Search Results for 'breast feeding'

[Anonymous]

SORRY I was just trying to help.and it is safe otherwise I would not be giving it to my 6 year old as directed by his doctor. and zoloft is also not recommended while pregnant or breastfeeding, but docs prescribe it anyway.

Aidansmom792006-3-19 10:4:49

[Anonymous]

Melatonin is not recommended if you are pregnant and breastfeeding!!! Yes, it is natural, but that does not make it safe!

[Anonymous]

I’m just going to share my experience with diet. I havn’t had a chance to read all of the replies, so please forgive me if I’m duplicating something someone else has covered.

With DS#1, he spit up a lot. Finally after having been told to eliminate dairy, I did. At first I only cut back on dairy, and didn’t read labels very well. Once I got serious about it and cut it out 100%, he stopped spitting up completely. One day I cheated with 1 tiny little mint ball (milk chocolate)….the very next feeding he started spitting up buckets again.

With DS#2, he had colic and reflux, so I immediately cut out dairy, and also a whole list of other foods. He was very food sensitive. His colic was gone within 2 weeks (it takes about 2 weeks for the gut, etc. to heal) He was still a little fussy from the reflux, but getting the food sensitivities under control made all the difference. I had cut out red meat (we saw a colic reaction to that one day after I tried some salami), citrus fruit, wheat (I’ve since discovered that’s a big one!!), my pre-natal vitamins (very sensitive to the iron in them), ….I’m sure there are a few more, but I can’t remember right now.

I tried rice cereal when he was about 5 months, but he couldn’t tollerate that. At 6 months when we were ready to try solids, he reacted to many foods. I thought he was going to stop breathing when I tried sweet potatoes. That’s when I discovered the blood type diet (“Eat Right for your type” and “Eat Right for your baby”.) They have a list of foods that you should avoid and a list of beneficial and neutral foods depending on your blood type (A, O, B, AB) DS#2 was type A (I am type O) , so I started him on the recommended foods for type A, and he did very well with them. Every time I tried an avoid food, he had a reaction. You might want to figure out what your blood type and baby’s blood type is, and try to follow that. See if it helps with the reflux. The hospital should have the records of the blood type, and your OB should know yours. You can order a test, if you can’t find out from the records (for about $10).

Let me know if you want any other diet help. I have a lot more info about foods!! My DS#1 we’ve discovered is high-functioning autistic, and reacts to foods pretty severely in the form of behavior. My DS#2 is the one who reacts physically. We just got back some food allergy tests, and DS#1 is highly allergic to eggs, and had a low reaction to just about everything else. DS#2 is allergic to almonds and honey. However, sensitivites can be there even if an allergy is not. When it’s not an allergy, it’s called an “intollerance”, and there is really no test for that. Good luck, and I’m hoping you are able to breastfeed. I stuck with it through all of the problems we had (although very challenging at times), but I’m so glad that I did.

[Anonymous]

We have struggled with bf. I wanted to stop so many times but like your baby, it was the one things that gave Matthew comfort (still does at 14 mths). If you are truly on a dairy free/soy free diet (that means no hidden dairy, no hidden soy), I can’t think of a good reason to stop. hypoallergenic formulas are still milk based (though very broken down). You can make your milk dairy free, hypo formulas are not. That said there is a formula called neocate that is truly dairy free (and very expensive). A week of formula may not tell you anything. Just as it takes a good two weeks for the proteins to leave your breastmilk, it can take that long for baby too. Our gi was very glad to see us continue to breastfeed so I wouldn’t assume a gi will tell you that. breastmilk is easier to digest and has a soothing affect. Not to mention the comfort of the closeness your baby gets. I do believe that laleche league had a nice article on breastfeeding and reflux. That might give you some support. He won’t forget how to nurse but the bottle is easier. The bigger issue is keeping your supply. If you don’t nurse for a week, you need to pump every time you would have nursed. Very time consuming. Formula is not better for babies. Breastmilk is made for babies. There are instances where it is too hard or complicated to breastfeed and you have to go with what works. It doesn’t sound like you are there yet.

The recommendation on breastfeeding is actually a year for them to get the full benefit but any time you breastfeed is good.

