Any Advice for Dealing with Reflux????

One of my friends' son had reflux when he was a newborn. Her pediatrician prescribed Zantac and it worked. I think by the time he was 5 or 6 months old he had grown out of it and no longer needed the medication. With the congestion, you may want to try Baby Rub by Vicks. It's the same concept as Vaporub only Baby Rub doesn't have the strong medicine in it. It uses mostly herbs. It's pretty good. It has helped my son breath better when he was congested. Also try to put a humidifier in her room. It will help with the congestion.

Hi there,

I had 2 children with reflux.
Sitting them up is the best thing.
You can also prop the crib with a pillow under the mattress so they're in a more comfortable position.

Something that helped my sister was using thickened formula, I guess if you're breastfeeding some cereal?
I know she's young, you can ask her peditrician.

My son was on Zantac and it helped very well. Please get a prescription for that. Since you have already delt with the doctor, it is possible that you could just call and ask for it over the phone without seeing the doc again. There should be NO reason for you to have to be seen again. thats just a wasted co-pay in my opinion.

My daughter was diagnosed with acid reflux at about 4 weeks. The pediatrician put her on a super low dose (0.5 ml) of Zantac 75. She takes it twice a day. I'm not crazy about medicating her at such a young age, but it has helped tremendously! Maybe you could talk to your Dr. about this option.

My daughter was a preemie and dealt with reflux after she came home. Her doctor suggested adding rice cereal to her milk. I would ask your doctor how much to add. I think we did a tsp. of cereal for every few ounces. Also, if you do add cereal, be sure to get different bottle nipples. I believe we tried the y shaped. It was a big deal to keep sitting her up and it makes you be creative indefinitely. She mostly grew out of the reflux stage after a few months. (When I noticed she was not doing as well anymore with the cereal, I weaned her off of it and she did well.) She does, however, on occasion, spit up and it comes out of her nose. We took a course on infant cpr and choking at the hospital, and the choking maneuver has helped to relieve her when this happens....and then the nose syringe helps too. I would check with your doctor about the congestion. One helpful tip that we were given was to get saline spray...that's all it is, no other chemicals. One squirt per nostril and finish with the nose syringe. This seems to help our little one.
I know that some suggested other ideas for the congestion: our occupational therapist for babies at the hospital strongly emphasized using products around babies that have little or no aroma or scent, as exposing the baby to these before 6 or 7 months could cause allergies later on for her. Best of luck to you and hope this helps.

Hi Jeane'

I also know what you are going thru. My oldest daughter had this. We put her in her carseat after each feeding. We burped her more often, and then we also left her to sleep by our bedside in her carseat. She threw up all the time before she was diagnosed. This cut back dramatically. She also had the phlem. When she threw up it came through her nose and mouth. It is scary, because it sounds like they can't breathe, but if you have them upright, they are not going tho choke on the vomit or congestion. I hope that this helps. Good luck. And pray about it too. It will help bring peace.

T.

Hi am so sorry for the reflux. My son just turned 9 months old and has FINALLY outgrown it.
He was diagnosed at 1 month old. Had all the tests done. His reflux was so bad that he refluxed with his breathing every time he exhaled it went up and down.. it was aweful.

As for the congestion, Dr Fitzgerald (at Riley) said that babies who have reflux will have chronic congestion. Something to do with the acid and the body making mucus to help coat the esphagus. Which is why they prescribe acid blocking med. We found "AXID" to be the best. Prevacid and Zantac made him more irritable. There are other medicines that you can take to empty the bowel out faster, but come with some SCARY side effects. We tried them... he experienced them all. Needless to say he only got 1 dose of each of these.

He started out on breast milk, then to reg. enfamil, then to Enfamil AR (thickened w/rice already) then to soy, similac, gentlease... not to mention thicking it with cereal. We even tried RX neocate and that didnt work. What we finally found out worked best is Enfamil Nutramigen. He would still spit it up, but was the best choice. It is very expensive (contact your insurance company.. ours is covered under medical equipment..wierd but oh well). Also the doctors office can give you sample. My ped and riley gave me at least 3 cans each time we were there.

