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Original poster

Acid reflux in a 4 week old baby any sujestions??

13 replies

bubblez · 24/06/2006 17:59

My cousin gave birth a few weeks ago and he has developed acid reflux. She has been having sleepless nights up with him needless to say.

I was just wondering if there were any MNERS who have had simular experiences and what helped for them. She bottle feeds him.

Also I remember an episode of Baby whisperer that I watched where the baby whisperer put the baby on a positioning cushion and fed him milk through a colic reducing bottle (not the advent ones). I've looked for both of these on the net and haven't had any luck finding them as yet.

Any help is greatly appreciated
xxx

OP posts:

AHF · 24/06/2006 18:21

They are Dr Browns natural flow bottles, I think.
Positioning head higher then feet (i.e. not flat) also helps. Gaviscon (from you GP).
Some people swear by Amby Nature's Nest (hammock style bed), seems to be very good, but not tried myself (didn't know about it until too late) AHF

LIZS · 24/06/2006 19:02

Incline cot/basket at head end, don't lay baby flat - sit in infant car seat or bouncy chair -especially for an hour or so after a feed, ask gp for thickener to add to milk. The BW used a Habermann feeder iirc. Depending how bad he is she may find that just inclining him and feeding him more upright solves the worst of it without need for Gaviscon etc and he should outgrow it eventually (it is usually caused by an immaturity of the valve at top of stomach) but it may take a good while (dd was 1-ish). It may or may not improve when he is weaning onto solids, sitting up or walking.

hth

Original poster

bubblez · 24/06/2006 19:22

Ahhh thank you liz that is the exact bottle I was thinking of...

Thank you AHF I'm going to google the Amby Nature's nest... fingers crossed..

OP posts:

TheLadyVanishes · 24/06/2006 20:24

we used gaviscon infant and it worked great (tho it doesn't work for every baby) i used dr brown bottles which are expensive but well worth it (i think the haberman bottles may be slightly more expensive but not by much) a yellow pages/or one of those mothercare maternity pillows (small one which the bump rests on) under a cot mattress work well too

SofiaAmes · 25/06/2006 06:29

I breastfed my dd, but she had awful invisible acid reflux (nothing came out, it just burned her throat). We were prescribed a special stay down formula by my paediatrician in los angeles. So I supplemented dd's breastfeeding with a bottle a day of this formula and it made a world of difference. I think it was called enfamil ar or someting like that. It is available in the uk but is generally kept behind the counter in pharmacies althought you don't need a prescription for it. However, got our gp to prescribe it so didn't have to pay for it. It has rice starch instead of corn starch which most of the uk stay down formulas have. I highly recommend it.

koalabear · 25/06/2006 06:39

bottles are called Heberman Feeders - available through the internet

loads of things you can do for reflux - best advice is to go see a paediatrician - go private if you have to - there is special formula (we had Enfamil AR) which helped so much

notsoladyjess · 25/06/2006 20:18

My ds2 had reflux for the first 2 months and it was a nightmare!! The doc prescribed gaviscon which did not really work and then Zantac which is an antacid, which also didn't work and to be honest it felt wrong giving him this at such a young age.
So we took him to the homeopath who gave him a remedy which totally changed him! He did not throw up any more, arch his back and scream when being breastfed, be generally upset! I would highly recommend it. I went to see Christian at the Dolphin House clinic in Brighton (I think it is now called the Children's Clinic, not sure).
Good thing with homeopathy is that it is not harmful. Usually if the remedy works, the symptoms get a little worse before they get better.
ds2 got a bit sick last month and we gave him the same remedy again and it sorted him out again. The remedy was called Lyopdium (30c) but do go and see a trainned homeopath cos every child is different.
good luck!

notsoladyjess · 25/06/2006 20:19

sorry, meant to type Lycopodium!

vnmum · 25/06/2006 20:28

my son also has reflux, he is 7 months now and it is not as bad as it was at first. my advice is very similar to everyone else's really. incline head end of cot, sleep in bouncy chair or car seat if you have to, keep upright for atleast 30mins after a feed, carry baby around in a sling. we were given gaviscon by GP but didnt really work, milk thickeners worked some times and we were offered sma staydown formula but in the end i just managed it with positioning tricks including inclining change mat slightly, as i was breastfeeding and didnt want to switch to formula. just buy plenty of muslins, spare vests sleep suits etc and get used to lots of washing

Original poster

bubblez · 26/06/2006 14:42

oh my goodness, I logged off early saturday so didn't get to read all of your threads, thank you all so much for your addvice. It is going to be a great help.

OP posts:

MeAndMyBoy · 26/06/2006 15:02

DS had acid reflux, I went to the doc and got a prescription for baby gaviscon which helped.

Also always fed DS more upright so that the milk doesn't run back up from his tummy. When I was winding didn't pat his back just rubbed it so that I wasn't pushing milk back up from his tummy and put a cushion under the changing mat so that he didn't lie flat when I changed his nappy otherwise he would be sick and then cry.

The bottle the baby whisperer (Tracey Hogg) used was a hayberman feeder (not sure about spelling though) have a look at her website think it's on there?

good luck and it did get better for us xx

Naurts · 29/04/2018 04:11

Our 4 week old has acid reflux.

We have him on ranitidine, and that seems to be managing it well. We tried gaviscon which was a big mistake, he ended up constipated which was awful as he was so uncomfortable and screaming.

We have also included his crib, his basonette, and his Moses basket, and we have bought wedges to make him sleep on his side. He’s a much happier baby and HV is happy with him on his side and not too concerned about SIDs (to be fair, the alternative was him sleeping on us on his tummy)

We’ve also taken him to the cranial osteopath, and although we’ve only had one session, he seems so much more relaxed. It’s hard to know with these things as to whether he’s more relaxed because he’s changing week by week, but it seems to be doing something. I had read that traumatic births can lead to tension across the head, neck and spine which can lead to reflux and other issues. The cranial osteopath can help work some of these out. My son was stuck in the birth canal and I pushed for 2 hours before he was eventually sucked out by kiwi cup, took 3 attempts to get him out as the cup kept pinging off. I think if I had to go through that I’d be pretty tense afterwards too! Ask your cousin how the delivery was, may be worth a trip to an osteopath. I paid £40 for first session and follow up sessions will be £30.

Naurts · 29/04/2018 06:24

Also, our baby’s reflux got worse with aldi formula. We’re back on Aptamil now. The ingredients are the same but the quantities are different. I tried a glass of both of them myself and honestly, if I had to drink 7 glasses of mamia formula a day, I think I’d have heartburn too! It’s sickly sweet compared to Aptamil.

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