Safe sleeping for newborns?

[InMyPrime]

Our 4 week old DS tends to suffer from wind and what we think might be reflux. The advice we've had is to keep him sat upright for 40 mins - 1 hour after each feed. So far, we've been doing this by just holding him and it works OK but our biggest problem is getting him down to sleep. If we put him into his car seat or hold him in a baby sling, he sleeps perfectly well but as soon as we try and transfer him to the Moses basket / crib and lie him flat, he wakes up again within minutes and can't settle at all. If we put him lying flat on his back, his feed repeats on him and he gets hiccups and starts to spit up his feed. This happens anytime we lay him flat. If, for example, we need to change him after feeding him and lay him flat on the changing table to do that, he is almost guaranteed to spit up or even vomit his feed.

So what I want to know is, is it safe to allow a newborn to sleep sitting upright e.g. in a car seat? Our car seat is Jane Matrix so can be laid flat as well as in a sitting-up position. It's just that all the advice on SIDS is to have young babies only sleeping flat on their backs so we're worried to allow him to sleep unsupervised anywhere other than lying flat in his Moses basket.

What friends of mine have done with refluxy babies is put a wedge pillow or rolled up blanket under the cot/basket mattress. So the mattress is on an incline and the baby's head elevated, but the baby and its spine is straight.

The issue with car seats and things is that the baby's body can get compressed, which affects spinal development and/or breathing (and probably other things, I'm no doctor!). The issue with SIDS and sleeping on one's back is different, that's about avoiding sleeping on one's tummy (and on the side can roll easily onto the tummy, and a newborn can't roll back). So the tilted mattress avoids both problems.

Agree re books under the top of the cot, you do need a good 6-8 inches. You can buy wedge pillows to Keelung upright too.

We used a wedge under the change mat and bought blocks for the cot legs.

Also kept pressure off the tummy by doing nappies up loosely and no trousers - only sleepsuits and dungarees.

I ended up putting DS down on his left hand side with his left arm stretched out to stop him rolling (from about 10 weeks once his head control was a lot better although was good from early on as we did tummy time from 2-3 weeks). Being on the left is supposed to better as easier to bring up wind etc bit like the emergency recovery position.

I also introduced a dummy for after feeds and spent a long time winding - by rubbing, not patting. And DS slept on me for many nights.

Iggy totally agree about the winding. Op not talking about you.

I know someone recently who didn't think bf babies needed to ever be winded, mo wonder the poor thing was suffering. I do wonder if some if the problem cases are just a case not babies not being winded enough.

My BF baby didn't need winding except very occasionally, but she was the exception. No further practical help for you OP other than sympathy - it will pass.

DS used to come up with wind after 20 mins after finishing. It was always worse at night - the wind wasn't always from taking air during a feed but from digesting the milk hence the delay.

I would agree with the sling suggestions - very good for reflux. Reflux is very different from normal posseting, of course. Posseting is normal vomiting after feeds - it's how you know they've had enough! The best description I've read was of 'happy sicking' - ie completely unbothered by the puking, just yak-and-go! Reflux is painful and distressing for them. Straightforward puking is nothing to worry about!

Thanks for all the advice - our car seat can be adjusted to a flat position so we're now trying to put him into it sitting up and then adjusting it so it's flat once he's asleep. Last night I'd spent half an hour rocking him to sleep in the baby sling but then made the fatal mistake of transferring him to the Moses basket afterwards. He was wide awake and grizzling within minutes! Next time around we transferred him to the car seat instead and he slept soundly so we could flatten it out then and he stayed sleeping (for all of 2.5 hours).

The reflux / wind issue continues to be a problem though. We've tried giving him breaks halfway through feeding to wind him and wind him thoroughly afterwards for up to 40 mins at a time but he just seems to not feed well sometimes. This morning he sicked up half of his feed all over me even though I'd done all the usual winding / keep him upright techniques etc. It's so frustrating!

I think the root of the problem is that we're mixed feeding and the mix doesn't seem to agree with him. I'm persisting with some breastfeeds every day just because I want him to get the health benefits but am tempted to give up now as the mix just doesn't seem to work. I've never been able to exclusively breastfeed him since he was a few days old for various reasons - larger baby, traumatic delivery so I was weak for the first couple of weeks, never latched on well etc etc...

Anyway, I really hope the reflux thing improves with age as we're running out of creative ideas!

That's interesting, Octavia, regarding actual reflux vs. normal posseting. I'm never sure with DS. His vomiting doesn't seem too bad - it's not projectile, it's usual relatively small amounts, like posset, rather than a whole feed, and it doesn't seem to distress him too much. He's usually calm afterwards.

What seems to distress him is wind or reflux after feeding. He just lies there and grizzles and swallows a lot, like as if milk is coming back up his throat. If he's lying flat, he'll spit or sick up usually. It looks to me like acid reflux that you get as an adult, where food repeats on you e.g. after a heavy meal and acid burns the back of your throat. It looks painful for him.

He could be reacting to the formula - cows milk did this to DS. it's worth seeing if you can get hydrolysed formula or at least try comfort milk (speak to your HV/GP first) as the proteins are a bit broken down so less likely to cause the acid reflux (which is what it sounds like it could be). The younger the better really so they can get used to the taste.