over eater

[Anonymous]

Good morning everyone! I currently breastfeed out baby girl. The doctors think (and I agree) that on top of reflux, our baby girl 1) eats far too quickly (taking in a lot of air also) and 2) overeats. I was trying to have her eat for a bit, then take her off to burp, but this just makes her scream, and then she throws up. I was thinking, does anyone think it could be beneficial to pump into bottles (so still getting breast milk) and use a low flow nipple to get her to eat slower? What do you think? Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Oh – also, what is TED (I’ve read it in a few other posts) and – my baby grunts a lot come early morning – what is the grunting from? Is it bad? It makes me sad to hear it. Also, my dr is rec. we get an upper GI – which I’m all for… does it hurt the baby in any way? THANKS!

[Anonymous]

HI. I was unable to bf, but my daughter was a overeater(comfort eater), she would do this to help ease the pain,until we got a ppi. I do not know if this helps you.

A UGI does not hurt. Your little girl will drink some barium and has she is drinking the barium the Radiologist and xray tech will taking pictures as it goes down her esophagus down into the stomach. They will check several things, reflux, slow gastric emptying or any abnormalites in the small bowell and large colon. Ashlynn would not drink the barium so they had to put a ng tube down through her nose. Her UGI also came back normal for reflux becasue at the time of the exam she did not reflux.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the info… now, if you don’t minde me sounding stupid, what is a ppi? Thanks! 🙂

[Anonymous]

Ihate to disagree but an UGI is to check for anatomical correctness of the child’s espophagus. It is not used to DX reflux or DGE. You need different test for these.

Yes, they can see reflux on an UGI but that is not the purpose of an UGI.

It does no good to have an UGI as a test for DGE. The child will not be there on the table long enough. A Gastric Empyting Scan (GES) takes about 2 hours…..

BTW putting an NG down will not help either…sorry. DS had an NG and a SEVERE oral aversion and they refused to use his NG for hos UGI. They need pictures of the esophagus contracting and the child swallows.

To get Jedd to swallow they used a catherter and put in down his throat. They then used a sryinge loaded with the barium solution and plunged some in by tiny amounts at a time. He gagged sputtered, vomitted…all while starpped to the DA!!! board. It was horrid.

By the time we were down I litterally had to change his clothes because he was covered from head to toe in the barium solution.

In order to do this the child must well, swallow. They are looking for atresias and to do that the child has to swallow some of the barium solutions so it will contrast and show up on the pictures.

An UGI was the worst test Jedd ever had done for his reflux and motitly and he’s had alot done…..LOL

What made it the worst was the fact that he was 100% tube fed. He took absolutely NOTHING by mouth. Let alone taking it while laying down under scary machines from a nipple that he didn’t want.

In a child who is NOT orally averse an UGI is a SIMPLE test. It should take all of 15 mi ns. Ours took about an hour to put it in perspective. I would let them use thier bottles and nipples because you have to throw them away when done at least we did.

Like I said Ours is drastically different due to the aversion. It really should be a simple in and out test and provide the info about he esophageal tract. They do follow it into th intestines for a bit but it is not he test used for DGE.

An UGI can also DX it there are any “twist and turns” in the intestines. If these are severe they need to be surgically corrected. This is called Malrotatino of the Intesines. It can be life threatening due to the fact that part of the intestines will die if they are twisted too severely.

If your hcild had this you would already know it….these chidlren pretty much can’t hold anything donw at all. It all comes back up.

Hope this helps you some.

[Anonymous]

Our experience with the UGI was great. The worst part was no letting them eat prior to the test so they would take the barium. It doesn’t always show reflux but it will show if there are any structural problems which can be fixed with surgery. I will let the bfing moms chime in about that as we weren’t successful in that department.

[Anonymous]

sorry . Ashlynn did not have a ng tube. It was a catherter . Yes there are other test for DGE. Sorry if a did not state things correctly. I am better at talking then typing things out.

[Anonymous]

Hello and welcome! I did not breastfeed, so I will give you the link about the TED. The TED is the total elimination diet. This dies basically takes away anything that may cause your little one to have intolerances or allergic reactions.

https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_topics.asp?FID=43

When my ds was small, he also grunted a lot before he was diagnosed with intolerances. My ds has MSPI which is milk soy protein intolerance. It is basically where he does not have enough or any of the enzymes needed to break down the proteins in milk or soy. Drs think that the 2 main causes of reflux are immature LES (the valve that keeps the “stuff” in your stomach) and intolerances. There is a super simple test for intolerances called a fecal hemoccult test. It checks the stool for microscopic blood, which is a sign of an intolerance. Most pediatricians will do this in their office.

The upper GI doesn’t hurt the little ones. The worst part for babies is the short fast before hand.

A PPI is a proton pump inhibitor. This kind of med will stop most of the proton pumps that produce acid in the stomach from pumping. So when your little one refluxes, there is no pain from the acid. Short of surgery and time, there is no way to actually stop the refluxing. You just want to make her as comfy as possible. It also usually takes a pretty high dose of meds for little ones b/c they metabolize them faster than adults. Here is a GREAT site about PPIs and dosing.

http://www.marci-kids.com

Again, welcome!! Make sure you read Laura’s groupie intro here:

https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=853

[hellbennt]

welcome!

mt little GERDling was a comfort feeder, too!

oh my! so much information at once, huh?

anyway I personally would not go down the road of pumping to lessen the flow. it might ‘just’ be OAL (overactive letdown) and you can address this fairly easily…read here:

OAL:Gaining, Gulping, and Grimacing?
http://www.lalecheleague.org.nz/articles/gaining_gulping_grimacing.htm

about OAL (overactive letdown): http://www.users.qwest.net/~fsdebra1/refluxoal.html

What to do about OAL scroll down to the 4th post by Bensmama:

https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9959

~laura

ok just one more link for you:

Shelby bf best for reflux baby; https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=10133&PID=87611#87611

[Anonymous]

My little guy was also a comfort feeder before we got his relflux & intolerances figured out. He literally nursed every hr before medication & TED.

I agree w/ Laura & I personally wouldn’t do the pumping either, but that’s just me (& Laura too I guess ).

As for OAL & also baby eating too fast… I did block nursing for a wk or so (only nurse from one side every 2-4 hrs – no matter how often baby wants to nurse) & it helped a lot. Evan was still nursing very frequently (every 1-1.5hrs) but since there wasn’t an abundance of foremilk it helped his system & over time helped my supply regulate for the long term. Let me know if you want more info… or there are lots of articles on it on kellymom.com

As far as TED (total elimination diet)… what do your dd’s diapers/stools look like? Stinky gas? Green &/or mucousy diapers? Lots of grunting? Congestion?

Also, we had the Upper GI @ 4wks old & it was fine. Like Beth mentioned, the worst part was making baby fast the hrs before. He (surprisingly) drank the barium (from a bottle nonetheless) like a champ & the xrays were no biggie.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for everything so far! I’ll be checking out all of the useful links you’ve passed along tomorrow! Thank you thank you – this is tough, but your words are comforting!

[Anonymous]

Hey there.. I’m late to this, but I was also going to suggest that maybe you have some OAL and that block nursing would be helpful. My son would also overeat due to his reflux, but my OAL caused a lot of the choking and spitting problems early on.

[Author]

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