I have been dairy free since Matthew was about 2 mths old. It has been a challenge. Fortunately I can do hidden dairy and soy. On nights that his reflux was really bad, the only thing that calmed him was nursing. It was a comfort for both of us actually. Perhaps if you get your baby on the right dose of meds, the day time screaming will stop. I would look at that before I took away the milk that was made just for him 🙂 I would also look at the elimination diet on http://www.askdrsears.com to make sure you dont’ have some offending foods in your diet that could making things worse for your little one

[hellbennt]

have you cut out all dairy- hidden dairy too? and hidden soy?

if you don’t want to quit breastfeeding just yet, there’s a yahoogroup that can help you and there’s a lot of information from here: Here’s a link to help you out with all of this-scroll down to breastfeeding section: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=853&am p;am p;am p;PN=1&TPN=1

if you have completely cut out all dairy (hidden too) and soy (hidden too) and baby still has reflux, then an endoscopy can check for eos cells (shows an allergy) and THEN you can discuss with ped GI re: going to neocate formula…see info from above link…

[Anonymous]

I need advise! My son is 4 months old, breastfed on a dairy and soy free diet, and is on 3 ml of prilosec 2x a day (which I am confident is not at a high enough doseage). His reflux is much more controlled than it was before I changed to milk and soy free when he was about 1 month old. He went on the prilosec about 1 month ago and this also helped. He now naps and sleeps well at night. His spit up has decreased and he nurses well. However, he screams most of the day, and holding him doesn’t console him, nor does anything else. The pediatrician would like me to try to go on the alimentum formula to see how he does. I feel that breastfeeding is our only nice time together and he is only four months old. . .and I thought I was supposed to bf until he is atleast 6 months old. On the other hand we have our first appointment with a pediatric GI next month, and I’m guessing he is going to make us try formula anyway. . .so maybe I should just try it before we ever get there.

Should I give up breastfeeding? Is formula better for him? Or should I try formula just so we can say he tried it? Will he go back to breasteeding easily if after a week the formula doesn’t work or will he forget how to nurse? Your thoughts would be helpful to me!

Thank you,

Ruby

Henry, 4 months, reflux and MSPI

Breastfeeding on dairy-free soy-free diet , 3ml of 2mg/ml liquid Prilosec 2x a day

[Anonymous]

I’m so sorry about what you are going through. I feel your pain and truly understand your frustration. I know what it’s like cry over breast feeding issues. I couldn’t nurse any of my three (for different reasons) and I could fill a swimming pool with the tears I cried over it. I resorted to pumping and feeding, so difficult. I hope you can continue to breast feed. I know you want to give your baby the very best, and you are doing everything a mom can do.

Why don’t they do something to fix the vomiting?? I’ve asked myself (and God) this question many times. I was told that the surgery to correct reflux can make things worse later on. I guess they only do it in the most extreme cases. The best they can do is treat the acid problem…..

A ray of hope….for my son the proper medication at the right dose reduced the acid in his stomach, and ultimately did reduce his vomiting. Maybe once the acid is gone, the baby feels better and throws up less. I hope this will happen for your son, too.

Laura’s right, Joel will help you if you email him. He knows what he’s doing and he’s kind enough to take the time to help us. If you could just get the right dose of PPI…

And, I know what you mean about cereal putting weight on, but for brain growth the baby really needs the breast milk. I worry about that, too. The only thing I could think of was/is to thicken only some of his feedings and re-feed him when he throws up his breast milk. It’s so terribly time consuming and frustrating, but at least I know he is gettting mostly breast milk. For some reason my baby always keeps it down the third time. Who knows why??

Is your baby gaining now? Hang in there.

[Anonymous]

I hope this doesn’t sound dismissive…

its so hard to convey tone on line…

but I was a human IV for 5 1/2 weeks and my baby was only 1 oz over

birth weight at 5 1/2 weeks old…

“just put the baby to breast” sounds like the other side of the coin of “just

put your baby on formula”

With the LCs help and the scale I know it was not a lack of breastfeeding

or lack of breastmilk or an inability of the baby to withdraw the milk…

I know his problem is that he vomits so much he can’t grow…

So now i’m really down learning that acid reducers don’t do anything for

the vomiting…

The vomiting is what I need cured if I am going to be able to nurse this

baby!

Why don’t the doctors care to find out WHY the baby is vomiting?

I’ll tell you why because thickened feeds cure the weight gain issue and to

them that’s all that matters!!!

Cereal may put weight on the baby but it doesn’t grow the brain…

I can only imagine the havoc, being cereal fed, wreaks on a body

designed to be breastfed…

To me a CURE would be getting my baby growing while nursing at the

breast!

Do they tell men with ED to go to a sperm bank if they want to be fathers

or do they look for the cause of the problem and try to solve it?????

All I want is to be a mother in the normal way, by breastfeeding!!!!

OK I’ll quit crying online now

What test does the baby need to establish if he has DGE?

