Need advice from others with baby reflux experience - Infant Care (up to 18 months old) Message Board

dina08 · 04-14-2008, 08:33 AM

I need some advice from others that have had babies with reflux. My baby has reflux and it's really difficult. She throws up before, during, or after 3/4's of her feedings. I am not talking about spitup. I am talking about full fledged projectile vomitting. She is obviously getting enough to eat because she continues to gain weight and she is eager for her feedings. However, I am so tired of having to take 12 burp cloths with me whenever I feed her and many changes of outfits. I am afraid to feed her in a public setting because she will 80% chance throw up. She is on Zantac so that it doesn't burn that bad when she does throw up (although she throws up the Zantac many times that we give it to her). We have added rice cereal to her bottles and she still throws up. We keep her upright after feedings and then put her in her crib that has the head of it elevated and now she has started to throw up across her crib - hitting the floor even. Please....any advice other than she will grow out of this before 1 year? She is 3 months.

mcr285 · 04-14-2008, 03:13 PM

ooooohhhh, i've been there! my first was the same way! she was a happy spitter though, with no discomfort or anything, just projectile spitting up ALL day long!!! is your a happy spitter? i used to pretty much live with a receiving blanket thrown over my shoulder all the time with her (target sells them i think in a 4 or 6 pack for a reasonable price).

a few things you might try..... first, what kind of bottle does she use? make sure the flow isn't too fast for her (i highly recommend the playtex nursers). also, make sure she isn't eating too much in one feeding. you might try feeding her less....

nothing worked to stop my daughter's spitting up, but doing the above suggestions did help keep her from being quite so messy.... she still spit up, but it wasn't so much of the projectile spitting up like she had been doing.

we had at least 50 bibs (target sells them in 8 or 10 packs i think...) for her, and at least that many burpies too. i got some of the big vinyl lined bibs for feedings and put the small baby sized bibs on her between feedings. fortunately bibs are pretty cute these days, so at least you can coordinate them with her outfits..... my daughter also took a binky pretty much 24-7 at that age, and i think that helped too.

we finally out grew the horrible spitting at around 5-6 months.... she still spit up, but not near as frequently or as bad. she unfortunately spit up until she was around 9 months, i think. but it tapered way down between 5-9 months! so there IS hope!!!

trvlr76 · 04-14-2008, 03:26 PM

Mine spit up a lot, too. We also started with rice cereal, then I think at 6 mths, the Dr. said to switch to oatmeal. That helped a little with the frequency of the spit ups. I too used to change clothes (both mine and my LO's) several times a day. My son was taking prevacid, however. That was good because it was only 2x per day.

At around 7 1/2 mths, it seemed like overnight...the spitting up just stopped. We stopped giving prevacid shortly thereafter, and at 8 mths, stopped putting oatmeal in his bottle. Now he is just like a regular baby. I can't remember the last time he spit up. We don't even use burpies anymore...just bibs to wipe his milky mouth.

So, hang in there. It does get better.

bigmommylove · 04-20-2008, 10:06 PM

My youngest had acid reflux for the first six months. I took him to the doctor and they put him on some medicine twice a day. It helped him almost immediately.

I know as an adult I personally have acid reflux. It's painful and hurts. I felt so bad for my little guy. Thank god doctors realize that babies get this and they can treat it.

I would definitely take baby in to the doctor for medicine. Things should start to go easier for both of you after that.

dina08 · 04-21-2008, 08:22 AM

Thanks for the replies. She is on Zantac 3 times a day and we switched her formula to Enfamil AR. When we added rice to the bottle, it wasn't working as well as this formula. She keeps it down much better. She went from throwing up about 6 times a day to 1 or 2 and not as bad. If it gets bad again, the doctor said that she will switch her from Zantac to Prevacid. However, I wasn't sure if Prevacid was safe with no possible long term side affects. I have to do my research before that. But, for now, she is doing okay.

As a side note, she hates Zantac because it is flavored with peppermint. The pharmacy flavors it grape (on top of the peppermint already there). The first time this worked and she stopped throwing it up everytime we gave it to her. I just got a refill and it smelled like peppermint and sure enough, she is throwing it up when you give it to her. I just went to the pharmacy and they added more grape flavoring; however, I also learned that the pharmacy can make the medicine from scratch right there and not put the peppermint in it. I didn't know that and they said if she throws this up again this afternoon, that they will just remake the batch by hand (so that there is no peppermint in there). Just a thought for others in case they are having any of the same issues.