Question for nursing moms/baby with reflux

[blessedby3]

My DD(2 1/2 mos) has acid reflux. She is on previcid for it. I am exclusively nursing her. Can what I eat effect her with the reflux? If I am eating foods that normally make reflux worse will that spill over to the baby and make things worse? She has been waking up at nights like she is hurting and Im wondering now if I am making things worse with my diet. If that is true, what should I be avoiding? I dont have it so Im not sure what not to eat except for spicy foods I would think. Thanks for the help

 

[3littleHalls]

2 of my 3 had reflux(nursed all3) and they took Prevacid. So, I can understand your frustration and concerns. Have you tried elevating(slightly) one end of the crib? Reflux babies tend to do better when they aren't lying flat. There is also a wedge you could purchase to put under the mattress. Also burping before you lay them down helps. Foods to avoid would be spicy, gassy(onions, garlic, broccoli, greasy) type of foods. Have you considered food allergies? I would try an elimination type of diet to see if it is something you are eating that is not agreeing with your baby. Your pediatrician has tips too. Best wishes to you!! And hopefully you and your baby will get some sleep!!

 

[blessedby3]

yes, we are elevating her with the boppy or the wedge. Half the time we are actually holding her through the night which = no sleep for us. Out of 4 children we have never experienced this. Quite frustrating for mom and dad and quite painful for baby. I guess I will really watch my diet for a few days and see if things seem better.

 

[Mouse House Mama]

I would eliminate dairy from your diet. Dairy can cause alot of issues. I did this with my first child because he would spit up everytime I had any dairy products. I stopped them and he stopped spitting up. I would also avoid spicy foods and gassy foods- broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, etc. Good luck!

 

[DisOrBust]

It's all about proteins,lol! Most foods do not cross but their proteins do. Some more "whole" then others. One of the biggest offenders is dairy. Try completely cutting dairy out of your diet for 3-7 days and see if it helps. By refux your saying she is spitting up across the room? The symptoms your decribing, the nighttime stuff, sounds more like colic. If so prevacid won't help much. She is also at the age where colic strikes. The best thing you are doing is nursing and I know its hard but imagine how much worse it would be if you were bottle feeding. Other idea's are night time bath by DAD (give you a break) and infant massage. HTH!

Sue

No offense to peds but a Lactation Consultant may have some better ideas

 

[NotUrsula]

Been there, done that. DS had severe reflux until age 4, when he *finally* outgrew it. My new baby, who's 5 mos. initially showed the signs, but stopped. (Thank You, Jesus!)

Most people will tell you it's dairy, but that wasn't my experience. Not spicy foods, either. My ped explained it as a physical problem, that the sphincter muscle at the top of the stomach is just not fully developed yet, and it won't hold a darned thing in when the stomach is full. Therefore, IME, the biggest issue related to YOU is the force of your let-down. Mine is very forceful, and I was essentially darn near drowning the kid. He was getting too much milk at once for his stomach to contain. The thing that I did that worked a bit in the early months was to pump for 5 minutes before feeding, to let off some of the watery foremilk, so that what he got was the thicker more nutrient-heavy milk at a slower rate. I also only fed on one side at a time, a bit more frequently, so that his stomach was never really filled, and that helped, too. (Mind you, this was real across-the-room reflux, 4 years of it, and nothing we tried eliminated it completely. DS is still a picky eater at 10 because he got so accustomed to the pain of throwing up after meals.)

DD is 5 mos and is just now feeding on both sides at the same feed. There was a lot of milk there, and she initially had the same reaction to too much at once: she threw it back up, hard.

LLL has a good page on how to recognize the issue of overactive letdown: http://www.llli.org/FAQ/oversupply.html

 

[lighttech]

I don't have a lot of advice, but I wanted to offer my support. DS had mild reflux, our worst part was that eating and nursing were never calm, peaceful times. His throat would hurt, so he would push off and cry when eating. Especially with bottles, and even more so if the bottle wasn't warmed enough. Obviously not near what you and a lot of previous posters are dealing with.

I nursed exclusively for 3 months, but then traded off with bottles when I went back to work... tried to do pumping, but my milk flow slowed, so we supplemented with formula.

I'm not sure if you are doing any supplementing, but if you are, talk to your ped about the formula you are using if you haven't. We changed to a soy formula, and it made a huge difference. Also, your ped should be able to answer your questions about what foods you should or could try avoiding. Make sure you keep in close contact. I know I was always a little stand off-ish about calling and "bothering" them. But, that's what they are there for. I read a great article written by a ped when Ds was about 4 months reminding parents that pediatricians got into that line of work b/c they WANT to help and that parents need to remember that they are on the same team. It made me feel a lot better about calling.

Someone else mentioned a lactation consultant. Try looking up info for the La Leche league. They are a support organization for nursing women and have a lot of info on various resources. It might be helpful.

http://www.lllusa.org/

 

[dpcheercoach]

Thanks Not ursula!!! You posted my exact thoughts! DS#1, now 7 years old went through the same thing. The foods I ate didn't seem to matter as much as th quantity HE ate. Although very tiring on mom, I nursed more frequently but less at a time. Also to give myself a break now and then (like to shower, sleep, eat etc.) I would pump and let dad do a feeding or two a day especially the last feeding before bed. That and elevating his mattress helped get through the night which seemed to be worse than the day.
Another tip, For us when we did bottle feed (with pumped milk) we found that the Dr. Browns bottles worked best.
We were on meds for this until he was 3 and he now still has certain (lots) of food aversions due to the constant throwing up and texture is a big issue for us. Hope this helps.

