Reflux Tips?

My b/g twins are 6 weeks old and my daughter was diagnosed with reflux last week. They have her on prevacid and told me to give it a week to start working. Tomorrow will be one week and I'm still not seeing a difference. She fights the bottle or the breast, spits up during and after every feeding (which makes tandem breast feeding by myself very difficult), screams during/after feeding and then passes out exhausted. We keep her upright as much as possible. We have a wedge under her crib mattress and only put her down in a bouncy seat or swing that is inclined. I burp her constantly during feedings.

Any tips you can give me on how to manage this? How do you manage to burp two babies and deal with spit up when you are tandem feeding? Also, any advice on when babies generally outgrow reflux? Our son is now starting to exhibit similar symptoms, so I think we're in for double! It just breaks my heart to listen to them scream in pain.

 

Ahh reflux sucks! Sorry you are having to deal with this.
We were given formula to try that had rice cereal mixed in but I was breast feeding so I mixed rice cereal with EBM and that was the only thing that worked.
I would suggest asking some of your questions on the bf forum-they will have some suggestions on the tandem nursing and burping etc... they are a lot of help!
Hang in there-hopefully they will outgrow it quick!

 

They are supposed to outgrow it by a year. how are you giving them the prevacid. Are you waiting 30 mins before they eat?

 

QUOTE(blended6 @ Feb 4 2009, 03:38 PM) [snapback]1176453[/snapback]
They are supposed to outgrow it by a year. how are you giving them the prevacid. Are you waiting 30 mins before they eat?


The prevacid is in pill form. We were told to give it to her once a day, crumble half a pill up and put it into a syringe, draw up 1cc of water, shake it to dissolve and give it to her with the syringe. I'm not sure how much she is actually getting because it doesn't dissolve all the way and there are always little granules left in the syringe. We weren't told anything about timing. I've been doing it around noon each day, but not really pay attention to where it falls with the next feeding. I'll try making sure it is 30 minutes prior to a feeding. Is this so they don't spit it all up?

 

Reflux sucks!!

First of all...are you seeing a GI or just your pedi? If the prevacid does not work for you seek out a GI or get a referral.

Definately give the prevacid atleast 30mins before feeding. Try to give it on an empty stomache...we give it in the am after dd has gone 3hrs w/out eating. Prevacid can take up to 2 weeks to work but many see improvement within a few days.

We use the dissolvable tabs too...put it in a syringe, draw up water, shake until dissolved, dispense into her mouth, repeat as necessary until all the little beads (or atleast most) get into her. Pop a paci in to help her swallow it.

Many outgrow it by 7-12 months but some never do.

For the spit up, as pp mentioned, concider using EBM and adding some rice cereal to keep it down. Start with maybe half a teaspoon per oz and go up if you need to.

Try to give her lots of tummy time...helps strengthen those tummy muscles

It is so terrible to hear them scream. Whatever you do dont do what I did. Someone told me..."oh, you should try feeding her while she's asleep" so I did and what do ya know she had her whole bottle. Well, then it became a habit, now she wont eat unless shes sleeping, and now we have to start feeding therapy. I would rather hear her cry through bottles than go through this.
Sorry if thats a downer I just dont want anyone else to have to go through this.

 

Here is a thread full of reflux tips.

You have already gotten some really great advice. I hope the meds start working for her soon. My two both had reflux, Emma was off meds at 9 months, and Jake at 14. :hug:

 

Sorry about the reflux. We had it too. I would think the Prevacid should have started working by now. It really should take about a week to kick in. Maybe it would be worth investigating a new med? Derek also had a milk allergy. I am just throwing that out there to you. Maybe you can cut out dairy for a bit and see if that makes a difference. As for the reflux, I did the Prevacid solutab (1/2 tab dissolved in 4 mls of water-I would turn the syringe in the mouth as I was pushing out the liquid. That seemed to help get all of the granules out), kept elevated for 45 mins after each feeding, they were both on special formula (I know that you are BFing) that I thickened with cereal, and we saw a Ped GI. GL! Reflux is soooo hard on everyone involved.

 

Both boys have it as well and its soo hard. I can't tandem feed and my doc said not to because I kept getting infections because they weren't emptying my breasts during feedings. I have my boys on zantac which worked imediately. Also would pump sometimes and put rice cereal in the milk esp before bed because they slept longer! I burp them for about 10 min each and then put them in carseats for a bit after they eat. About an hour after they eat I give them a little tummy time which helps their muscles.
Pretty much what everyone else said but with zantac. Perhaps if the prevacid doesn't work soon you should ask about zantac.