Dx'ing reflux?

[MyFullHouse]

Dh and I are pretty sure our 7wk old is dealing with reflux. The poor kid is miserable most of his awake time, can't stand to be on his back, and spits up constantly, in various amounts. He's EBF'ed.

My 7yo had many of the same issues as a baby, EBF'ed and then EFF'ed.   Our ped had us put her through a barium swallow and endoscopy that showed nothing, gave no dx, and no remedy.  She outgrew her symptoms many months later.

We're still with the same practice, but see a different ped.  Is there anything specific I should say or ask for at our 2 month visit?  I'd hate to put another baby through that for nothing!

[Knitting Mama]

You can do a few things to help ease his discomfort. Never let him lay flat; always have him propped at an angle for eating or sleeping or playing. Wearing him upright also helps a lot. When you go to his 2 month, you can talk about Zantac or Prevacid, but personally, I would try non medicated treatments first just to make sure you can't manage it without drugs. My Cecilia also had reflux, but thankfully not so bad that we couldn't handle it as above.

[2boysforme13]

My Ds is now almost 6 months old and I knew something was wrong with him very early on.. only he WASNT spitting up, which is usually the main symptom. He was rip himself off of me while breastfeeding.. and he'd do that constantly.. like, suck suck suck, rip off and scream, suck suck suck, rip off and scream... he'd do this over and over. As you can imagine, my nipples were a wreck :(  The pain was worse than labor with no epidural, IMO. For a couple weeks I thought I wasnt producing enough for him... etc... and along with PPD and other issues, I ended up giving up nursing because I thought *I* was making him miserable. 

Anyway... by week 5, I just knew something wasnt right. But again, because he wasnt spitting up a lot, I didnt know what it was. I was told it was Colic by many people, but that didnt seem right to me... I just felt something was truly hurting him. I read a ton on reflux and learned there is a type called Silent Reflux that just means that the acid goes up and down his throat.. things like nursing would hurt these babies. That was my AHA moment. I was really sad that I gave up nursing.. and still really am. But I have to forgive myself, after all I really thought I was hurting him by starving him or something. 

Anyway, so other symptoms we noticed were that he'd get looks on his face like he tasted something bad, he had/has a strong gag reflex, he coughed often and always sounded congested. When he did spit up (which wasnt often) it would be projectile and large in quantity. He also didnt eat much even while bottle fed. We tried a host of different formulas thinking that was the problem (I had to take anti depressants which dried up my milk completely so pumping wasnt an option). I took what I learned into his Ped and told her what I thought, she gave us tips that are listed in the post above, but they didnt work. I went back in tears just begging for help. She finally had us try Zantac and after ONE day, a huge difference!! He's like a different baby. 

Now at almost 6 months, you'd never know of the hard start we had. I'd say at about 4 months is when it drastically got better on its own. He's still on meds now - as I tried one day with out them to see how he'd do.. it wasnt pretty!  I am going to try to ween him off in a couple weeks to see, again, how he is. 

I will say that all of my findings say that Zantac is very safe. My Pedi also gave a rx to Reglan and I strongly suggest reading up on that.. I refused it as I have read a lot of bad and unsafe things about it. 

[aphel]

We had a truly miserable baby, and it was clear that she was in pain. We decided to try Zantac, and like the pp above, the results were nearly immediate. No more arching, screaming, shrieking baby. We cured her "colic"!

[SeattleRain]

We also had a reflux baby. He wouldn't spit up HUGE quantities but he'd spit everytime he ate. He'd start rejecting feedings and was generally pretty miserable. When I described the symptoms to my doctor, she said it sounded like reflux and prescribed Zantac, and then we moved onto Prevacid. Unlike previous posters, my son's reflux continued past his 6 month visit and actually started to get worse at around 4 months, so we upped his dose and things are getting better again. DS is sleeping well again and he's not spitting up really at all.

If you think something is wrong, push your doctor for a diagnosis. My doctor brushed it off at first, but I pushed because I really believed something was wrong.