My son is killin me

[Anonymous]

My ds is killing me. He doesn’t sleep at night at all and I don’t think it is the reflux anymore. I just don’t think he has learned to soothe himself at night yet. He takes 2 naps a day each for about 1-1.5 hours and goes to sleep on his own (placed in his crib awake). At night he goes to sleep fine but doesn’t stay asleep. He is up every hour on the hour literally. He screams and if my husband goes in to help him, he screams even louder even when husband cuddles him. When I go in, he stops and cuddles but as soon as I put him down he starts screaming again. I tried feeding him a few times at night and it worked but now we are back to the same disaster. I don’t know what to do anymore and I hate to do CIO but I don’t know what other choice I have as we have tried almost everything. The only other thing is that he only gets (takes) 3 bottles a day and the last one he generally falls asleep on so I was thinking of skipping his last one and just putting him to bed and then doing a dreamfeed at 9pm. What do you all think of that? He eats tons of food but isn’t crazy about the bottle at all. Please, any suggestions…

We have tried, white noise, elevated crib, tummy sleeping, loveys, nightlight, music, more food, ferber method, non-CIO, cosleeping. This also isn’t anything new for him, he has always been a horrendous nighttime sleeper.

[Anonymous]

Have you tried giving him his Prevacid at night? If he’s only getting Prevacid twice a day, it may work better to give it to him morning and night, and give the Zantac at mid-day.

My thinking on that is this….my middle child did what Ryan is doing every night of her life until she outgrew her reflux. She was up every 40 -60 minutes every single night. She was only on Zantac. I didn’t know anything about PPI’s back then and I assumed my doctor knew what whe was doing when she put Ellie on Zantac, but it obviously wasn’t working. At 8 or 8 1/2 months of age I put Ellie down for the night and she slept all night, and has ever since (except for waking due to nightmares later around age 18 months). So, clearly her night waking was from pain, and not behavioral.

My feeling is that even a “spoiled” baby who needs to be rocked or cuddled or fed to sleep would probably sleep more than an hour at a time, no matter how much the waking was behavioral. If he’s waking that much I’d really suspect that his reflux pain is bothering him.

Also, the fact that he goes to sleep fine, and alone, really points to pain being what wakes him. If he’s fine with going to bed alone, he’d probably self soothe most of the time he awoke at night, and he probably wouldn’t wake as much as he is, if something wasn’t bothering him.

I’m sorry, this probably isn’t what you want to hear, but that is my opinion because I went through it with Ellie. She went to bed alone with no problem but would not stay asleep, until she outgrew her reflux…then we never had a problem again.

Will your doctor consider letting Ryan take Preavacid at the marci-kids level, which for him would probably about the same as my son – 10 mg / 3 x’s per day? Are you giving it to him on an empty stomach and following it up with a meal 30 minutes later?

I hope you can solve this problem soon. I know how horrible it is. I thought I’d lose my mind from the sleep deprivation.

ndrose2006-5-15 9:33:39

[Anonymous]

I’m not sure if she would up his dose. The weird thing is that he has slept through a few times in the past week and that was on the days that I didn’t give the Zantac. I normally give him his Prevacid at 6:30 and he eats breakfast at 7 and then he gets his next dose at 4:45 and he eats dinner at 5:15 and then he gets Zantac at 7 right before bed. Do you think I would be better giving him his Zantac at with his 2pm bottle and then giving him his Prevacid at dinner or give it to him at 7, put him to bed and dreamfeed him at 9pm.

I just need to sleep some and he is always up so I think he needs some sleep also.

[Anonymous]

That’s funny about the two nights without Zantac. Maybe the Zantac is bothering him for some reason.

You can’t give him Prevacid at 7 and then wait until 9 to feed him because the medicine only works if you feed them 30 minutes after administering it. If you gave it to him at 7 would he be able to stay awake until 7:30 and then have a bottle? Maybe you’d have to give him dinner a little earlier. Since he wouldn’t be getting Prevacid before dinner, you could give him dinner at 4 or 4:30 so he’d be hungry enough to drink a bottle at 7:30. Might that work for him?

Maybe you could convince your doctor to up his dose by printing the information from marci-kids and bring it or fax it to her. That’s how I convinced mine to up Myles’ dose to their recommendations and it really did help him alot. (We’re having problems bottle feeding now, but I don’t think it’s related to reflux pain…it seems to be something else…and he does sleep wonderfully so I know he’s not in any pain).

Here’s the website for PPI dosing in case you don’t have it. http://www.marci-kids.com/ 7.5 mg 2 x’s per day is a pretty low dose.

Have you ever tried the Mylanta Cherry Supreme? Maybe giving him a dose of that when he wakes up in the night will help.

Happy Mother’s Day! We moms deserve a gold medal for taking such good care of our little refluxing infants!

