reflux & decaf question

[Realrellim]

My LO is not quite 3 weeks old but she shows numerous signs of having reflux and it seems to be hurting her quite a bit.

I cut out dairy when she was six days old and that has helped. One day I had a cup of coffee, and that also seemed to make the reflux worse.

Any thoughts about whether a cup of decaf would have the same effect? I'd really love to have a cup every now and then. If caffeine is the culprit, I'm hoping decaf is the answer. Thoughts?

[HappyMonkey]

Just curious what kind of symptoms are you seeing?

[goldfinches]

My first dd was just fine with me drinking caffeine and nursing, so I did the same with dd#2. But, at about 4 weeks, she became refluxy and colicky. I don't do dairy, except for cheeses, so the next step was cutting out caffeine. Once I did, she was still refluxy, but not nearly as bad. It helped enough that I didn't worry about cutting out anything else.
I did switch to decaf. Although it's not completely caffeine free, it was good enough to make a big difference.

[Realrellim]

Originally Posted by HappyMonkey

Just curious what kind of symptoms are you seeing?

Lots of stuff. She'll nurse, fall asleep for a minute or two, and then wake up screaming, followed by a bunch of spit-up. Often, it turns into a pattern of nurse more, fall asleep for a couple of minutes, wake up screaming, spit up, nurse more, etc and that easily goes on for an hour or two. It's worst at night (especially between midnight and 2 am), but she does it in the morning and sometimes in the afternoon or evening too. She also arches her back when she's crying and before she spits up, and she really doesn't like to nurse laying down and often doesn't want to sleep or rest that way either.

DD #1 spit up all the time, but it never hurt her or bothered her. With #2, it's clear that she's in pain and it's not gas. Well, she sometimes has gas pain too, but then she's drawing up her legs and that's clear. DD #1 was a very gassy baby, so we were very used to dealing with that, but not with reflux.