After my ped. tried all the above. we went to Riley Hospital and saw Dr. Fitzgerald (who is amazing). Gave us diet advice, a set feeding schedule. We had to thicken his Nutramigen formula with 3 tbsp mixed grain (rice made to constipated) for him to keep it down. We used "Miralax" to keep his stool soft. They said it is not disolved into the system, just keeps water in stool and easy to pass. This helped out trememdously. I wasnt really to pumped about all this medication, but my son would not sleep at all.
For the sleeping... we used 1 pillow a queen size blanket and then a 1/4" piece of plywood (to make it so mattress would not bend) to elevate his bed. Also moved the infant swing up to his room. He really liked to sleep in that, the swinging would help keep him asleep longer (which was about 2 hour interval until 4 1/2 months). Down stairs in the play room he would lay in the boppy to sleep or even to play under his activitiy mat. Also the Baby Papason (sp) infant seat or bouncer are of great help!
That is in summary what we experienced. Feel free to call if you want more info... i still have all the print out from Riley i would be more than willing to make copies for you.

Jeane

My daughter was diagonsed with reflux at 6 weeks old by Childrens. By this time she wasn't keeping anything down. She would throw it all back up as soon as it went down. They had me put her on very thick cereal, so thick that we had to put an x on the nipple of her bottles so she could get it out. They gave us a prescription of Zantax for the discomfort, that she didn't like and I quit giving it to her. She out grew this when she turned a year old. I know quite well what you are going through, just hang in there. I was very stressed about it, I was a new mom and my child was always crying because she was always hungry. That all changed with the cereal. She was able to keep it down, which made her a happier baby.

Steph

Hang in there Jeane! My little guy had acid reflux as well and it is upsetting, but fortunately the older they get it gets better. When they start sitting up then standing and walking and also when they start eating solids it improves as well. What worked for us was a change in formula--to Nutramagen and prescriptions of Zantac and Reglan (temporarily). It's seems like this will last forever, but it really won't. Oh, and our doctor gave us "permission" for him to sleep on his stomach which really helped as well.

My little guy spit up about 40xs per day, almost an entire feeding at a time. Always after eating, but it could happen any time. He had an Upper GI, a Lower GI and an ultrasound of his intestines. He had a Cystic Fibrosis test. I gave up most food groups with fear of allergy. I tried Nutramagin formula. Those are things that might need to be checked. My little guy ended up fine. He finally grew out of it at 9 months. The doctors kept telling me in 3 months. It was always 3 months from then. It got worse before it got better.

The only things that helped were Zantac for the acid. He screamed for 12 hours per day nonstop. Zantac got rid of the pain. There are down sides to Zantac, know your choices, but Zantac was the only thing for us. Reglan and Prevacid did nothing. Well, Reglan made him more aggitated and still pukey and Prevacid make him throw up.

Solid food. His doctor advised against it. As he was my second and I had a 3 year old to chase I was in no hurry for solids. But, at 3 months when anything I fed him was projected out of his body and he wouldn't take a bottle I fed him nutramagin mixed with rice cereal. I figured same thing as formula with added rice starch except thicker. He loved it. He improved by large leaps every time I added a meal to his day. Obviously too young now, but something to think of if the issue persists.

Tummy sleeping. I know "back to sleep", but even the doctor recommended it. I know 3 doctors that sleep their babies on their tummy's. It was crazy how much it made a difference. One night he was on another 5 hour scream fest. I flipped him on his tummy in my arms and he immediately fell asleep. I put him in his crib exactly that way and he slept for 12 hours strait (he was so tired from screaming).

Congested and pukey might be a milk intolerance. You could try soy if you haven't already.

Well, thats my reflux story. I hope some of it helps a little.

My son who is almost 2 now had the same issues. We actually started him on Prilosec twice a day and he also had to have a barium swallow study. After that it was shown that he was having penetration of liquids into his lungs so we had to put him on thickened breast milk/formula for months. I would definitely make sure your doctor knows and request the swallow study to be done. The congestion can be caused by not being able to swallow correctly due to the reflux. Hope this helps, and I promise it will get better!

You can try just a touch of cereal in the formula. I would try Mylicon too, just to see if that helps at all.

I would also start using Dr. Brown's bottle's. They're a little more pricey, but very much worth it.