[Anonymous]

I just don’t get it. He has always been a horrid sleeper and I just keep praying that one day it will be better. His reflux doesn’t seem to phase him at all and the part that keeps confusing me is that when my husband goes to comfort he wants nothing to do with him and you can hear him get madder but when I go he gets all content. I think I will call the doc tomorrow and see what she says. How much of the Mylanta should I give him? He weighs over 21 pounds so he is a big boy.

Thanks and Happy Mother’s Day to you also.

[hellbennt]

I agree with all that christine wrote. I’d give prevacid in the evening…maybe try some zantac mixed with a little mylanta for one of the night wakings- or just try the mylanta-

give 2mls and see if that helps- you can always increase it- the way you know it’s too much if if it results in loose stools…

[Anonymous]

I’m not sure on the Mylanta dose, sorry. I remember reading here that you can’t really over dose them on Mylanta, that they will got runny stools if the dose is too high, but that’s all. If you post a question about Mylanta I’m sure someone will have the right dose for you.

It’s not unusual for a baby to only want mommy when they are in pain or uncomfortable. My babies were all like that. Daddy’s great, but when they are in pain they want mommy. Especially if (like in my case) mommy is the primary caregiver. When I would go to Ellie in the night she would settle down right away, too. That’s why I didn’t realize how bad her reflux was. She was comforted by me being there, even though I wasn’t helping her with her pain. I thought for a long time that she was just a lousy sleeper, but once she outgrew her reflux she began to sleep perfectly. And, Ellie went to bed fine like Ryan does, which I believe is why as soon as she was over her reflux she had no problems with sleep.

I may be completely wrong about why Ryan is waking up so much, but it reminds me so much of Ellie’s first 8 months that I can’t help but think that his reflux is bothering him.

I remember the h*ll it was with her waking all night long, so I really sympathize with you. Hopefully the doctor will allow you to try a higher dose of Prevacid 3 x’s per day. Good luck when you call tomorrow and let us know.

[Anonymous]

The meds actually work no matter when you give them and when they eat, they just work their best if you do the 2 hr after eating 30 mins before. ( I called the number on the prevacid website and asked them this, as well as asking my pharmicist, and my sister’s mother in law who works in a ped GI office)as long as the meds are in them they will work, but will work BETTER if you try to follow those rules.

[Anonymous]

Thanks ladies. I actually put in an email to his doc this afternoon so that she will have it first thing tomorrow morning. I guess it makes sense that he only wnats me as he was very sick and hospitalized twice before he was 2 mths old due to RSV and a high fever and I was with him constantly and I am the primary caregiver. He eats awesome solids but his bottle definitely lack but I guess I should be happy that he does eat so well. I just want him to be comfy.

[Anonymous]

I agree with what the other ladies have said. Although, I have to add to what Jill wrote about the meds working no matter when you give them. I agree with that, however, we found that Kaelyn needed a higher dose of prevacid because we were never able to give it to her on an empty stomach. Just something to keep in mind.

If you are the primary caregiver, it makes sense that Ryan responds more quickly to you at night. However, I would keep sending dh in to help him. One, it will help build their relationship. Over time, he’ll respond just as quickly to dh as he does to you. Maybe have dh give him the Mylanta mixture that Laura suggested. It may help him feel better and he’ll associate that with dh. Or, dh could give him the night time feeding that you mentioned. Two, it will give you a chance to sleep, which we all know is really key to surviving this nightmare. When I went back to work, dh and I started switching off nights with Kaelyn. His first few nights with her were a little rough because he really wasn’t used to dealing with her by himself, but it ended up really being good for all of us. I truly believe that they have a better relationship because of it, and I actually managed to get a decent night’s sleep for the first time in months!

[Anonymous]

Well, I talked to his GI doc and she has agreed to try upping his dosage a bit for the evening so that he will 3/4 of a solutab in the evening and 1/2 in morning. She also said to stop the Zantac as I didn’t think it was working. Hoping the extra dose will help him at night. Fortunately, his reflux doesn’t hurt his solids appetite!!!

[Anonymous]

That’s terrific news! I hope it helps him sleep better.

I’d give him what’s left of the solutab at mid-day instead of tossing it.

Keep us posted.

[Anonymous]

When we went to 3 x a day, she started sleeping better at night. Also, i know it is difficult to figure out if it is behavioral or the reflux. So hard to even get a schedule with a baby going through this! When we started cio, I knew she wasn’t in any pain anymore. We let her cio for like 10 mins. After a few rough nights it worked. She wakes up for a bottle now 1x, but we don’t talk to her for the feeding. We just change her diaper, feed her, and put her back to bed after holding her upright for 20 mins. She fusses but goes right back to sleep now. I was at the point of losing it from lack of sleep! Hope the upped prevacid dose helps dd!

[Anonymous]

Thanks ladies. He is on a great schedule during the day it is only at night that we have issues. Hopefully the increased meds will help.

[Author]

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