3 Month Old with Reflux "Spitting Up"

My daughter had this issue-Enfamil AR helped quite a bit as it is pre-thickened with rice cereal. This along with feeding her cereal was an improvement and she at least seemed more comfortable and began gaining more weight.

My almost 3 yr old had acid reflux from 7 wks until 15 months and yes it was VERY Projectile and excessive. I do feel your pain but hang in there it shall pass. I did use Similac Isomil and it was like night and day but is and has been Lactose sensitive since he was 13 months.
I kept him upright for at least 1-1 1/2 hrs after each feeding. I never was able to give him more than 6 oz of formula and would have to burp him every 1-2 oz.

I wish you the best of luck and I hope this helps.
M.

We had the same issues with my daughter who is now 7 months old. I do not give my children medicine unless it is absolutely neccessary. I switched my little girl to Enfamil AR, and I put only two scoops per bottle. I noticed a huge improvement right away. I eventually started adding rice cereal to her bottles and all has been well. Good luck!

Absolutey see a prediatric Gastro specialist. My son has had a ton of issues with reflux and he too is on prevacid, thickened feeds etc. But after seeing the speicialist he was diagnosed as milk/soy protien intolerant and put on a very special formula (elemental formula called elecare). He was a new baby almost immediatley and two months later he is reflux free and so happy. You are your sons only adovcate and I would wait on the medication with bad side effects and get a more specialized opinion. Good luck. Oh, we see Dr. Ogunmula through Cooks!

when my daughter had that problem, we switched her to Nutramagin and it helped; it was like a miracle. guess you just have to try different things. I would take the rice out; can't see how that could help at all. my daughter grew out of the problem and can drink regular milk with no problem. never had her tested. Keeping her upright and burping frequently helped a lot. be sure he's not getting too much air when he drinks. good luck.

Oh, L., I feel your pain! I worked with kids like this for years, then my own baby spit up constantly (though not as badly as yours). We drenched Santa on our first visit, I was mortified!!! It can feel very defeating, but take some comfort--he WILL grow out of it!!!! Four months is often a big milestone, in that it starts getting better. You're doing everything right, bless your heart. I'm going to offer some friendly advice, realizing you've probably done it all! First, did the rice really help, if not, STOP. It doesn't help that much and can do more harm than good sometimes. Have you had allergy testing (blood or skin test)? Does he have any secondary symptoms like a raspy voice or chronic cough (if not, that is a great sign). Is your baby otherwise happy and healthy? If he's not lethargic, has no nutrient deficiencies, and he's meeting his developmental milestones, then don't worry so much about the weight. Ask your doctor how much outside the bell curve he really is--it mihgt not be as bad as you think. Weight is only one objective measure by which to gage the problem. If he doesn't have any of the above mentioned issues, I personally would balk at the medication. He WILL get through it, and so will you. Best of luck!!

My now 2 year old did the same thing. We gave her a probiotic along with the prevacid and although she still spit up, she was not volcanic anymore. I used the Life Start one for infants. It is tough, but with us it passed in a couple of months. She remained on her prevacid until around 12 months of age, however. Now, we had allergy testing done and she is sensitive to cow milk and goat milk; so she is on soy. The first post you received may be on to something....I wish I had known this sooner. He may not tolerate milk. Hang in there; and with a sweet warning, let anyone who wants shower him with loves.

I think the medicine is called Regline and I would not recommend it unless he is so bad he is loosing weight. We had the same problem with our daughter she was on Zantac twice a day it did help with the acid reflux, but no help with the spit up. I strickly breastfeed, but the doctor had me try Nutramigen(sp?) it is a hypo-allergenic formula. It seemed to help a little more, but I really wanted to breastfeed so I stopped giving it to her it was also a little pricy. We finally took her to a Chiropractor who specialized in infants. It did wonders for her digestive system. I know some people will think this is crazy, but we could easily go through 10 outfits a day and I don't even know how many burp clothes. I really needed help and it worked. By the second or third visit she stopped vomitting. She would still spit up a little, but what I think normal babies do not drenching herself, me and whatever else was near by. Most insurance companies cover it so why not just try it. The website is www.family-wellness.com Dr. C. Haggerton is a true blessing.

I didn't read all the responses, so sorry if this is repeating what someone else said! Sorry this is long!!

Have they ruled out a dairy and/or soy allergy? They told me my baby's spitting up was normal, including the projectile vomiting. I still felt like something was wrong so I kept a journal of what I ate and noticed if he threw up more or less. Turns out momma instincts were right. His pedi didn't officially diagnosis him till his 2 month checkup and it was hell until we figured it out. I know your baby is on formula, but they do have dairy and soy free formulas. I add in the soy because my son's pedi said that if he's allergic to dairy, he will most likely be allergic to soy, and she was right. Some signs of an allergy are vomitting, reflux, eczema, and blood in his stool (all of which my son had). The blood doesn't have to be a lot, a spot or two is an indication, and it doesn't have to be visible. The doc can run a test to see if there's some that's undetectable to your eyes. Another sign is if the medication wasn't working- my son was on Zantac and it barely helped => take away the allergen, and there's no need for meds! You should see a change in about a day if it is an allergy (once I omitted dairy and soy from my diet, I had a new baby boy in about 1 day!). And I would most definitely stay clear of ANY meds that would cause brain damage. Maybe you should get a new doc.

FYI, the cereal could be doing more harm than good too. My bb is also allergic to rice cereal.

I would try the similac Isomil and see how that works. If that doesn't do the trick try carnation good start. I think there is a lacto free with that brand. My daughter had really bad spitting up (we would often go through 8 outfits a day). After she turned one and we tried to switch her to milk we figured out that she had a milk allergy. she was on soy milk for almost 3 years. I often wonder if she had that milk allergy as an infant and I just hadn't figured it out. I don't think i've heard of any medication that helps keep formula down. I would recommend asking for a referral to a GI specialist for pediatrics. It sounds like your pedi is doing everything right but sometimes you need a specialist involved. As for not wanting other people to hold the baby b/c you're afraid they'll get spit up on...that comes with holding babies irregardless of whether they have reflux or not!! They are fair game if they want to hold the baby and most people have a great attitude about baby accidents. I hope that you all find the answers you need. Your son will start growing and he'll be fine!!

my son used reglan for a while, i was never told of any potential neurological problems so maybe thats not it. it was used with him to speed up digestion <his stomach emptied slow>
we fought the reflux battle for many months, trying every medication out there. we finally got to the point where nothing was helping <at 11 months old> our last resort was surgery - the nissen fundoplication which he had almost 2 months ago. it is a very extreme approach but sometimes necessary! reflux is no longer a problem for us, one down and many more to go!

definitely do the allergy testing and see a gi specialist. we see dr osuntokun at cooks, he is great!

Hi L., I know you've already gotten a couple of recommendations for formulas, but I wanted to also recommend Similac Alimentum. My son was the same way, but he was able to take the Alimentum when he couldn't take any of the others we tried. Also, he had to have the premixed liquid formula, the powder didn't work as well for him. It is expensive, $9.18 a bottle at Wal-Mart, and my son could go through a bottle each day to day 1/2, but ultimately it was worth it in our situation. We also used the Dr. Brown's bottle, which I think are great. My son is about to turn 1, and he does NOT react well to cow's milk (we tried). He's now drinking Rice Milk as of about 1 month ago, and doing great on it. He's also taking Prevacid, and will probably continue to do so until his reflux issues subside. Hopefully, he'll grow out of it. BTW, we had him blood tested for allergies, and it came back negative, so I guess they can have an intolerance to milk/dairy without an allergy. Hope this helps!