Probiotics = Sleepy 6wk old??

[CageFreeFamily]

My DD#3 has reflux issues. We started her on a half dose of BabyBiotic to help with this. It seems to have cleared up the reflux after three doses. However, she sleeps heavily for about 12 hours after taking it. She nurses for about one minute maybe three times during that period and doesn't seem to have increased her daytime nursing to make up for it. She just wants to sleep. FWIW, I have oversupply and OALD, so a little time = a lot of milk, but still...

Her poops have been normal except for a few tiny, rubbery solids in them.
She's happy, very happy, and interactive for hours each day, and her fussiness at night is gone. She makes direct eye contact, plays, smiles and talks for up to an hour without break. Neither DS nor DD did this.

Today (day 4) no poop. So it's been at least 24 hours since her last poop.

We're not going to give her a dose tonight.

Any thoughts??

I much prefer the 3-4 hour bouts of nighttime sleep (dd#2 did that) to the constant fussy wakings, day and night, but I want to know that she's getting enough calories and hydration.

[Italiamom]

It's very possible that you've got a sound sleeper now that you've resolved her reflux. Sound sleepers are wonderful (I wish I had one), but I too would be concerned about calories. 6 weeks is still pretty early to be sleeping through the night. My thought would just be to wake her every 3-4 hours at night. If you've got oversupply issues, just feed her when your breasts wake you! I remember mine being that way sometimes: But I'd try waking her and feeding her before skipping the probiotics. If they worked that well, it probably means your DD NEEDS the relief. You want an alert baby because she's just alert, not because she's uncomfortable or in pain.

On the poop front, my DS's poop changed around that time or in the weeks shortly thereafter to once every 2-3 days. My pediatrician had told me that if he was still passing gas, and as long as he was still making enough pee (12 diapers per 24 hours I think) that I shouldn't worry about it until 4-5 days had passed, and that even then was totally in the realm of normal. Exclusively breastfed babies have more balanced nutrition, and thus don't need to poop as often. This could be especially true with the probiotics in her system helping her digestive tract to work more efficiently, yk?

[Sleepyheaded_Mama]

Super interesting thread, thanks for starting it. I have no advice yet, my 6 week old has terrible reflux and has been on Zantac for the the last few weeks with little improvement. I have a bottle of baby probiotics in my fridge, thinking I may start giving him some to see if it helps...

Are you mixing it with breastmilk or just letting your babe suck it off your finger? Do you give it in the evening or morning?

Sorry to hijack your thread with my questions but I am really interested in trying and seeing that you've had such great results only makes me that much more inclined to try...

[CageFreeFamily]

Thanks ItaliaMom!
My DD#2 was a super sleeper from day one. She slept heavily for about 12 hours, grunting about every four hours to nurse in her sleep. It was heaven compared to DS#1 who didn't sleep until he was almost 3yo.

I was holding the same conclusion you came to, hoping that it would seem logical to others as well On the calorie front, she's a HUGE baby. In 6-9mo clothing at 5 weeks. I'm wondering if she's just beefed up enough that her fatigue from weeks of reflux just won out over night nursing for a couple of days.

We didn't give her any probiotic last night and she slept pretty well until about 3am. Then she was waking often and fussy. She had a normal, large poop around 9am and then slept soundly on DHs chest until about noon.

So, now she's up, playing again. Plenty of wet diapers.

So, I guess we'll give her a dose of pb again tonight and see how it goes.

Sleepyhead,
We were struggling with terrible reflux too. Dh and I took turns sleeping in the rocking chair with her. She screamed at night and woke up tons.
I started an elimination diet on Dec 6th...no dairy, soy, gluten, tomatoes, onions, nuts, preservatives, dyes, additives, cabbage family veg, apples, etc.
This helped a great deal too. She wasn't crying or showing obvious signs of reflux during the day anymore. It was just at night that she would start to flail, wake and spit. So we started with BabyBiotic that we bought because of its specific makeup. That seems to have taken care of the nighttime issues.
Oh, I also stopped my dose of probiotics because it contained strains that aren't digested well by infants and I didn't know if it would be getting to her through BM.

We have a mountain spring fed well in the middle of nowhere near the top of the mountain, so we felt safe mixing it with just enough water to make it flowable in a dropper. 1/8 tsp of powder seemed like too much to give to her in a dry form, and I could never seem to express enough BM at the time of her dose to mix with it. Of course...

[by-the-lake]

Are you mixing it with breastmilk or just letting your babe suck it off your finger? Do you give it in the evening or morning?

We are using HLC neonatal probiotics. The dose is 1/16 tsp (also called a pinch) three times per day. We just let him suck it off our clean finger. Works great