I HATE REFLUX!

I am so tired of reflux!!!!!!!!!!
I feel soooooooooooooo bad for my ds. He has been in every med.. prevacid, nexium, pepcid, zantac...
we touught for a while that it was the zantac side effect that made him totally irritable, so we removed him of that.

He used to be a silent reflux betwen 0-3 months- back arching big time...then that stopped and
the refusal to eat began and so did the constant spit up.

We even did the ph probe test ... the gi said he definetly has reflux but is not "that bad" so he thinks
part of the refusal to eat is knowing that with the bottle comes pain.

It is so unpredicatble feeding him...sometimes he won't eat anything after 3 oz..other times 5 min later
he takes the entire bottle.... (he hardly ever cries for food no matter how long I don't feed him for)

I had an early step evaluation and I think just because I was so upset when talking about it they
approved it and he is going to see a speech therapist (they deal with feedin issues)
THe thing is...thanks to being a SAHM I can be on top of his feedings... feeding him ceral with formula when he
does not finish... sometimes dreamfed, other times taking 45 min to feed...so he is
a healhy 18 lbs baby.......so the ladies that evaluate him say "but he is doing just fine...."
but if it wasn't for that..and just let him eat what he wanted..he would be
a very skinny baby.

I feel so bad for him because he loves to be in his belly (as soon as I put him on the floor) but he is always spitting up
no matter how long I have him sitting up.... and I know that must feel so bad.

and on a personal selfish thing... it is hard to take care of 2 babies all day long and to deal with this on top of it....


having said that, I did see at the medical office babies with more severe problems (autism, downs, etc) and
kicked myself for being so upset about having to deal with reflux. I am thankful to have 2 healty babies

 

I don't know much about reflux and wish I had some advice for you. I remember when your son had the GI testing done and had hoped he was getting better. I'm so sorry to hear he is still struggling. Lots of hugs to you for being such a great and patient momma! :hug:

 

:hug: :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug:

Gosh, I could have, and probably did, write your post almost 3 years ago. Reflux was so awful for us as well. Both of my babies had it. Emma was a silent refluxer, but had it just as bad as Jake and they were both refusing bottles. It was horrible. I had no idea that I would ever have to practically force feed my babies!

QUOTE
a healhy 18 lbs baby.......so the ladies that evaluate him say "but he is doing just fine...."
but if it wasn't for that..and just let him eat what he wanted..he would be
a very skinny baby.


And boy can I EVER relate to that! The doctors(all but ONE!) looked at me like I was :crazy: when I told them how incredibly difficult it was to feed my babies! One even told me that I was tired and needed more sleep! Well duh! I knew that! But I also knew that there was something terribly wrong with my babies and no one was helping them or me. It was so awful. I finally, after a lot of persistance, stumbled on a Nurse Practitioner, who I will forever be grateful to. She helped us get on the right track with meds and was overall very supportive and helpful.

Anyway, all this to tell you that I can relate, and you will get through this. Hang in there. You are a great mommy. :hug:

 

Are you formula feeding? Have you tried switching formulas to a gentler version? We changed from regular Enfamil to Gentlease...or there is the A.R. (Acid Reflux) Lipil and Nutramigen....those are all specially formulated for reflux. We stopped giving our babies Zantac after the formula change because it cleared the problem right up (we were having projectile vomiting and refusal to eat problems too) for us. Now my DS even takes more at each feeding than he did before. Anyway, thought I'd mention...it worked for us. Sorry to hear you're so stressed. It IS stressful and frustrating, don't beat yourself up for feeling that way. Your ped should be there to take care of your problems...that's what they get paid to do...take care of your little ones' in sickness AND perfect health. Good luck!

 

:hug: I can see why you are stressed. You are the best advocate for your little ones and as hard as it is, you are doing a great job, Momma! Hang in there!

 

Wow...you just wrote about my life, seriously. My dd is a silent refluxer so we dont have a whole lot of spit up but the refusal to eat is so so strong! I dont know how much your LO is averaging but my dd only averages 16oz a day, this is highly thickened so she is getting a lot of extra calories. So boy do I ever get, "well, she's still gaining weight" from the GI so it feels like the dont really want to help, because she is gaining weight. Your Ds really is a great weight for his age (sorry) my dd is 14.1 at her last weight check. But like you said when we stay home we can be there and do more to help them.
Anyway, my dd seems to cycle...she will do really bad for a week or 2-will NOT take bottles awake, if she does its maybe 1oz...SOO frustrating-so we have to sleep feed all the time which is getting hard as she is napping less. And its not like she has a really bad bottle aversion-she doesnt cry or scream when she sees the bottle, as a matter of fact she reaches for it and chews on it. ugh! I too try to spoon feed when she doesnt eat-sometimes she will even refuse a bottle asleep (wth?!).
We did have a referral to a speech pathologist but it was worthless for us. She basically told me her reflux isnt under control (which I'm not so sure of...she isnt fussy/colicky, she sleeps at night just fine, she's very happy) and they cant do anything until then. Well, how do you know when its under control then?! Stupid. I sure hope your eval goes a lot better!!
Oh and when my dd is in a bad cycle she shows no signs of hunger...wont cry or whine or anything.

