Silent reflux and sleeping on front

[Moonshine160]

Does anyone have any advice about how to get some sleep at night with a silent reflux breastfed baby? He’s only 3 weeks old and from a week onwards his symptoms are progressively getting worse. We’ve tried the usual winding for ages, holding him upright for at least 30 mins after a feed, but he cannot stand to be placed on his back and is unsettled or crying the entire night, even when cosleeping.

During the day when we can supervise him he is happy sleeping on his front and seems so much more comfortable, or being held upright by us. Because of SIDS obviously neither are acceptable at nighttime, so we are getting no sleep at all. If I could put him on his front overnight I know we’d get some rest but I don’t dare.

We’re back at the doctors next week and I’m also starting an elimination diet to rule out CMPA in case it’s that. Any advice? I’m exhausted and emotional.

Have you tried a dummy and tilting the side next to me crib. Some seem to be able to tilt. Only thing that sort of worked for us.

Tbh I called it from birth she was a belly sleeper. No one believed me. Guess what she sleeps on her belly now. I'm the same and have reflux at this age 😆 🤣 it does help it. But tbh I never put my lo on her stomach. I was terrified on sids

Have you tried infacol? Can help with trying to get the wind up. When you’re burping, hold the baby upright in like a sitting position, and move his upper body round in a circle and backwards and forwards gently.

As pp said, you can try tilting the crib slightly. Don’t put anything under the mattress, put something on the floor prop it up slightly.

I really sympathise, mine was like this too… and we never really found a solution, just a hard few months until it got better on its own.

Thank you for your advice. Yes we have the next to me crib on a slight incline which doesn’t seem to have made a difference. A dummy does help when he accepts it but when he’s upset he keeps spitting it out.

The health visitor said that yes some babies prefer sleeping on their tummies but until they can roll is simply not safe so that’s that. Which I completely understand due to the SIDS risk but when he’s screaming and arching his back at night when he’s placed on his back to sleep I don’t know what else I’m meant to do. I’ve ended up accidentally falling asleep with him in my arms because I’m that exhausted and surely that’s even more unsafe :( We haven’t tried swaddling yet so I’ll give that a go.

Ours had similar issues and just would not sleep anywhere but being held so for about 6 weeks we stayed up in shifts to hold the baby. Baby used to cluster feed in the evenings so husband would go to bed early and then we’d swap around 3-4am and I’d go to bed until around 8-9am. Because I’m breastfeeding we could never get perfectly equal shifts but 4 hours uninterrupted is doable, in fact it’s probably the minimum needed to function. After six weeks he started sleeping short stints in a purflo nest, and he was on infant Gaviscon at this point too. Then his sleep gradually improved from there.