With the congestion - probably the safest thing would be to put a drop of saline in each nostril - there's a brand called "Little Noses" (I think) that you can use, and that should help some.

Also, if the car seat is getting too uncomfortable, try a bouncy seat or something.

Good luck!

My grandson had these same problems with the reflux. It is very scary when they start choking. Talk to your doctor about putting her on Zantac. That helped him for awhile and then he was finally put on Prevacid. Your doctor should be able to put her on some medication to help. The Zantac taste terrible so the pharmacy added grape flavoring to help with the taste.

My now 6-1/2 month old had severe reflux after he was born. He also had a lot of breathing troubles and congestion. The family doc referred us to a pulmonologist and after a bronchoscopy, we found that hw was refluxing so bad, he was aspirating the spit up into his lungs. That could definitely be why she is so congested. We started off by thickening his formula with rice cereal, but that didn't work well. He ended up putting our son on Prevacid, 1/2 tab twice a day. The tabs are desolvable, so you just have to hold in under their tongue. I know medicine can't always be the answer, but it really helped our son. At 6 months the doc suggested we cut back to 1/2 tab once a day, and we will soon be weaning him from that, hopefully that he won't need any medicine at all by the time he turns one - it has just helped him that much, plus as he has gotten older, I think his digestive system has matured some and it isn't as much of an issue. Good luck!

Maybe she needs a formula change. Sometimes doctors are so reluctant to do this. Part of this may be a reaction to cows milk--there were certain babies in the nursery who got very congested and phlegmy, right after they started on it.

A Fisher Price Papasan chair is how we survived the first 6 months. The chair helps to sit baby up while relaxing them. It was great for feeding, sleeping and when they spit up, the cover goes right in the washing machine.
Also try feeding your little baby with the 5 ounce bottles.
I hope that helps!

Hi Jeane, I have been a Mother for 22yrs now and I find the doctors today now call Collic- reflux? Make sure your baby is sitting up right when you feed her and if she is very conjested you may want to try salt and water solution for the nose, I am not sure the amount of salt to water so make sure and call your doctor.. Good luck

My son had the same problems when he was born. His dr. actually recommended that I put baby cereal in his bottles. You put the same number of scoops of cereal as you do formula. for example: If you make a 4 ounce bottle you put the water in first and then 2 scoops of formula and 2 scoops of cereal. I also used his car seat for him so he could sit up. I would definitely check with your dr. first and see what they think about the cereal, he might be too young still. I hope this helps. Also, U can use plain saline nose drops for the congestion. Little Remedies is a good brand, but make sure you get plain saline and not the decongestion one. She is too young for that. Good Luck!!

I know exactly what you are going through! REflux sucks! The dr is giivng you the right advice. The best thing to do is burp more often when feeding, keep sitting up for about 30 mins after each feed and when sleeping. Have you tried mixing a little cereal with the bottle? I know a lot of people including drs don't like that however, it works with some kids. Always keep a snot sucker within reach so when she is throwing up and it is coming out of her nose you can suck it out instead of it going back in as well as helping her get the phlem out when she is trying to throw up. Hopefully this will only last a couple more months. Have you asked the dr about any reflux meds?
Good Luck!
Jenn.....

Hi Jeane'
Both of my children had acid reflux as infants. They were both put on acid reflux medicine that helped a-lot.
My daughter was on prevacid but had an allergic reaction to it...then was put on Zantac liquid that I could give her by mouth or in her bottle. She did fine on it with no reactions. We also had to thicken both of their formula's with rice cereal which also helped with the spitting up etc... She eventually outgrew the problem at 1 year.

We too would try to burp her and put her in an upright position after feedings/sleeping etc... she eventually got a flat spot from all of this and ended up needing to wear a special helmet for 3 months to fix the problem.

My son also had reflux and was put on prevacid and did fine on it and had no allergic reactions :)
They both went to a GI doctor but I do know your peds. doctor can also write a perscription for this.

I know I had acid reflux while I was pregnant and it really burned and was hard to sleep with etc... I was lucky and could take Tums for the problem. Your little girl needs your help for that relief.

I would definitley call her peds. and talk to them about it.

