Reflux/Feeding Question

There is a lot going on here, but I've had a very similar baby - reflux along with a milk protein allergy that caused all the symptoms you mention above.

It sounds to me like his formula still isn't agreeing with him. I don't know which you are using, but you might talk to your ped about a different one. The key here is the explosive bm's. That has nothing to do with reflux and everything to do with a food intolerance. Hypoallergenic formulas include nutramigen (made by Enfamil), alimentum (made by Similac), and, if those aren't tolerated, there are some prescription ones that your ped can have you try.

For the reflux, the best advice for this is to give babies half as much food per feeding, but feed twice as often. The more the baby has at one time, the more can come up at one time. So, for example, try giving just 2 ounces every 2 hours, instead of 3 or 4 ounces every 4 hours.

You are doing all the right things with keeping him upright. My reflux baby loved being in a moby wrap or a ring sling. It kept him upright, and my hands free.

I tried rice cereal for the reflux at about 4 months. It did not do anything to help at all. And, made bm's more difficult. I do not recommend it.

For future reference, keep an eye on his weight. Every time he goes through a growth spurt, you will need to readjust his prevacid dose or he will become miserable again.

Good luck!

I agree with all Diane said. If you want to try the cereal I don't see harm in it but add a little at a time to get ur baby use to it. Give them water if they start to get constipated. If he has a hard time sucking the milk out with the cereal in it i may have to get those nipple with the x shaped hole. My daughter got pissed when she couldn't suck that milk out of a regular nipple. Also want helped with my daughter is burping often. Very often. Every 2 oz or so. If those air bubbles are caught in there they will push all the food up. Pat his back and run your hands with slight pressure from his lower back up to upper back and that will work air bubble out as well. Also the drop in bottles worked for me better than any other bottle. Once you put the plastic liner in you can physically push all the air out. Then as the baby sucks the bag collapses and no air gets in. Good luck to you. I know this can be very frustrating. Def check into the type of formula he's gettin too.

Is the formula milk-free? My son had horrible reflux and at his highest was on 30mg of Prevacid a day with no relief. They ended up having a major surgery on his stomach to stop it when he was a year old. It was awful.

When he grew and the surgery came loose, they wanted to do it again because the reflux was back full force. He was 5 at the time.

After much research on my own I found out that he is allergic to milk, but no one, not even the GI specialist ever thought to eliminate milk from his diet. It is a food sensitivity, so there is no test for the allergy, but you can figure it out by total elimination.

My son is now 7 and we are completely dairy-free and his reflux is still gone! No surgery, no Prevacid... just a happy little dairy-free boy.

Good luck!

On your original question, I would definitly not be opposed to trying the cereal. It will make it thicker and therefore harder to reflux, but until you figure out what the reflux trigger is you are still going to have the problem.

Hugs!

all three of my boys had AR, but things were different then, they are now 11, 10, &6. for the first he spit up everything, with or without rice added, ate everything that wasn't tied down, rice cereal, formula, dairy non dairy, he ate like a pigglet and had trouble gaining weight. #2 son, same thing only he was given the AR medicine, the previcid I think but he wouldn't take the medicine, he refused and we used to have big fights trying to get some down him each day, with little luck, we finally gave up, Rice cereal made it worse!!!!!!!! he wouldn't poop for days, and he still spit up, but he gained weight easily? go figure because he didn't keep much down! so when he was older we gave him oatmeal cereal instead of rice... didn't change the amount of spit up, he was still a projectile spitter up till 12 months, it was terrible! (and for months #2 son would cry/scream every night from 10:10pm till 11:10pm every night, without fail, it was horrible and nothing would sooth him) we tried dairy formula, soy formula and breast milk, then the expensive formulas nutrimagin (sp?) nothing helped, Carnnation formula worked the best and it was the cheapest, but didn't really solve the problem, which started getting better about the same time we started with it between the 11-12 month. but Carnation has changed it's name since then.

#3 son had it to, and he would take the medicine so we did use that, but he had problems with pooping so the Dr told us to add a 1/2 teaspoon of brown sugar to 4 oz of formula which solved the pooping issues, we had been using pediatric suppositories prior to the brown sugar, so we were glad for the simple switch! but he still spit up till he was 12 months. he refused cereal of any kind, and soy didn't help him either.

as far as adding the rice cereal I would wait a few more weeks, I know you want to help, but for meed it didn't make enough of a difference to really help any of my kids, but talk to your Dr and see he/she recommends. you don't want the rice to interfere with the nutrient value of what your baby is eating, and cause weight lose or loss of important nutrients.

in summary we did use breast milk, soy formula or nutrimagin formula for all three of our boys. 2 out of 3 did use rice or oatmeal cereal after 3 months (one refused), but nothing really helped, one used medicine which helped, but all still spit up a significant amount. sorry I can't offer much hope, but they all did grow out of it to be normal healthy boys, which is hope too. hang in there, it's okay to try different formulas, you may find one that helps, the cheapest one worked best for us.

Both my children had reflux. The second, now 2, much worse than the first. I used a nap nanny for sleeping. Just google it. I loved it and it was the only thing my daughter would sleep in. If you get one just don't use it in the crib and stop using it when your son can roll over. There have been serious warnings about both these things!! My ped had me put rice cereal in her bottle but told me to grind it up fine, in a food processor or blender. And it was like 1 tsp per 2 oz's of formula. I thonk maybe 1/2 tsp. It helped along with the medication. Finally gets better around 6 months. So keep up
the bibs and stain remover!

We were able to keep my daughter off medication for her reflux by using Enfamil AR. We tried so many different formulas and that is the one that finally worked. Maybe worth a try. Good luck!