Infant Acid Reflux 101

Surprisingly, many (or most) babies have acid reflux in one form or another.  Some parents just say, "oh my baby just spits up a lot."  Well, most of the time that spit up is either a mild or severe case of acid reflux.  The esophageal sphincter is one of the last things to develop in utero for a baby.  If the baby is somewhat early, or really early, I would not be surprised if your baby has some acid reflux.  But, don't panic, because with careful monitoring and some minor changes in feeding and sleeping habits your life, and the baby or babies lives, will definitely change.  Let me tell you about my experiences with all four of my children, and I will share signs and symptoms of infant acid reflux.  I also will share the helpful hints on the best ways to combat it.  

First off, I went through severe infant reflux with my first child so that is how I am able to combat the triplets reflux.   Also, a little bit of trial and error.  With Beau, my four year old, he came our grunting and groaning all the time, and choked every time I turned around.  At three weeks old he choked so bad I had to call 911, because I couldn't get his airway clear.  Very scary.  Anywho, along with the grunting, groaning, choking spells, he also had hiccups all the time, cried after some feedings, thru up or spit up milk, and also was very wheezy.  He sounded congested most of the time.  This was because his reflux was traveling up in his nasal passage, but I didn't know all of this.  UNTIL, the pediatrician had us do a barium-flow test, and with those results, referred us to a pediatric GI specialist.  Man did the first visit take forever.  Who would have thought that I would learn so much with just the first visit.  The doctor basically asked every little detail about Beau, even if I didn't think it had to do with his GI system.  For instance, hiccups.  I had no idea that was caused from redux, but the doctor said sure enough it was.  The other thing that I learned is that some things may trigger reflux, for example food allergies in certain formulas.  For example, soy or milk proteins.  But, for me I breastfed him so the doctor gave me a list of what to not eat, because what I ate is what the baby ate.  With Beau I had to stay away from so much.  Milk based foods, onions, garlic, spicy foods, etc.  With the triplets I knew all about this so I started on things from the get go.  I stay away from dairy most of the time.  If I do have dairy anything I just eat small amounts of it.  I do not eat spicy or oniony foods.  With this they do great on my milk.  Below I am going to list some of the pointers that I have been told to do either by the GI specialist or by a NICU nurse from when the babies were in there for the first couples weeks of their lives.

Reflux Tips for feeding:

*Hold baby upright while feeding

*Burp often throughout feeding 

*Elevate or hold baby upright for at least 30 minutes after feeding.  

*Do not overfeed.  Smaller amounts, but more often is much better on the baby.  

*Breastfed momma's watch what you eat.

*Formula fed babies - make sure you have them on right formula.  They could have other GI issues going on along with reflux such as, dismotility or pyloric stenosis.  

Tips for sleeping: 

*Sleep in an elivated sleeper, about 30 to 45 degrees.  Fisher Price has some really good sleepers, and they fold up and are portable.  I have three. :)

*Make sure they are burped good before laying them down.  

Growth & Medication:

*Remember if they are gaining weight they will need a dosage increase on their reflux medication as they grow. Prevacid, Prilosec, Axid etc.  how you know when you need a dosage increase or a change in medication is if they all the sudden grow into increased fussiness.  Or if they start getting fussy at a certain time of day and stay fussy for a long period of time.  For example, my boys started getting fussy at 4 every day, and it finally dawned on me that the Prilosec was wearing off around that time, and that since they have grown so much they probably needed a dosage increase.  So I called the pediatrician, and sure enough their dosage doubled.  So keep tabs on that.

*Sometimes it is the actual medication they are on.  How I knew that my babies were on the wrong medication was they would scream for three to four hours after taking it.  So we switched.  

*Also look for side effects from the medications.  Some are very similar to side effects of reflux. :/ Hard to determine what is what sometimes.  

I hope this helps you mommas out there that might be wondering what is going on with your baby.  :) I know I left some things off this, but my brain is mush.  

A good side note - reflux can be controlled and combatted with good research, and good care once you figure things out.  My babies are all doing well, with reflux, because of special care. :)