Hang in there. It normally gets better by one year. :)

my daughter has bad reflux as well as being a noisy breather and i just found out not to long ago that she has a floppy air way and a few other things wrong with her. ask your doctor for a good pulminoligst to take your little girl to and they could probably help her from there.

My 11 month old daughter had reflux (and still does to some degree). When she was congested, it was much worse and she would get gaged and spit up much more. We used a humidifier as well as baby vick's and little nose's saline drops. The combinations seemed to work for the most part. Hope this helps!

Both my boys had reflux from week one. Unfortunately it took 3 months to figure out exactly the right thing to do for my oldest. He would just spit up what looked like his entire bottle. It would flood out of his mouth. We first switched him from Similac to Alimentum. (Very pricey in comparison but so worth it if possible) He would scream for hours on end. Everyone said "colic", luckily my pediatrician said "BS" to that. During the first 3 months, we tried Zantac (too harsh), Pepcid (worked but he outgrew the dose too quickly) and finally found his miracle drug Prilosec. All he did was cry because his throat was so raw from all the acid that he was spitting up. I am happy to say he was able to quit taking the meds at 18 months.

Boy #2 - Same thing but he would projectile his milk. He is now 3-1/2 yrs and I finally quit giving him his Prilosec 2 months ago. He had chronic ear infections and had tubes put in. He seems to be doing fine off of his meds as well.

My Advice (for what it is worth):
1) Look at changing her formula

2) Put her to sleep in her carseat (mine did this for ~first 5 months)

3) Purchase a "Tuckersling" (So worth the money!)

4) SWAY, NO BOUNCING!!!!!!
(Never let anyone bounce her EVER!!!! Big fights with my family on this one, both boys would be so terribly uncomfortable after)

5) Feed baby sitting straight up

6) Change diapers with baby's head on pillow

7) Never lay her flat until her reflux is under control

8) Flavor whatever medicine if possible. (Prilosec and grape worked great for us, and I made a point not to flavor any other medication with grape) My youngest, as he got older, was so good about taking this nasty stuff that he would syringe it into his own mouth.

Please know that I truly feel for you. I would hold my first baby for hours listening to him scream. He would look up at me with eyes begging for me to help him. I would just cry. Luckily with my second, we knew where to start and the damage was not so severe. Both my guys (now 5-1/2 and 3-1/2) are doing great. Just remember, things will get better! It just takes time and patience. Good luck!

My daughter is almost 7 mo. and she has reflux. It didn't start until about 3-4 mo. We started on similac, then switched to isomil, then dr put her on zantac. She is still on the zantac and now on similac sensitive rs. She has been on this for almost 3 weeks, it seems to help. But she still gets sick just not everytime and not as much. Somewhere in the middle before the zantac the dr said to put a little bit of cereal in each bottle.

We had the reflux problem too. Our dr. told us to add a little rice cereal to his formula to, for lack of a better term, weigh it down. It worked wonders for us. It sounds like an issue to revisit with your dr. if she sounds congested.

it is common for babies to sound or be congested when they reflux. you may want to try letting her sleep in a punkin seat or swing or something for it until she outgrows the condition. you can ask your doc about reglan or prevacid also if it is bad babies don't have to suffer through it. just make sure after she spits or it comes out her nose you use the bulb syringe to clean her out. she will be fine it is just scary at first but the do outgrow it. goodluck!!! :)

Get her to a good Chiropractor a few good adjustments and she should come out of it. Continue to keep her sitting up after feedings.
If it continues it will ruin her teeth when they come in, my niece now 4 had to have all of her first teeth treated with some kind of ceramic so as to not ruin her adult teeth when they come in. It took my sister 10 months to give in to a chiropractor treatment that I paid for but the reflux went away almost over night after being adjusted. Remember thier little stomaches are only about the size of thier fists.Don't over feed her.