Thanks Laura and Lori for the tips about getting the doc to prescribe

Zegerid, sorry if I sound angry…I’m not just terribly sad and frustrated…

[Anonymous]

Sorry Laura didn’t mean to not visit the hindmilk foremilk issue- there’s

just so much to talk about I didn’t get around to it yet…

During the first consult the LC did not think it was a hindmilk foremilk

issue for a number of reasons…

firstly the baby had yellow stools with only an occassional green one and

wasn’t gassy…

and the baby was nursing 40 minutes out of every 1 1/2 hour increment

of time, except for one three hour stretch of sleep-

She said when nursings are very frequent the fat content of the milk goes

up and the distribution of the fat is more uniform throughout the milk…

Also she saw two vomiting episodes the first visit where the baby threw

up curd and foremilk doesn’t curd so he was getting the hindmilk just not

keeping it down…still as a precaution she recommended one breast per

feeding rather than both breasts…Lastly she did not think oversupply was

the problem especially after two weeks of supplementation, and

oversupply is one of the reasons a baby can fill up on foremilk before he

ever gets to the hindmilk…

The baby was hospitalized subsequently and when he was made to fast

for an ultrasound and then again for a barium swallow the LC pointed out

how fatty the pumped milk was, even at first …

there wasn’t the normal obvious difference between the watery foremilk

that you see when nursings are more spaced apart…all the milk looked

the same from start to finish during the pumping…

Now that the baby is off the breast the difference between foremilk and

hindmilk is apparent but of course who can pump as often as you nurse a

baby…

I feel very confident at this point that the LC is right that it is not a

breasfeeding issue so much as a vomiting issue…unless the baby is

allergic then I guess it is a breastfeeding issue…

The LC is the one who told me about Simplythick but she only sees it as a

stepping stone…she doesn’t think I should settle for pumping, thickening

and bottlefeeding until every stone has been turned over in trying to get

the vomiting stopped so he doesn’t have to have thickened feeds and he

can nurse directly from the breast…

The doctor stopped the Reglan today but is skeptical about upping the

Prevacid because he thinks the halflife is 12 hours…I saw something on

the MARCI site about babies metabolizing the drug more quickly so I’m

going to look for that again to see if I am remembering that correctly…if I

can prove to him the pediatric half-life of prevacid is under 12 hours I bet

he’ll agree to prescribe more…

Again feeling more hopeful about the very long term result thanks to this

forum,

[hellbennt]

Since you mention you don’t want to do thickened feeds and you want to return to breast:

This is what I would do (And I’m just a mama who’s hung around this board for almost 3yrs now, also the yahoobreastfeedingreflux board, and I’m not a medical professional of any kind):

I would get back to your LC bcse she sounds like she knows what she’s talking about. If she has any moms groups, that might be nice, too, to find some support through all of this…

I would stop the reglan until you know for sure your baby has Delayed Gastric Emptying. This is what reglan is for, and there is a TEST for this, for DGE. If your baby actually has DGE, which is possible, then we can help you with that. First things first.

I would check your baby’s dose for zantac (will do that for you- see below) and, if you have any left around the house, I would give this. Just make sure it’s given at least 2 hrs seperate from any PPI (Prilosec or prevacid- I forget what you said). Some doctors say 4 or 5hrs seperate. My ped GI said two hours & we never had any problems. Why give zantac, too? Because my guess is that the PPI dose isn’t ‘proper’ and I’d also guess that perhaps no one told you how to administer it correctly…So, in the meantime, it couldn’t hurt to get some zantac into your baby.

As for stopping thickening, plenty of people have done this.

The meds will NOT stop the spit up, but it will stop the pain. In theory, if the spit up isn’t painful, then baby will perhaps just want to eat soon after spitting up, thus making up for the extra calories. If this doesn’t occur, well, again, we’re here to help you and so is your LC.

As for milk/soy protein allergy/intolerance: are baby’s stools ‘regular’ breastfed baby stools, ie: mustardy and seedy? I’m guessing not. I’d guess that they are watery, green, mucousy (stringy) or foamy like shaving cream…These are signs of either a milk/soy protein allergy/intolerance or OAL.

As for what to grab to eat: pear, pear juice, yellow squash, free range ground turkey and lamb…that’s the core of the elimination diet…From the mspi link from my welcome/intro there’s a whole section about the elimination diet & I’ve posted there all about my own experience/thoughts, etc.

Zantac:

baby is 8 and 1/2 lbs. That’s 3.9 kilos. Zantac dose is 5-10mg per kilo. So, at a ‘low’ dose, that’s 3.9 x 5 = 19.5mgs per day. The liquid is 15mg per ml, so that’s 1.3mls a day, total, on the ‘low side’ and

at a ‘high’ dose, that’s 3.9 x 10 = 39mgs per day. The liquid is 15mg per ml, so that’s 2.6mls a day, total, on the ‘high side’

[Anonymous]

Absolutely, and if your doctor doesn’t take you seriously, get a new doctor. If this is Sandifer’s, then your babe is in pain and needs to be treated ASAP.

