5 week old breastfed baby w/ severe acid reflux–Stop breastfeeding?
Took my 5 week old son for an x-ray of the upper GI today and he was diagnosed with severe acid reflux. He has every symptom listed below. The doctor said that I need to stop breastfeeding and start giving him breast milk thickened with rice cereal, which will be harder for him to reflux. Something seems ‘off’ about giving my 5 week old rice cereal. The other option is medication, which I was told will not stop the reflux but will lessen the burning sensation. Obviously, I’d rather not do that either.
My poor baby is really uncomfortable and I’m at a loss. Nursing is so comforting to him but he refluxes like crazy and he’s in pain. Also, it may seem selfish, but I’m finally getting through the most PAINFUL period of breastfeeding and now I have to quit??
I’ve tried holding him at an angle and even keeping him upright but nothing has helped. I guess I should just pump & thicken it with rice cereal…??
SYMPTOMS:
* Frequent spitting up or vomiting
* Frequent blasts of crying that are painful cries, not just baby cries
* Your gut feeling tells you that your baby "hurts somewhere"
* Bursts of nightwaking "as if in pain"
* Colicky, abdominal pain after eating, even as long as one hour afterwards
* Poor sleep habits, restless
* Writhing as if in pain: drawing up legs, arching back
* Erratic feeding patterns. Refuses to feed or wants to breast or bottlefeed all the time.
* Frequent "wet burps" or "wet hiccups"
* Throaty noises: swallowing noises, choking, gagging
* Stop-breathing episodes
* Spits up like a "volcano"
Filed under: Acid Reflux
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
I want to strongly encourage you to breastfeed. I would be afraid to give my child rice cereal at 5 weeks. their digestive system is not mature enough to take solids of any kind.
My daughter has acid reflux pretty bad. Not THAT bad, but it’s bad enough. Once in a blue moon I’ll get projectile vomiting. Do go ahead and get the liquid zantac. You are only giving about 0.3ml every 8 hours. It seriously helps my baby with the fussiness. Your baby may be prescribed a slightly larger amount, but it’s worth it.
Try feeding smaller amounts more frequently. Keep her upright as often as possible, even during feeding. Burp often. Sleep elevated on a special baby sleeper, keep upright at least 15-20min after each feeding with very minimal movement. It also sounds like she may be doing a lot of cluster-feeding. This is common in many newborns.
It is rare, but occasionally surgery or other extreme treatments are needed for babies with severe reflux, but I really want you to be able to baby-to-breast feed!
Try this link!!
http://www.kellymom.com/babyconcerns/reflux.html
It talks about thickened food and the controversy behind it also.
Also, I’d really like to think there is another diagnosis for the stop-breathing episodes. Unless they can determine she is getting fluid in her lungs?
Do NOT give up breastfeeding just because of reflux.
You are obviously eating something that is not good. Look at your diet and stop eating anything that is not a whole real food. No processed foods and you may want to cut out dairy for a while.
Try an elimination diet.
Breast is best, don’t give up!!
Because his symptoms are so severe, i’d recommend following your doctors advice. My daughter has acid reflux, but not nearly as bad. I cut ou all dairy products and I cut out wheat (she has bad eczema too.) I also put her to sleep on her stomach. (Some doctors recommend belly sleeping because the acid doesn’t shoot up their throat as bad in that position.) So far it’s worked.
do what the doctor says. I thought breastmilk was the perfect food for babies? Hmmmm… weird.
well my son had all those symptoms.When he spit up it flew out across the room.I never have seen anything like it.He cried for the first 3 months.It was tough.I was not told to stop breast feeding.I did so until he was 9 months.He was 10lbs.4oz.and thrived.He is now 19 years old and 6ft.4in.185lbs.We survived it and so will your baby.I watched what I ate .But it did not seem to make a difference.When he did start eating he was a fussy eater. But he did gain weight.All I can say is get your husband or friend to take baby off your hands once in while so you can rest.Good luck to you.
I would get a second opinion. Everone knows the value of breast milk is like liquid gold for a baby. If the milk needs the weight to keep the milk down, I guess you could pump and mix the two. However, once you start adding rice you are messing with your sons sugar levels because of the way the rice is broken down. The med they are recomending may have less side effects then the rice. Especially if your family has a tendancy to carry weight.
Maybe you could try breastfeeding with a boppy, elavate one side by leaning at a angle to do so. This may help, I know my son was in the NICU for 28 days and I noticed they feed the babies (with bottles) by sitting them upright . I breastfeed in the NICU so I saw this every 3 hours for 28 days. Don’t give up, keep pushing the breastfeeding. Good luck, Christy
I feel for you hon. It wasn’t that long ago we were doing the same thing. My daughter was a preemie and ended up having severe reflux, so severe that she actually would stop breathing because the vomit would block her airways for a short while (we had to put her on a breathing monitor till she was a year old.) I breastfed her till she gave it up at 16 months. I’m not your doctor so I can’t give you medical advice, but I’d ask your doctor if there is anything else. We put my daughter on reflux medicine and that did the trick. My doctor never dreamed of stopping the breastfeeding process. She did say we could supplement with formula (I would feed her, she’d spit it all up and then want more when I had none to give her.) The reflux went away by the time she turned 1 and I’ve almost forgotten how tough our first year was (and she’s only 1 1/2 now.)
I would absolutely positively keep on breastfeeding!
Trust me, I feel your pain. My son would spit up 6-8 times after every feeding that I was convinced he was undernourished. He was also in a lot of pain. It was HORRIBLE and my heart was broken for him. Breastfeeding also comforted him too until he did the volcano-like spitup.
I have my degree in Pediatric Nutrition. You are right about the rice cereal thing. 95% of babies should NOT have rice cereal before 4-6 months but your baby happens to fall into that other 5%. The rice cereal would help keep the milk down.
I don’t see why you can’t still breastfeed (?) You probably only have to give him the cereal 2-3 times a day… so you can breastfeed the other times and pump for the cereal only, right?
This will pass… I promise! My son is a happy 2 year old and you would never know he had a problem. BTW we ended up putting him on Zantac and it worked like a charm.