Did the Doc tell you that she has acid reflux? When my oldest was about that age (17 yrs old now--sigh) she was spitting up her milk too. My doc told me to switch milk. I then gave her Carnation Good Start Formula, more like Breastmilk, more gentle on her little tummy. Maybe that's the culprit, the formula.
Poor little baby girl. :(
Good Luck

Lots of babies have this, I know mine did, and I opted not to give her Zantac as my Dr. prescribed. I am a nurse, and there are side effects to every med--Zantac is an adult med given in small doses to babies, and you never know what consequences may show up later in life. Anyway, take that for what it's worth, I know lot's of people will disagree (especially my husband)! Don't be afraid to help her out with the nasal aspirator--you can use it in her nose and mouth to suck out the phlegm if she's choking on it. She will outgrow the reflux as her body matures, I promise, it seems like a long wait until then. Mine spit up a lot, just change the sheets =-) and try to turn her head to one side when you put her down. You can also use towels rolled under the mattress to elevate the mattress while she sleeps. Good luck!

My daughter was exactly the same way!! I would freak out every time it happened. I ended up putting a little bit of cereal in her bottle to thicken it a little. Of course drs. will say this is a big "no no", but then they didn't have to be up with my child and see her like that. I did it anyways and it helped! My dr. did prescribe medicine for reflux that I had to put in her bottle that did help as well. After she ate I would sit her in her bouncy seat for a little bit. It does get better!!! :) She's now a healthy 2 year old so she made it through.

Jeane
My name is S. and my daughters 5 day old little boy was doing the same thing and she was nursing. Her pedi wanted to put him on adult mylanta 6 times a day and then meds and down the road surgery. She opted out of the medical treatment and went with supplements to calm it down and ultimately he never has had the problem again....He turned 2 this summer. Her pedi keeps my daughters name on file when other moms come with the same issues with their babies/kids. Please it is truly that simple and absolutely NO side effects of any kind.
Good Luck
S.

My daughter also had reflux. Our pediatrician said that the congestion is the body's way of protecting itself from the stomach acid. It lines the esophagus with phlegm to keep from being injured from the stomach acid. My daughter had a hard time eating because she was so stuffy. She sounded like she was snoring while eating. We had her sleep in the Infant/Toddler Rocker by fisher price. It was deep enough that I didn't worry about her rolling out. At 6 weeks our pediatrician started her on Prevacid. It was AMAZING!! Within 2 days we had a totally different baby! She was soooo happy and slept great and the congestion went away.. She was only on prevacid for about 2 months. Then she outgrew it! Hope this helps!

My baby also had reflux and the choking, I know how scary it is. Her Dr. put her on liquid zantac and that helped a lot. The life saver was this contraption called a Tucker Sling, you can find it online. It is large wedge with a sling on it to hold the baby so they can sleep elevated without slumping down the crib. It is a little expensive but worth every penny. Also, my daughter was up every 2 hours until she was 6 months old no matter what I did. After getting advice from a frined I started taking to the Chiropractor, within weeks she was sleeping through the night and a much happier baby.

My daughter went through the same thing and I asked the doctor to prescribe her nexium or zantac. She gave us a prescription for zantac and it worked wonders. It will take a few doses before it gets its full effect but she felt so much better.

My son has had severe reflux since birth. We did the whole bouncy seat thing to. Until our GI gave us this product. It's called reflux wedge. Those crib wedges they sell don't really do much in the elevating dept. But, they do make special wedges that are great you can put them in the bed, take them out for travel or for a nap in the living room, could take to daycare or buy a spare. It's pretty elevated with a sling that attaches to them. Has a wrap kind of like a diaper hooks over them so they don't slide off the wedge. Here are a few different pages you can look at. They worked for my son. Good luck. I know we have medicaid and they will pay for the sling but not the wedge..makes no sense, but maybe could get your doc to write script and try get covered by insurance. If you call Tucker sling they will give you the code for the product to give your insurance to see if they cover it.

http://www.tuckersling.com/default.htm

Here they have couple other products. There are other wedges, but the tucker is the best. You can also get more slings as they grow. It also does list on their site above about insurance covering the product.
http://www.pollywogbaby.com/refluxandcolic/refluxwedgesfo...

http://www.pollywogbaby.com/cat--sleeping-wedges--Sleepin...

put a terry cloth bib on her. it'll save you lots of groping around for a washcloth, burp cloth, anything besides your shoulder for the throw-up!

my sympathies.... my daughter ahd reflux and it's no fun! but she grew out of it and is a happy eater now!

You should ask to have Zantac prescribed for her. My daughter had acid reflux too and I used to put her to sleep on her Boppy pillow and she did well, but a swing works as well to keep her upright. Good luck.