It could be a milk allergy or it could be something structural, it’s hard to know without some experimenting. Are you breast feeding? If so, you could try an elimination diet. If you’re bottle feeding, the first step is to a hypoallergenic formula like Alimentum or Nutramigen; some kids do well on Good Start as another alternative.

[Anonymous]

rereadind the posts I see I left out some info,,,

Baby weighed 7 lbs 8 oz at birth

7 lbs 4 oz at 2 weeks started on 8-10 oz Lipil w/iron spitting up

escalates to vomiting

7 lbs 3 oz at 2 1/2 weeks switced to 8-10 oz Gentle Ease

7 lbs 10 oz at 5 1/2 weeks referred to lactation consult

Lactation consultant calculates baby’s lowest weight to have been

probably around 7 lb 15 1/2 oz based on 7% normal weight loss so that

would mean the baby gained, conservatively, 4.5 oz from day 4 until the

2 week check up. LC’s opinion is that 24 hours of formula feeding for

jaundice is not proper, baby should have had photo therapy instead.

Thinks baby could have had silent reflux in the days following the 24

hours of formula because weight gain on the slow side for bf baby.

Consult and 24 hours of test weighing revealed milk supply to be much

better than you would expect with so much supplementation…LC opinion

that milk supply reflects what baby was taking, and baby was taking so

much from both breast and bottle to try to compenate for all that is lost

through so much vomiting.

LC referred back to ped for reflux, but doc doesn’t prescribe them so LC

calls doc with concern about feeding aversion developing if nothing done

b/c baby in pain. Doc sends us to hospital for pyloric stenosis…LC

doesn’t think pyloric stenosis b/c no projectile vomitng …ultrasound

doesn’t show p.s. then barium swallow shows reflux then meds started-

no change- so switched to prevacid and reglan and thickened feeds all at

once…vomiting reduced weight gain picks up…now at seven weeks old

baby 8 lbs 8 oz…

Can I find dosaging information at any of the websites listed, maybe I

should start out trying to find out if baby is on best dose…don’t want to

have to thickened feeds would like to return to bf at breast…

Thanks again, having support means more than you know,

[Anonymous]

Thank you all for all the input…I can feel your sympathy coming through

your posts…

I will follow through on all the links as soon as I can…

For now I’ll say I think the problem may have started when a ped.

recommended 24 hours of bottlefeeding for what was probably just plain

old newborn jaudice…

The baby was not back to his birth weight by 2 weeks but he had gained

from his lowest weight…

I was mistaken when I said 4.5 oz in a week on exclusive bf…it was more

like 4.5 oz in 10 days…

then he was put on 8-10 oz of formula per day plus bf which is when the

vomiting started…

he vomited at least 2 times after every feeding sometimes as many as 4

times and just returned to birth weight at 5 weeks of age.

Then we did test weighings with a Babyweigh scale after breastfeeding to

see if he could return to exclusive breastfeeding but even with formula

out of his diet he couldn’t stop vomiting so around six weeks of age he

was hospitalized.

He was put on zantac and reglan and then after two days with no

improvement he had to have breastmilk thickened with rice cereal plus

the zantac was switched to prevacid which worked in that he has gained

14 oz in 1 1/2 weeks…

But he is still in pain and still vomiting…and i don’t know if the thickened

feeds helped or the prevacid or both…

The Simplythick should arrive tomorrow…any advice on how it can be

used? Has anyone tried thickening just an ounce of EBM and then nursing

directly from the breast?

Has anyone withdrawn thickened feeds after they seemed to help and

discovered it really was the meds that were helping not the thickened

feeds?

Can anyone give me a list of easy to prepare or just grab and eat foods

that are low allergy foods while I’m learning about this allergy stuff?

Thanks,

[hellbennt]

If you do not want to give up breastfeding then please please don’t!!!

I have a lot to say on this subject- these doctors who tell you things like to thicken your breastmilk get me SO MAD

I would get my baby on a ‘good’ dose of medicine and then I’d try the elimination diet (actually I DID do this!)

you might not even have to thicken- I realize it might seem necessary bcse of lack of weight gain- please get to a lactation consultant- maybe you have OAL? Over Active Letdown, also known as foremilk/hindmilk imbalance- maybe baby isn’t getting enough fatty hindmilk??

please please read from the following link https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=4808&a mp;a mp;a mp;a mp;TPN=1 all about breastfeeding you GERDling-again please, if you want to continue with breastfeeding, get help with your – maybe even La Leche League…

[Anonymous]

4.5 oz a week doesn’t sound like poor weight gain. what does your baby weigh? personally, i would not give up breastfeeding without doing an elimination diet and making sure that my baby was on good meds. breastmilk is best for reflux babies because it is easier to digest. sounds like your baby was gaining better on breastmilk alone. does your baby seem to be in pain?