Reflux and Gas Issues - advice appreciated :)

[ashleyc]

My 10 week old son has "silent" reflux and bad gas, both of which are really affecting his sleep.

On the reflux front, he doesn't spit up or vomit but he does lots of clearing his through, regurgitating, swallowing, coughing, etc.  It doesn't seem to bother him too much during the day and we do try to keep him upright after feedings.  And also it doesn't seem to bother him too much after the bed time feed - he goes down and sleeps soundly for 4 hours or so.  BUT in the middle of the night it's awful!  After the 1am or 4am feeding, he goes back to "sleep" but is very restless and making all these noises for sometimes hours.  He'll be quiet for 5 minutes and then these noises, back and forth.  I am usually trying to doze but hear him off and on - sometimes the whole time between 2 feedings.  It makes me really worried about the quality of sleep he is getting.  We put him down in a bassinet that elevates his head higher than his bum.  The Dr also prescribed Zantac (sp??) to use but we've been using that for 2 weeks now and I don't really see any difference.  I've tried to give it to him in the middle of the night to help but he still makes all those noises and is very restless.  I don't really understand why this time of the night is worse than earlier, when we first put him down, because we're doing the exact same thing.  I know babies make lots of noises when they sleep so I'm trying to determine how normal this is or if it's really affecting how well rested he is.

On the gas front, DS is not a good burper (sometimes they come up 2-3+ hours after a feed).  We started giving him simethicone drops before every feeding, and this has helped bring up the burps quite quickly.  But there are still times I see that he is tired and will fall asleep and then suddenly cry out and kick his legs, so it's still affecting his ability to rest.  I am thinking about using those Probiotic drops called Bio Gaia (or something like that).  Has anyone used those.

Any thoughts on these issues or what worked for you would be greatly appreciated. 

Thanks so much!

[DaisyMae08]

The Zantac can take several weeks to show full effect.  But, if you really are not seeing any difference let your dr know and he or she may want to prescribe something a little bit stronger (Prevacid or the like).

[ZakareyasMama]

Have you tried gripe water? You can get it for $$$ at speciality shops or for less at you local international (Indo-Pak) grocer. I guess it's an originally Indian treatment and the British bottled it and introduced it to the world.