though it seemed like it would never end, it did and it now seems like a distant memory. I hope this helps, best of luck to you!!!

A lot really depends on how severe the reflux is. Have you been officially diagnosed and are you using meds? All three of mine had significant and very painful reflux, and they needed to be on meds for 2 - 2 1/2 years. Here's a couple thoughts:

*If the reflux is causing pain or interfering with eating/weight gain or causing respiratory issues (constantly stuffy nose for example), you really should look into medication if you haven't already.

*Most peds will start with zantac for reflux. For some mild cases this is enough, but the dose will need to be adjusted frequently as the baby gains weight. Most babies with significant reflux will need stronger meds though - we had great improvement with prevacid. Some peds aren't comfortable with prescribing stronger meds, though, and you may need to go through a pediatric GI doc. For anything more than the most mild reflux, I strongly recommend getting a referral to a GI doc - there will likely be a long wait, but worth it in my opinion.

*My refluxers only had minimal improvement with mylicon and similar drops. The GI OK'd using mylanta with them, which helped both the reflux and gas. I wouldn't use it without a doc's approval and dosage guidelines, but it may be worth asking about.

*Which formula works best varies a lot with refluxers. Two of mine did well with Enfamil AR. The other ended up on soy formula, though with her I don't think the changes made much difference. You may need to try a few before finding what works for you. Be sure to give a formula change a couple of weeks to see if you're getting improvement - it can take that long to really see a difference. If it's obviously worse on the reflux, then you can stop sooner, but if it seems about the same or minimal improvement, try to wait it out.

*Also, when you start solids, I'd go even more slowly - like wait at least 5 days between new foods - as refluxers tend to have problems with some foods (reflux flares, not true allergies).

Hope some of that helps - good luck!

Hi G., I had my son last may when he was about 6-7 weeks old I was having a hard time with him. He was on simlac formula he was always crying and after he would eat about 20 min later he would spit it all back up. I was going crazy everyone was saying he was ajusting to the formula.His nose was always stuffed up when I layed him down he was always unhappy due to his nose being stuffed. My dr at the time said he will grow out of it some newborns have mucus still in there nose.
He put him on enfamil nutramigen formula milk free. It seemed to help alittle but he was still spitting up after eating and had the stuffed nose. So after a month of this I had enough took him to another Dr gave him all the signs he was having and he said he had gastroesopageal reflux (GER) which is becoming more common in babies he had me stay pn the same fomula but also gave me meds for him for acid reflux very safe for babies. He was only on the med for a couple of days an I saw the difference in him, no more stuffed nose he seemed happy and the spitting up was ALOT better. He also told me to put rice cereal in his bottle to help keep the milk down something alittle heaver on his belly. he said he would grow out of this when he started on food and he has.
He is 9 months now and he is doing fine he is off that formula and is on nestle good start and is fine on it, he is also of the meds now and eating with no problems. So I f you have not asked the dr yet about this yet talk to him, he might change your formula it is best to ask him first before changeing to any new one. I hope I was able to help you if you have any ? just ask.

How bad is the reflux? I will tell you, I thought my son had really bad gas, as well as reflux, so the doc put him on the Zantac. I gave it to him 1x, and then tasted it myself. It is HORRIBLE! So unless you are positive the baby has reflux, don't use it! :)
And everyone has gas, it's just sometimes harder for babies to pass because their muscles are not as developed. What I did for my son was rub the small of his back and his belly when I knew he was struggling with gas. I also switched formula from regular Similac to Similac Sensitive with the ORANGE label, not the AR. The milk proteins are still in it, just broken down so it's a little easier to digest.
Keeping him upright for about 20min after a feeding and burping VERY WELL seemed to help as well. We tried all the gripe waters and colic stuff too, and nothing really helped.
They DO grow out of it, now my son is 10mo and toots like an old man! :) It can be tough, but eventually it will go away. Good luck!

My son had gas pain with throwing up all his feed and babies magic tea was the last reedy that worked great soothing my son from both problems.

Carnation Good Start has much less gas. There may be a Parents Choice equivilent to it that would be half the price.

K. B
mom to 5 including triplets

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