 

[blessedby3]

I don't have a lot of advice, but I wanted to offer my support. DS had mild reflux, our worst part was that eating and nursing were never calm, peaceful times. His throat would hurt, so he would push off and cry when eating. Especially with bottles, and even more so if the bottle wasn't warmed enough. Obviously not near what you and a lot of previous posters are dealing with.

This is exactly what I am experiencing with my DD. Most of the time when nursing she is pushing off and on constantly and moving her body around also. Glad to hear that she is not the only one. I didnt think about her throat hurting. I definately know this is not colic. She wakes in the night, but is not screaming and crying constantly like with colic. She just cries out in pain off and on. She also is very "fidigity" and moving around a lot. She was a very bad throw-upper at first, and then after getting on the medicine she has that under control. I thought she was doing much better, but now we are experiencing the uncomfortableness during the night and the restless feedings. My friend who has acid reflux says that it is very painful when you lay down flat. She said that the baby is probably feeling the acid come back up and it hurts a lot. Also, I am not supplementing. Only nursing. I am planning on calling the Doc again on Monday and discussing this some more. I just wanted to see how the weekend goes with me avoiding various foods and see if it seems to help. I hate to see her in pain like this.
Thanks for all the input and insight into your own situations.

 

[lighttech]

. I didnt think about her throat hurting. I definately know this is not colic. .

Just so you know, I never got a Dr.'s confirmation on this. It was something I read on my own and sort of put together with how DS was acting. (Just didn't want to mislead in any way.) But, it makes sense. DS would act so hungry, and start feeding voraciously, but after a sip or two would push away. But, he would become so upset if I stopped the nursing.

Best of luck to you. It hurts so much seeing your little one hurting and not knowing what to do. I'm really glad the medicine is helping.

 

[RN01]

I would eliminate dairy from your diet. Dairy can cause alot of issues. I did this with my first child because he would spit up everytime I had any dairy products. I stopped them and he stopped spitting up. I would also avoid spicy foods and gassy foods- broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, etc. Good luck!

I used to be a lactation consultant and dairy can cause a lot of problems. You have to stop all dairy though and it usually takes a week or two before it gets out of your system. If I remember right it's the whey in the dairy that does it.

 

[blessedby3]

I really dont take in that much dairy. I dont drink milk at all. Sometimes have some over my cereal, but dont drink whats left. I guess the main dairy I have is if I had some cheese on pizza or something like that. I will try and stay away from dairy too this weekend I guess. Thanks

 

[ldo]

It could also be wheat, gluten, whey, etc. I would start with avoiding ALL dairy--I ate dry cereal for 7 months (make sure to take calcium pills). Also, avoid all cabbage family--broccoli, spicy food, food with unusual spices (ex. Indian food that's not "spicy", but has lots of spices in it) etc. Eat a super bland diet for 1 week.
My DS got relief from being held in a "football hold" with DH's hand under his belly with DS's full weight against his hand to sort of push on his stomach.
I am really surprised that the Dr. didn't suggest to avoid all dairy and cabbage, etc. before now.
If after 1 week of avoiding all offenders doesn't help--I would seek additional work up for possible allergies. I think that my friend finally had to just put her baby on the hypo-allegenic formula---but it really made a big difference. good luck. Elaine

 

[blessedby3]

I just had to post that we had a WONDERFUL night!!!!! My DD slept from about 10 pm after I nursed her until 6:30 this morning. No waking up, no fitful sleep, no crying out!!! Thank you God!!!! I just wanted to say thank you to everyone and their great advice. I ate pizza, salad and garlic bread on Thursday night and we had a horrible night. Friday am was when I posted asking for suggestions. I didnt eat anything spicy or strong all day yesterday- just cereal for breakfast, nabs at lunch (on the run) and chicken for dinner. The change was unvelievable!!! I kept waking up myself to check on her! (I generally eat a lot of spicy, tomato based foods like Mexican, Italian, etc. and now I feel bad that I have probably been the cause of a lot of this) I also uped her dose on the Previcid again to 1/2 pill twice a day again. I had told the Doc that she seemed to be doing much better (at her 2mo check up) since she had almost completely quit throwing up. I didnt think about the acid part still bothering her stomach. Anyway, the Doc said to cut her dose to just once a day. Im not sure if it is mainly the diet, more medicine or both, but I am sticking with a bland diet for me and the twice a day Previcid for her and pray that this pattern continues!! THANKS AGAIN to everyone

 

[Ariel8676]

So happy to hear she is doing better!!!!!! I had 2 with reflux, so i know how hard it can be. Good luck with your diet as well, i had to cut a lot out to find out what what bothering my girls'...its hard but so worth it.

 

[ldo]

too bad the Dr., nurse, etc. didn't suggest that sooner. Hopefully, with a blander diet all will continue to go well--isn't a good night's sleep a great thing! best wishes. Elaine

 

[shelly3girls]

I would eliminate dairy from your diet. Dairy can cause alot of issues. :

My DS was in horrible pain every time I ate dairy particularly high fat dairy. I could drink skim milk but ice cream just killed him!

 

[lighttech]

Just so glad to hear everything seems to be moving in the right direction!

 

[blessedby3]

Thanks guys- hoping for the best!!

 

[cdrn1]

My daughter's second baby was awful for the first five months. Tried the reflux things, nothing seemed to help. Then she cut out all dairy, eggs, and most gluten things and he was a different baby. Not sure which thing was bothering him, and didn't want to take a chance putting any of it back in her diet. A nice plus was that she lost all her baby weight and then some. When he hit a year old, she started eating a bit of cheese and yogurt and it didn't bother him, so she thought "what the heck" and went back to eating everything and he had outgrown whatever it was.
I hate to say it but I sure didn't like him for the first five months of his life. Now I adore him and he is so sweet and happy but he sure made everyone's life miserable for a while.