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June 25, 2008 at 8:53 am #53000
Anonymous
InactiveEvan is 5wks old w/ Silent Reflux & has been on Prevacid (low dose) for a wk now… started a higher dose yesterday. Also doing Zantac b/w Prevacid.
His day & night sleep is affected by congestion &/or mucous. It gets very bad though the 2nd half of the night.He usually does a decent stretch of sleep from 8pm-12am. I then nurse him & keep him upright for 20min, then he sleeps again from 1- 3am-ish. He then nurses, upright for 20min, then sleeps 3:30-5am.At that point he’s basically awake from 5-7:30am struggling to breath, tossing & turning, coughing, etc. He wants to sleep but obviously is not able to.I think this is normal… but is there anything we can do? Or do we just have to wait it out.If it’s not the norm, who do we need to talk with/see about it?He’s still swaddled (not swaddling is a nightmare). He’s elevated in his bassinet w/ a wedge under the sheet + a wedged sleep positioner (probably about 5″ total). He fights sleep on his side since he’s swaddled & when I’ve tried tummy sleeping (unswaddled) he really fights it.Help!erinntx 2008-06-25 08:55:08 June 25, 2008 at 9:11 am #53001InactiveMy ds was swaddled until he was 6 months old. It was the only way he’d sleep, so I left it alone. One day he broke out of the swaddle and I haven’t done it since. I think that he will let you know when he’s ready to sleep without it. In the meantime, when he gets too big for the swaddler blankets, I used the blankets that are really throw blankets for the couch.
For the mucous what we do is to saline saline saline. We use regular saline spray about 6-8 times per day. I squirt it up there and let it run down the back of my ds’s throat. I suction him out after using the saline only 2x per day (when he wakes up and before bed). Also, we invested in a good cool mist humidifier (it’s really dry where we live anyway).We saw an ENT when my ds was about 4 months I believe and he kind of explained the mucous with reflux. He said that it was mostly the bodys’ response to the reflux, as sort of a natural barrier between the acid and the lining of the throat and nose. You could see an ped ENT or a ped pulmonologist to make sure that’s all that’s going on.Good luck!June 25, 2008 at 1:35 pm #53010hellbennt
Keymasternot sure if we’ve addressed poop in another thread, LOL! since your breastfeeding, the congestion *might* be due to mspi. but I think you’d see mucous at the other end, lol, thus the question about poop. if there’s usually mucous in the poop (actually looks like snot or can appear to be stringy), then you might want to try either eliminating all milk & soy proteins from your diet for a good 3 weeks or you might want to just go full steam ahead & do the TED (total elimination diet). I did it & it’s a PITA (pain in the rear), but you might be at that desperate point to see what, if anything, you’re eating is affecting your baby…
however, regardless of all of that diet stuff, I whole-heartedly agree w/ saline saline saline. Saline & mylanta cherry supreme are my two ‘go-tos’ w/ ALL babies, reflux or not!June 25, 2008 at 1:42 pm #53012InactiveDitto to the saline. We also used a cool mist humidifier until it got humid here and was just way to “damp” in his room. The congestion will get better if it is reflux related as the reflux improves. Since he has silent reflux that may be making it worse b/c it is constantly going up and down his poor little throat and possibly going into his nasal passages as well. I would keep him elevated as much as possible esp during the day to see if that helps any.
June 25, 2008 at 2:14 pm #53014InactiveYeah, I completely suspect MSPI. He has very mucousy poops & although he’s exclusively breastfed his poops smell funny (stink!) – not anything like my 1st son’s breastmilk diapers. He also (within the past wk) has developed a rash (not eczema like though) on his chest, arms, neck & a little on his face. I thought it was a heat rash (we’ve done a few hot walks in the carseat) but it’s still there.
I completely eliminated dairy (including hidden) for 5 days & then that’s when we went to the Ped GI & he said I could stop b/c I would have seen results (see why we don’t like him?!). I didn’t think that was the case (b/c I thought it could be 2-3 wks) but since we were then starting Prevacid & also the hemmacolts (see below) I figured ok.Our Ped GI sent 3 hemmacolt cards home w/ us last week. I mailed them back on Thursday & as of yesterday they hadn’t received them yet. I’m a bit leary about the results since they’ve probably been sitting in the HOT Florida mail for 5 days now?! My general ped offered to do them as well so maybe I’ll take him up on the offer.I haven’t tried saline yet b/c I remember how awful my 1st son cried whenever we did them (& he RARELY cried)… Evan already is miserable enough I hate to do that to him (eventhough I know it will probably make him feel better).June 25, 2008 at 2:33 pm #53016Keymasterregardless if there’s occult blood in the stools, you probably want to start eliminating the milk and soy.*sigh.*
I say both milk and soy bcse about 40% (60%?) of babies who have issues with milk proteins have issues with soy proteins (thus the term ‘mspi’). After 3 weeks of no milk and soy, you could try introducing soy & see what happens. If you’re ‘lucky’ & can eat soy, then that opens up a lot in the way of what you can eat. although, there are tons of mspi safe foods available for you! go meander around the MSPI forum and the TED forum, etc.I feel for you. Like I said, I did the TED and I am happy I did. no regrets.I would get the ped to test the diaper…if there is blood, I have an article about pancreatic enzymes (ingested by you) that can help resolve this…hellbennt2008-06-25 14:37:24
June 25, 2008 at 3:21 pm #53017InactiveCooper’s mom wrote: Ditto to the saline. We also used a cool mist humidifier until it got humid here and was just way to “damp” in his room. The congestion will get better if it is reflux related as the reflux improves. Since he has silent reflux that may be making it worse b/c it is constantly going up and down his poor little throat and possibly going into his nasal passages as well. I would keep him elevated as much as possible esp during the day to see if that helps any.
Beth,You just made me realize that perhaps the humidifier is the answer. I’ve always run a cool mist humidifier in both boys rooms but more for the noise. Evan (the baby) sleeps in his room w/ the humidifier during the day & evening… then when he wakes around midnight we move his bassinet into our room (ever since the ER visit). No humidifier in our room & that’s where his congestions gets the worst. Our room is probably too big for the humidifier to be helpful so maybe I’ll just have to get the guts up to let him sleep in his room again (it’s only like 2 steps from our room, but still).Thanks for making me realize this… maybe it’s just a coincidence, but perhaps not.June 25, 2008 at 4:55 pm #53019InactiveThanks Laura… I don’t know why I didn’t eliminate soy as well before. I’m going to wait for results from Ped GI, then probably start the eliminating dairy + soy next week. By the time 3wks will have gone by it will be our 2mth appt w/ general ped & we can discuss things.
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