One of my boys had the exact same problem. Turned out we just needed to switch him to soy formula (I also added 1/2 tsp of rice cereal). Once we did that, most of the problems went away. I still let him in the bouncy seat after eating just as an extra precaution. I try to avoid medication if possible. If she has a lot of phlem, you might want to put a few drops of saline in each nostril. This will help break up and thin out the phlem and make it easier for her to breathe. Good luck!

i have read over alot of the responses and i will comment on that, but first i want to tell you my story.

i am a firt time mom of twin girls who are currently 5 1/2 months old. they were premies (born at 33 1/2 weeks). reflux is extremely common for premies because their systems are not mature.

anyway, they were in the NICU for 3 weeks after birth and were fed breastmilk (pumped) during that time. when they came home i started feeding them formula (similac neosure with extra calories because they were so small when born). not sure if any of that plays a role or not. i started to notice shortly after they were home that the would arch their backs alot and make chewing motions with their mouths. a couple weeks later they started to vomit... it got worse and worse. when they would vomit it usually seemed like their whole bottle would come up. it was always projectile and would shoot from their mouths and noses. they also would turn purplish in color (their faces) and seemd to stop breathing for a moment, then cry hysterically. it was terrifying to say the least. this seemed to happen at least once a day with one or both of them. i was so stressed and scared. we started trying to sit them up after eating for atleast 15-20 minutes. i never wanted to move them once they were asleep, so it got to thew point where after eating they would be sat in their vibrating seats and that is where they spent the majority if their time. they stopped using their crib all together. we also tried different bottles. the doc browns seemed to work the best. we also gave them gas drops before ever feeding. it seemed to help just a little but any relief was worth it. they began taking prevacid, and then later got on zantac instead. that made a huge improvement. we talked to so many peop,e regarding this issue: their pediatrician, nurse practicioners, the NICU nurses, and then finally were sent to a pediatric GI specialist. they had tests done were they drank barium and had images of their GI tracts taken to be sure their were no abnomalities. everything checked out ok. we were instructed to try the whole cereal in the bottle trick to weigh the formula down in thier tummies. this did not work for us. it seemd to make it worse! i was so confused at this point. i finally spoke wth a pediatric dietition who informed me that while this sometimes does work, it can also give the formula more weight to come back up. in some cases it does make the problem worse. it all made sense at that point. (this also taught me that sometimes different thigns truly work differently for children. also it is good to get as much info as you can from many different ped specialists). a little bit later we had a reflux apnea test done. this involved being admitted for 24 hours on monitors and GI tubes inserted into their stomachs. the whole thing itself was scary but i knew it was a step that needed to be taken to ensure we treat this properly. i was desperate for more answers at this point. we found that the girls were suffering from acid and non acid reflux. the little ring in their throats were immature and allowed their food to come back up. this is something that improves over time luckly. in addition to their zantac they were placed on metoclopramide. we never did change their formula because all of the docs and i agreed that it didn't seem that was an issue in this case and they were really benefiting from it (again, special formula with more calories to get them up to were they should be). i am happy to say that for the past month the girls have been able to sleep in their crib again (all night i might add). there have been major improvements since the meds. no more vomitting!! the only draw back that has come about is that the meds make them constipated (a whole other issue in itself), but we have been combating that with adding a couple ounces of prune or apple juice to their diets daily. we feel that even though this might be a hassle it is well worth the benefits we have gotten from the meds.

as far as the congestion, this is normal. you have to remember that the vomit is traveling thru the nasal passage. use a bulb syringe after every episode to clean out the nose and throat. if it is dried, use saline to dampen inside of the nose (like 2 drops), let sit for a moment, then suction. all saline is the same. you do not need a special ped type. you can find it at any pharmacy (i got mine at cvs).your doc should even be able to write an rx to have it covered by insurance.

now to comment on all of the other responses and even my own. **different things work for different children.** i advise you to take the info you have gotten and talk it over with your peditrician. weigh out the pro's and con's of ANY treatment you might want to pursue. realize it is not a quick fix and something you might have to tweak to work best for you. also, talk to multiple specalist if you do not get the results and answers you are looking for. good luck. i truly hope this helps. i know how stressful and scary this is. and remember, almost al grow out of this too :)

We went through the same thing. Our first son puked everything we fed him if I comfort nursed and then we had to start all over:( I got him on a pretty strict schedule of every 2-3 hours, if I nursed any sooner, he'd puke. He slept in his car seat. Burping him didn't help the reflux, it just gave him the hiccups. At about 4 weeks, they put him on Zantac and that helped the HOURS of screaming each night before he finally fell asleep in his car seat around midnight.

