Please help, does this sound like reflux?

[Anonymous]

DS is 3 1/2 weeks old. He has been “fussy” since day 1, but in the last week we are seeing more severe symptoms of something going on. After he eats–anywhere from immediately to maybe 30 minutes later–he will start intermittently screaming in pain for about 1-2 minutes at a time. It can happen once or twise or it can last for up to 2 hours at which point he usually passes out. He gets red and shrieks in pain, grabs at his face a bit and me/my shirt and kind of waves his arms around and clenches up his legs.

This has gotten to the point where all he does is feed, cry or sleep after passing out from the pain. It’s awful.

We went to the dr yesterday and they said to try a hypoallergenic formula in case it’s an allergy and gave us a prescription for ranitidine in case it’s reflux.I do breastfeed as well, but have a low supply, so he eats about half and half.

I would assume from the relationship to feeding that reflux is a fair guess, but the 2 hours of intermittent screaming in pain? does that sound possible?

please help, thank youLauren8132011-12-09 19:08:33

[hellbennt]

I don’t want you to give up breastfeeding! but if you’re going to give hypoallergenic formula, then you must make your milk like hypoallergenic formula, too & this is done by your diet.

why does the dr say it’s from the milk?

before you go this route, resesearch all you can!

Reasons a breastfeeding mother might think her baby is reacting to something in her milk:

*poop that is not ‘normal’ mustardy yellow, seedy breastfed baby poop

*mucous in poop; mucous can look like: snot, jelly, cottage cheese, stringy like the inside of a banana

*foul-smelling poop

*stinky, foul-smelling painful gas

*straining and grunting to poop and, when baby finally does poop, it’s soft

as for why the intermittant crying- in my son’s case he had an immature LES (lower esophogeal sphinctor) and he’d reflux at any time, it didn’t have to do w/ when he ate…

a lot of the time, reflux is from mspi (milk soy protein intolernace/allergy) as well as an immature LES…

in the meantime, for immediate relief you could use

some mylanta cherry supreme. it’s the one variety of mylanta that does not contain aluminum. it’s hard to find, but you can find store brand equivalents try rite-aid, cvs brand, walmart, target, etc- just look for one that does not list aluminum in the ingredients. you can give 1ml up to 5 times a day- it’s safe, even for newborns. if you see loose stools back off.

rantidine is zantac and you can also give this w/ the mylanta, to help it go down better

check the zantac dose! how much does baby weigh?

read this:

Zantac dosing– my/other’s question (has axid & pepcid doses, too):

https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=8288&PN=1

I have a LOT MORE to say and most of it’s here, in a link called ‘groupie intro.‘
it’s looong but TRULY will help you- read through it, refer back to it, scroll through it/skim through it. You’ll find yourself coming back to it!
https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=853

hellbennt2011-12-09 19:52:40

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the response! To clarify, I’m not giving up breast feeding, I had already been supplementing with formula (similac sensitive) due to supply issues and the dr recommended using a different one for the supplementing (we are trying nutramigen). I am trying hard to get my supply up and reduce formula actually, sorry for the confusion.

I will check out Mylanta and now that we are thinking reflux I will be starting lots of the basics, 30 minutes upright after eating, etc. I was mostly curious to hear if this does indeed sound like reflux, it seems so extreme and pronounced, but after reading others’ stories, clearly we aren’t alone.

I will read all of your info, thank you again. I’m sure I will be back with questions, this is so hard already and he’s not even a month old.

Edited to add: re: Zantac dosing–Nate is 10 lb, we are doing 1ml twice a day. That seems to be about right, we are thinking of giving it in three doses–any recos on that?Lauren8132011-12-09 20:18:36

[hellbennt]

zantac dose- the maximum (why not start there and you can always reduce it) dose by weight is 10mgs per kilo

do NOT just take my word on this! read this:

Zantac dosing– my/other’s question (has axid & pepcid doses, too):

https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=8288&PN=1

ok so 10lbs = 4.5 kilos

4.5 x 10= 45mgs zantac per day

your bottle of liquid zantac says 15mgs/ml

this means that for every 1ml of liquid you give, there’s 15mgs of the medicine zantac in that 1ml of liquid

so you take the 45mgs and divide by 15 = 3mls total for the day of zantac

you can give in uneven doses and you can give in 2 or 3 doses- it’s a lot of trial & error..

There’s a lot to read, lol. You must drink A LOT of water and really, to keep your milk like the nutrimagin, you might want to cut out all milk protiens (not lactose; lactose is milk sugar and breastmilk is full of it) from your diet- do a search here for hidden dairy – search is upper right-hand corner of this page- choose all forums and go to 6 months and OLDER

maybe enzymes would help?

erin posts that mentions enzymes:
https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=12781&KW=enzyme

https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=12610&KW=enzyme

https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=12227&KW=enzyme

and/or probiotics?

probiotics, brands used:

https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=8970&PN=1

THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT:

Erin‘s sticky: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=12948&PID=105126#105126

More Erin: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=13175&PID=106395#106395

Erin post: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=13576

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