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What are the major symptoms reflux medications help?? I’m lost as to what I’m supposed to be seeing an improvement upon. My little one doesn’t eat from a bottle…not for the lack of Mommy trying but because of her heart condition she just isn’t coordinated enough to suck, swallow, breathe yet -so NG is her main source of nutrition. She only spits up or vomits..at this age I really can’t tell the difference, once every 3-4 days. I use to hear a lot of her swallowing/smacking of her lips but she was also sick at that time so not sure if that was true symptom of reflux or the sickness/meds she was on. She has been on prevacid since about 2 weeks old and other then throwing up her feeds when she was on bolus feeding (where they put like 3oz in tummy in 20minutes and do this every 3 hours) I really haven’t seen a lot of problem on the continous feeds…of course I would LOVE to go back to bolus feeding as I feel that is one step closer to bottle feeding. I guess I was just wondering if refulx could be bad and require meds if fed like a “normal” newborn every 3-4 hours but since she’s on continuous (less then 1oz an hour) that her reflux might not be bothering her much and she not need the meds??? I am just frustrated with the whole bag of problems and maybe just hoping one of them goes away. I’m also tired of all the meds shes on and she’s only 10 weeks old! ….Guess I’m still kinda mourning the loss of my little girls “normal” baby life…SORRY…but I’m still curious about the meds and what they are suppose to be “fixing.” Any thoughts would be welcomed
I realize a lot of you have been through so much with reflux that personal experience can tell me more then any doctor whose never lived with it can. Hi Desiree,
Bryce is on bolus feeds during the day, and continuous feeds at night. His spitting up is definitely worse during the day, mainly because he has more in his tummy. The reflux meds definitely stop the reflux pain though. I’ve noticed that the rare time we’ve forgotten to give Bryce his medicine before bed, even though he’s on the continuous feed, we’ll notice a difference then too. He’ll wake up more and have painful reflux episodes.If Hope’s reflux is mild, you might not notice it as much with the continuous feeds because she has so little in her stomach at a time. I agree with you that if you want to teach her to eat, bolus feeding is definitely a step closer, and you’ll probably have to go back to that eventually. It’s true that you might see more reflux symptoms this way, but if she’s on the right medicine it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.
I forget, are you working with Early Intervention? If not, I would try to get in with them as soon as possible. The sooner you can start some kind of feeding therapy the better. I didn’t know about early intervention until Bryce was 4 months old. I believe now that if I had started sooner with therapy he would be eating (at least much better) by now. I would suggest to work with her sucking as much as possible too, even if you just let her suck on your clean finger or a pacifier. (you may already know all this
).I hope I answered your questions, and something I said helps.
Good luck with everything.Desiree,
Early Intervention is with the state, but I don’t think it’s with the school system (at least it isn’t here). Bryce also had a lot of problems with gagging when we tried the bottle. The occupational therapist from EI helped us a lot with that. That’s great that she’ll suck on a pacifier. Bryce has gotten to a point where he won’t suck on anything (and he use to love his pacifier). We’re working on feeding him his b.milk with spoons & sippy cups now, but I’d give anything if he could just suck a bottle.I sure know how you feel about teaching your baby to eat. It’s SO frustrating. I brought Bryce home from the NICU thinking I’d be able to teach him to eat in a week or two, and here it is more than a year later.
Our GI doctor tried to get us to feed Bryce completely continuously so he wouldn’t spit up as much, but our OT was really against it because it’s so much harder to teach them to eat that way. I think the doctors, etc, just have in mind that weight gain is the only thing that matters (and obviously that’s very important). I just don’t think they realize that feeding aversions and skills need to be worked on too!
Gagging is exactly what Hope does…she even occassionally does it with her pacificer…and then she cries…I don’t think its really pain from her throat as much as she is scared that she gagged. I’ve tried thickening it and that doesn’t help much. I’m pretty digusted with the help I’ve gotten ..like you said they figure NG tube for now and they think feeding magically comes later. I actually had appointment with early intervention on Jan 3 but Hope landed back in the hosptial and I’ve just never reschedule because I went back to work. I will call first thing on Monday..(I thought they were with the schools here but it probably is the state and I just lumped it there) Do you have any hints for getting past the gagging???
Desiree- to personal message someone- just hit the pm button with the envelope at the bottom of the post. Eg if you want to pm me, click on the pm button below Alana’s picture. Do a test drive on me if you like!
I hope that you get some “helpful” help soon.
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