Nutramigen and Zantac (Acid Reflux)

Reflux is so hard. One of mine had it pretty severely. Here are the lessons I learned, maybe some of them will help you.
- reflux and milk protein intolerance often go hand-in-hand. Is your wife breastfeeding at all, or is he 100% on formula? If she's breastfeeding at all, she needs to remove dairy from her diet also. When he turns 1, be very careful in introducing milk. My son outgrew the reflux before he outgrew the milk protein intolerance - he drank rice milk until he was about 2.
- there aren't many meds for infant reflux and those that exist don't help much. For me, they basically didn't help at all and we tried them all. You should talk to your doc if the zantac isn't working and try something else, but if none of them help, don't be surprised because that is common.
- make sure you aren't feeding him in a cradle position. He should be as vertical as possible while he's eating. Be creative in how you position him to make this happen.
- The more time he spends in a vertical position the better. 20 minutes after eating might not be long enough. Which leads me to my next tip...
- a hands-free baby carrier is your best friend. They hold the baby against your chest in a completely vertical position. The was pretty much the only way my baby was happy. Baby Bjorn, Snugli, Moby Wrap - take you pick of what you want to use, but get something. Put him in there after he eats and just wear him around the house as much as possible while you do everything you are doing for the day/evening. I even gave up putting him down for naps - pretty much the only way my little one would nap was in the moby wrap while I was wearing him. He would sleep for hours that way because he was actually comfortable.
- Feeding rule of thumb - feed half as much, twice as often. So if he's currently taking 4 ounces every 4 hours, try feeding 2 ounces every 2 hours. Smaller amounts in his tummy at one time means that there is less to spit up, and also that it takes a shorter time to digest.
- Keep reminding yourself that this is a phase. It was frustrating (sometimes to the point of tears for me) and hard and so exhausting, but all babies do grow out of this. It will end eventually. I knew the very day he grew out of it, because he instantaneously turned from a fussy unhappy baby would did not sleep into the happiest little guy I've ever seen who immediately slept through the night. It may take a while, but you WILL get there!

I wish you the best of luck.

ETA: I agree with Tadpole too, and forgot that one. Never lay him down flat. My daycare was a "no bouncy seat/no swing" in the infant room facility (NAEYC accreditation rules), but they got special permission to get a bouncy seat just for my son so he did not have to lay flat on his back for naptime at their facility.

We haven't been self diagnosing and treating our little guy. Every formula change or med has been suggested by our pediatrician and we ALWAYS check with them before beginning and ending a formula or med. I was just simply asking if anyone has experienced a similar issue. He's on the nutramigen because they think he may have been sensitive to the milk protein in the other formulas.

he's way too young for solid food. i know it's terrible to hear your baby scream inconsolably, but even babies with perfect digestion shouldn't have cereal this young. it's exactly the wrong thing to do with a baby whose digestion is already delicate.

sometimes you have to give medication time to work, although i hesitate to suggest this with a baby this young and distressed.

it's hard to tell from your post, but it implies that you have self diagnosed and are treating the baby over the counter except in the case of the zantac. have you taken the baby back to the doctor since the zantac quit working?

what does she say?

just leaping from med to med can cause its own host of problems. you need to have professionals help you find solutions, not strangers on the internet.
khairete
S.

check back with the dr and see what they say about the meds seemingly not working, is baby having a growth spurt and constantly hungry? have you tried pacifiers? and when you are laying baby down to sleep is it flat in a crib or just slightly elevated in crib? my kids could not sleep on their back, when they were super little i used swings, bouncy seat and such to have them sleep in a more sitting position. when they were a little older i would lay them on their side, using a blanket roll to prevent them from going belly down or onto their back. once they learned to roll over that was it, they slept all night on their tummy.

My son was super fussy, gassy, had reflux and suffering from cows milk allergy. Babies magic tea in conjunction with reflux medication has been my saving grace. This alone helps me tame the colicky episodes especially at night.

Do not put food in this little guy's tummy. He isn't old enough to digest anything and you'll just make it worse. Imagine rotting cereal sitting in his tummy for days.

Formula or breastmilk is the only "food" an infant truly needs up to their first birthday. So every bite of food you give him takes away his nutrition. He'll eat like he's starving and it's because he's not getting any nutrients from the flavored goo that is baby food. It's not nutrition, it's for teaching a child to chew and swallow. They expect parents to always give formula or breastmilk first, then offer a few bites of baby food.

Perhaps you need to take him to see a pediatric tummy doc? Formula is almost always the problem so I'd probably talk to the doc first. Go soy, lactose free, regular milk based, etc...to see if there is anything else that works better. With our 7 grand kids each one ended up doing well with different formulas.