This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more information.
Are you a new mom that seems to be changing not only your baby’s clothes, but also your clothes multiple times a day? Yeah, I was there too. Nothing worse than having to throw an extra shirt in the diaper bag for you too. Ugh...been there...done that… If this is you, then your baby probably has reflux. All three of my kids had reflux, so I am a bit knowledgeable as to what you can do to help them.
Over the years, Reflux in babies has become quite common and they don’t really know exactly why that is. All we know is something during development doesn’t develop exactly like it is supposed to, so after eating the baby tends to spit up.
Now each of my kids all had symptoms of reflux different than the others. My son had it the worst. He would take close to an hour to eat a few ounces of his bottle. Then he would spit up most of what he ate. Both of my daughters had cases of reflux, but it was not as bad as their brother. So I did not have to do things like I did with my first child. Good news though for you new moms going through this for the first time...by the time they were all one years old, they didn’t really have an issue anymore, which seems to be the case for most all babies with reflux. So don’t worry! An end to all this spit up is absolutely in sight!
So what are a few things that I did to help?
Medicine
Yes, I had my kids on medicine to help with their reflux. I am not one of those moms that is against medicines for certain things. When your child is hurting, you will do whatever it takes to help them. The pediatrician started them all out with Zantac, but this did not help any of them, so we ended up having them on Prevacid. This helped a lot for the girls especially, but my son still had issues… we changed clothes a lot both him and us.
Keep Baby Elevated
This is a key thing when your baby has reflux. Keep them upright after eating for 15 to 30 minutes. This helps to let the formula settle down and is not as likely to come back up as much, as if it would if you were to lay them down. My babies slept or were almost always sleeping in their bouncy seat at least for the first few months. When they were eventually moved to sleeping in their crib, I had them elevated on a wedge to help keep their head up a little bit.
Add Cereal
I added a little bit of the baby cereal flakes to their bottles. This added a heaviness to the formula, which helped them keep it down better. Now you have to play around with this a lot to get it to a consistency that the baby can suck down. Know that you may need to go to a faster flow nipple, or cut a slit in the nipple for them to get it out easier. I used the baby oatmeal flakes, but you use what you feel is best for your baby. Also know that your pediatrician will tell you never to add anything to the bottle, but I know my mom did when I was a baby and obviously I survived, so no reason why I cannot give it to my child. Yep! I am a rule breaker! Lol! You just have to try this to get it right so that your baby can handle the consistency of it. Oh and as a bonus, it helps to fill up their little tummy so that they sleep a little bit longer, giving you more time to sleep or get things done.
Change Formulas
Ok so none of my kids wanted to latch, so breastfeeding was not in the cards for me. I did try for each of them, but I learned with my first that it was not going to happen and that was the longest three weeks of my life. I told myself that with my girls, I would try again, but knew that formula would be the way to go, if they didn’t latch.
Anyways, when it comes to formula there are so many options out there. In the hospital we tried the Enfamil Infant for all my kids, but it hurt all of their tummies. We then tried the Enfamil Gentlease, this actually worked for my middle child, but not my other two. With my son we then tried the Soy kind, but that didn’t work either. We ended up on Enfamil Nutramigen, and this was the one my oldest and youngest were both on. Now warning! This formula absolutely works and my children were completely different overnight, but this formula is PRICEY! Definitely not the best financial option, but we do what we need to to get our kids to stop crying, be comfortable, and sleep; so that you can. My advice if you find yourself playing the formula switching game, just bite the bullet and go right to Nutramigen. You won’t regret that decision.
Now as they approached the age of one, I started to wean them off their medicine, be sure to do this slowly. Hopefully it goes ok, but if you notice that the symptoms increase, obviously they are not ready yet. Luckily, all my kids were weaned off by the age of one or shortly after.
Starting the solid foods helped with the reflux too. I tried starting my son with baby food at around 4 months and he wasn’t ready. He finally got it about 6 months old, so I waited for my girls to be about 6 months before I started the spoon feeding. Obviously each baby is different, so you have to just go with your gut and try things. I was lucky enough to be introduced to a product that had great reviews to help people of all ages that had acid reflux and I have had all of my children using it each day since they were able to drink out of a sippy cup. I will never not give it to them.
I hope that my experiences with my kids' reflux and what helped me will help you. Each baby is different and not everything works for every child. I just hope that this gave you a few things to consider other than what you are currently doing or have tried that may help.
I would love to hear about your experiences with your children and reflux. Feel free to share your story with me at Hello@ElizabethLBalmer.com. I look forward to hearing what you tried and what helped get you through the many months of spit up and clothes changes!
And of course, if you know someone that may benefit from these few tips that helped me, please share this blog with them. I would appreciate you sharing it with others!
Have you subscribed to my blog yet? If not, what are you waiting for? Scroll down and enter your email address in the box at the bottom of this page, you do not want to miss out on giveaways, new blog posts, etc! I promise that I will not constantly send you an email. I hate when people do it to me, so I won’t do it to you.
Commentaires