[sfnative]

I've given our one month old son liquid Zantac for two weeks. Now our pediatrician gave me the tablet form to mix with my breastmilk. After one night, it was non stop spitting up last night. My son was in a lot of discomfort. Has anyone else experienced more spit-up with the tablet form?

I am trying to spend a lot more time burping him, but he'll still spit up heaps an hour or two later. How long are most of you burping your baby?

I'm concerned about his weight gain, as he is at borderline weight for his age. I don't want to push breastfeeding if he isn't getting enough of my milk. I am drinking Mother's Milk tea at least 3x's a day. I just started expressing and so I hope to top him off at least once a feed, but I'm not getting a whole lot of milk in one pumping session (about 20 mls). Has anyone had good experience with mixing breastfeeding with formula?

I'm thinking about starting Gripe water, as he is very windy.

I just started taking him to an Osteopath. We had our first session this week. I plan to take him for several more sessions.

With his reflux and fussy tummy, he isn't sleeping much. So, we're all a bit exhausted at the moment.

Anthing else I should be doing? Any advice is appreiciated!

Tired Mama

[Frenchy]

Hello,
My son had some reflux troubles during the 3 first months, and we even had to take him to the hospital when the crisis were at top.
I gave him some drops given by the homeopath and he had 3 sessions with the osteopath and everything disappeared ! During the first months I also put an extra pillow under his bed to put up his head.
Hope you'll see the end of it very soon !

[Tracey Nicole]

Hi tired mama,

i feel for you and understand. my little one is a month old on sunday and we had/have similiar problems.

i havent introduced any medication for spit ups but do use formula to top up after almost every feed (had to ... didnt have enough milk). i will say though that i do think this didnt help my milk at all (baby is now used to the bottle) but hey, she is a very good weight, strong and healthy.

i decided (in my own wisdom :-)) that she may have a delicate stomach like mummy so I feed her little bits and slowly and burp in between. sometimes I also split the feed (especially if i am trying to keep her awake during the day). i also keep her vertical for at least 30 mins after each feed. this has helped.

i also did a yuen session at balance health which assisted. kind of like kineseology. the practictioners at balance are great so perhaps give them a call. carla who owns the place, has kids and seems to be an expert with natural treatments.

oh yer, i have also done the elevated sleep which was good.

hang in there, I am told the first month is our hardest. they say we should be getting our first smile in the next four weeks which will make things more worthwhile.

take care, trace

[Matty]

Hang in there with the breastfeeding. It may seem like you don't have enough milk, but after the first month, it gets so much easier.
So many of us seem to think we don't have enough milk in the first month. I came sooo close to giving it up.
But now I have an 11 week old that weighs 6.8kgs!

Don't stress too much about the burping, not really that necessary in a BF baby, and doesn't seem to make much difference to the reflux.

I'm on to reflux baby number 2. Both have been on liquid Zantac, which has been good, so can't comment on the tablet form.
Both seemed to increase their vomiting after the first month regardless of anything I did. (First baby had no medication until he was 10 weeks old).

First baby was bottle fed, and have found with my second the reflux is so much easier to handle with a breastfed baby.
I now let him feed whenever he wants, which means he takes small feeds often, and is never overfed, which has dramatically lessened his vomiting.

Good luck, they all grow out of it eventually.

[mummymoo]

Hi There,

Hang in there with regards to the breastfeeding, sometimes it does take a while to build up to the amount your baby needs and if he/she isn't falling with regards to their weight and height pecentile charts then you should continue to push on with the BF. If you do think you are having milk production problems you should see a lactation consultant, they may suggest fenugreek which aids milk production.
The other reason for continuing with the BF is that BF babies tend to have less reflux than bottle fed babies. I would suggest sitting your baby upright for 1/2 hour after the feeds and letting them sleep on a slight incline, this helps enormously with reflux (because gravity helps keep the stomach contents in the stomach long enough for your body to process it to the intestines where it is less likely to come back up.
Finally I would ask about obtaining liquid zantac from your paediatrician.
All the best.

[NYCMel]

My son was exactly the same. He's 8 months now and we've been giving him Zantac in liquid form since around 2 months. Liquid is so much better. Definitely ask your ped. for a prescription. We also saw an osteopath for about 2 months which helped him a lot in terms of getting settled and more balanced. He has never slept through the night and now that he's teething it's even worse.

We put our baby on his tummy for sleeping despite what the research has shown. Since he was in our room for the 4 months, we took turns checking up every 1/2 hour etc...At a very young age, he could turn his head from side to side as a result. He was also an early crawler and stander. It was honestly the only way he could sleep b/c of the pressure on his tummy.

His reflux is so much better and I think it's because he was born 2.5 weeks early and now he's just out grower it. We're slowly weaning him off Zantac too by just giving it twice a day rather than three times.

It sounds like you are doing everything you can to make his life more comfortable. Reflux babies are different and definitely require lots of patience!

[MilkMonster]

Hi there,
My soon-to-be 4mth old son also has/had reflux due to his prematurity (he was born at 30weeks) and came home on liquid zantac which I have since stopped because we didn't find he was improving with the medication. We found that feeding him on demand and letting him stop feeding as soon as he seems full helps a lot and has reduced the huge globs of spit-up. although we do have those days where the crying/fussiness can go on for 3-5hrs and it's really exhausting...I am really looking forward to the end of this phase!!

I have not been able to breast feed but have been exclusively pumping for the first 3.5mths, I just started introducing formula b/c to be honest, I am so tired of pumping and can't find time to fit it in during the day. I'm kind of guilty about not feeding him breastmilk only since I exclusively pumped for my elder son for 6mth, it seems i'm not being "fair" - i've digressed, but to answer your question, it hasn't made any difference (better or worse) except that he has a harder time pooping. He does seem to burp easier on formula tho.

If you are having trouble burping your baby, you could try this method they taught us at QMH which is to put place baby on your thigh and pressure on the front and back which slowly rocking the baby side to side. I also find holding him upright and walking around or gently bouncing him on my knee helps the little burps collect and come out.

Can you let me know who you see for osteopathy? I am interested to find out more info to see if it's right for my son. Thanks!!

Hang in there...haha just know when you are up in the middle of the night, our family is doing the same!!

[MilkMonster]

sorry forgot to mention that i am combo feeding 2-3 feeds breastmilk, 3-4 feeds formula