There are lots of things you can do before (or in addition to ) meds for reflux. Positioning - wedge under the mattress, change table etc. Wear baby after her meal or hold her up right for an hour or so to help the food stay in the tummy. When breastfeeding, also hold bub more upright - bum lower than head and tummy. For solids, maybe less acidic foods would help?
I don't know that it is reflux, but its worth trying things to see if you get some relief.
If you want to go meds route, my mchn said try mylanta 1ml (bub was younger than yours though, would have to look up dose for older bub) to see if it made a difference.
Both my DS's were dreadful sleepers - DS1 had reflux and I thought DS2 did also but turned out to be a dairy allergy, the symptoms can be very similar. I eliminated ALL dairy from my diet and saw a HUGE difference in his sleeps, ie, going from waking every 45 mins to sleeping in 2-4 hour blocks. It took about three weeks for the dairy to co pletely leave my system but if I even eat the tiniest bit all the old symptoms are back straight away.
Is DD snuffly and congested all the time? Does she have a weepy/teary eye? Vomit much? Those were some of DS2 symptoms, as well as screaming if I ate too much dairy.
Hope you find some answers soon, sleep deprivation is the worst form of torture xx
hi Lise, She use to be congested... when she was really little, my brothers nickname for her is 'snuffle pig', and she use to have a very gunky yucky eye/tear duct, but that cleared up on its own over xmas.
what type of things did you elliminate?
Ive read a bit about reflux and the more I read about it the less I think thats what it is... because you can't hear the acid, she doesn't chuck up... and she is really happy and funny and laughing and all that all the other times of the day.
EVERYTHING with milk/milk products in it. DS2 is also such a happy boy which is why I was convinced there was something wrong, I just couldn't work out how he could be so happy yet such a terrible sleeper (as in wake up clearly uncomfortable, only sleeping upright etc). So I don't eat:
Milk (I now drink rice milk)
Cheese
Yogurt
Ice cream
Particular condiments with milk solids (some mayonnaises, Caesar dressing etc)
Biscuits
Chips
Butter/margarine (I use Nuttelex)
Basically I read the ingredients list of anything I eat, you'd be surprised what dairy is hiding in. Even the breadcrumbs I went to use had milk solids!
If you're willing to give it a go then might be worth a shot. I do take a calcium supplement just to ensure I'm getting enough calcium
Allergies can present as reflux - I think it's attributed as underlying cause in a large proportion of cases. It's because the allergens irritate the gut. Other babies may present as lactose intolerant, when it's actually caused by colitis, due to allergy. Just for eg.
Do you have a family history of allergies?
Oh yes I forgot to mention that I done a full dairy elim with DS and saw big improvements. He still woke a lot, but was much easier to resettle and didnt appear to be in as much discomfort. It was hard at first, but after about a month and seeing improvements was great motivation to keep going. I done occasional tests with cows milk back in my diet, within a week he'd be back to very restless uncomfortable sleep. He is much better now he has gotten older, he can tolerate it much better. Cheese & yoghurt he tolerated well earlier, but cows milk took a while. And he was ALWAYS such a happy little dude during the day, and his day naps were pretty good most of the time. Which meant of course that well meaning people like family thought I was full of crap when I kept saying there was something more than just "bad" sleeping habits waking him at night (re co-sleeping and not letting him cry. All I needed to do was let him cry in his cot to get him sleeping better apparently *rollseyes*)
OMG!!!!
I settled her to bed last night, it took a few goes, but she was offically asleep at 8pm....she didn't wake up until 230am!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I bf her, she was asleep again in minutes, woke again at 3am for a quick cuddle and then she slept until 6am!!!!!!
=O =O =O
I feel fantastic =D
yesterday she had breaky, and we gave her a snack mid morning and she had a bigger snack at 430ish pm, but didnt eat much, I was worried she would be hungry, but she was fine =)
so maybe she isn't quite ready for solids yet. we will just cut back, ease her into it and go from there. I will tell the nurse all about it tomorrow though and see if she has any ideas.
thankyou so much for your help girls, its good to know I can keep coming back in here and throw some ideas around and get some support.
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