I will say that she does have some better weeks-she will take SOME bottles awake and averages more like 17oz a day.

Wow, I feel like this turned into and a rant about my life,lol...sorry. What I meant to say is your NOT alone and I completely understand your frustration. If you ever want to talk/vent feel free to PM me or just post here...the ladies are always great and encouraging.

 

Just some :hug: reflux is so hard on everyone involved. I had a silent refluxer and a spitter. I do wonder if a formula change might be worth a try like a pp suggested?? Our spitter had a possible milk allergy and once we got him on the right meds and got him on the Alimentum formula things drastically improved.

 

So what happens when they start to crawl? spit all over the place?

 

QUOTE(Gimena @ Mar 22 2009, 10:18 AM) [snapback]1239093[/snapback]
So what happens when they start to crawl? spit all over the place?

Yes. :hug:

 

My daughter (now 4) spit up for one year. Everyone told me that they had one child who spit up but their others didn't always do it. Now I have my twin daughters and they both also spit up. It is VERY frustrating at times and you have to just hand people a burp cloth when you hand them the baby. Just learn to expect it and know that you will do lots of laundry. I use the Dr. Brown bottles but don't think they make any difference. I also use the thickened enfamil formula which makes cleaning up easier (it is less likely to soak in quickly - giving you time to wipe up). I burp frequently, feed them sitting up and avoid unnecessary jostling. I just know I will get spit on every day. One oddity, once they start hiccuping, the spitting up is usually done - but often this is just before the next feeding when it starts all over. Both girls are now on formula and at 4 months they take 8 oz every 2.5 to 3 hours and I have tried giving them less or splitting the feeds but they freak out. They are happy and growing like weeds so I am happy and willing to put up with it. I just wanted to say that I can understand and sympathize with all of you moms out there who are on the receiving end of liquid burps!

 

I agree reflux is not fun. :hug: All 3 of my kids have had it. My oldest DD had silent relux and the twins were spitters. Both were hard. But I think the silent reflux was harder on me, until we figured it out because she screamed in pain so much. I really like how you ended on such a positive note, that although reflix is very hard, we have healthy babies. Very good outlook you have there. Hang in there. :hug:

 

My Ds has reflux. He is 8 weeks and we use Sam's Club Brand of Gentle Ease formula and thicken it with lots of oatmeal cereal. He was on Zantac but hated the taste (We think) because he would spit it out as soon as I tried to give it to him. I think you have a great attitude though. It is hard enough to have twins but to have all the issues associated with reflux makes it that much harder. So far DD does not show signs of reflux. A week ago I was at the mall feeding DS and after feeding spit up all over my shirt. I started to have a little pity party for myself in my head when I noticed a little boy and his mother. THe little boy was begging his mother to let him ride the jumperoo type ride that was in the middle of the mall. I think it cost $5 a ride. Basically it is a huge trampoline with a harness where the kids jump up and down on. I heard his mom promise to bring him back at the end of the week when his daddy got paid to ride it. She seemed pretty genuine and not making excuses about not letting him ride it. Then I realized how lucky I am because I never had to tell a child to wait for something because we didn't have the money. I felt foolish because all I had was spit up on my shirt. It really put things into perspective for me. So know you are not alone. Just look around your local mall and I'm sure you'll find at least one other mom with spit up all over her shirt or hair or everywhere else. \

 

One of my twins has been on Zantac for a while and hte other was finally diagnosed with silent reflux today so he's now on Zantac too. It really is hard, isn't it?

By the way, I'm confused; how old is your DS? From the ticker it looks like your twins are both girls so I wasn't sure how old your DS you mentioned is?

 

My Ds had really bad reflux. I never gave him the medicine though. He would spit-up up to five hour after his bottle. I changed to lactose free formula and that did the trick!

 

By the way, I'm confused; how old is your DS? From the ticker it looks like your twins are both girls so I wasn't sure how old your DS you mentioned is?
[/quote]


Thanks, I thought the otherone was a boy...