Hi Jeane'! I dealt with the same thing with two of my three kids. The key was feeding her just an ounce at a time, burp, another ounce, then burp again, until the feeding was over. I had to keep my daughter up with no pressure on her belly (usually over my shoulder or in the infant carrier on the front of me) for at least 15-20 minutes after a feeding. If I put her in a swing or carseat, up came the food. Smaller, more frequent feedings helped a lot. We used the Zantac, but I didn't see much help with that. We also experienced the congestion as well. Their airway is so tiny, that any bit of fluid will cause congestion and make breathing pretty difficult for them. So to get rid of the congestion, you have to do your best at eliminating the spitting up. The spitting up gets caught in their airway and then they can't breath. It's normal for it to come out of their nose and their mouth, so don't get nervous about that. It has to come out somewhere. Keep her upright as much as she can tolerate, but make sure her bottom isn't getting irritated from the pressure of her butt from sitting too long. I hope this helps a bit! Good luck!

My little guy is 8 weeks old and has been dealing with the same thing. The advice you have is good and from what I've read it gets better as they continue to grow and develop. The valves and sphincters that control the direction of flow of fluids get stronger and more coordinated as they get older. We do have fewer incidences of milk through the nose and I completely know what you mean about that gasping. It is scary, but it passes. Actually, we haven't had much of that lately. No new advice, just perspective of a few weeks ahead. I'll be going in for our 2-month checkup tomorrow. If I get any new useful advice I'll be sure to pass it along. :)
Edit: FYI- He was a preemie (born 35 weeks) as is breastfed.

We battled reflux for my daughter's first 1.5 years. Yes, keeping her upright for 1/2 hour after feedings can help as well as propping up the top of her crib with some folded towels. We also found the Miracle Blanket swaddler (www.miracleblanket.com) to be a lifesaver. The pressure from the swaddling on the belly sometimes relieves the tummy pain for reflux babies. It was the only way we could get her to sleep.

My best advice to you is to listen to your gut and keep up communication with your doctor if you don't feel that your daughter's reflux is improving. Zantac helped our daughter with the reflux pain but not the spitting up, which only got worse when we started solids. It got so bad that she stopped growing because she wasn't getting enough nutrients. What eventually worked for both the pain and the spitting was Prilosec. She grew out of it at around 1.5 years old.

I don't say the things above to scare you. I only say this to hopefully save you some sanity if the reflux does get worse (which I hope it doesn't!). I didn't speak up to my doctors too much and just figured I had a fussy baby and the docs knew what they were doing. If I had been more persistent and listened to my gut, maybe we could have solved this problem much sooner. Good luck to you, and please feel free to message me any time--I've been where you are and would love to help if I can!

It's like hearing my kids story all over again. 2 out my 3 kids had reflux so bad. With number 3 we purchased a special pillow that we would strap him in to at night and naps...big help....as for her getting tired of sitting up remember that when she was in your womb she was upside down some of the time. Talk to your doc about maybe starting a small dose of mylanta as for the congestion thats all part of the reflux it could lead to sinus infections and ear infections (my kids ended up needing tubes from it) So take care and look into a reflux pillow. Good luck feel free to write back with any questions.

Hi, my son was diagnosed with reflux at 1 month. They did recommend sitting her up after feedings. I used his vibrating seat. It also came out his nose a lot. After going back to the Dr. again, they recommend Zantac and adding cereal to her bottle. The cereal really helped. But he then got constipated. So we started cutting back on that and now he's spitting up again. Though not as bad as the first time. Maybe talk to your Dr. about adding cereal. Just be aware that she will start gaining weight. My son, now 2 months, weighs 14 lbs 6 oz. Good luck, I know how difficult it is to deal with this.