Search Results for 'breast feeding'

[Anonymous]

Well I hate to say it, but my close friend had a baby on May22nd and she has now been diagnosed with reflux. Luckily she has been listening to me for the last 19wks with Cooper and called me immediately on Sunday after they made a trip to the peds office, they actually saw my ped and not theirs since it was a weekend. Anyway, they went from breastfeeding to soy and now they are on Nutramigen. They started Zantac on Monday and the baby seems to be doing much better, but I am afraid that they are going to have to go to prevacid like we did… I am just praying that Zantac will work for them. Anyway, my point being… they went in to the office to day for the babies 1month check up with their ped who is very old fashioned and told me in the hospital that Cooper having hiccups after every feeding was normal and nothing to worry about (HA), he downplayed the reflux as a normal thing that babies have and discouraged them from being on Nutramigen b/c it was expensive… He wanted them to go back on Soy even though her rash (I think it is ezcema) got worse on the Soy and my ped told her to switch to Nutramigen. He said the rash and Soy weren’t related….. I am so glad that she is working with my ped on the reflux issues b/c I think their’s wouldn’t have prescribed zantac and God only knows what he will tell them if it doesn’t work and she needs a PPI. Luckily she is a Dietitian like myself and her dh is a pharmacist like my dh… we actually introduced them…. Anyway… I just wanted to vent that these old fashioned docs make me crazy. They think “spitting up” is normal and nothing to be concerned with… He probably would have told them it was “colic” if they hadn’t already decided it was reflux….

[hellbennt]

hang in there with the breastfeeding! it’s so hard bcse it may or may not be your diet. in our case it was not my diet. in others’ cases it is their diet.

Dr. Putnam at Cincinnati is supposed to be THE BEST!

Looking for GI: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=660

[Anonymous]

Hello all! We’redesperately seeking solutions to the very probable

issues of reflux in our daughter.

To make a long story short, Syd’s main issue is that

she often wakes multiple times during the

night–often, picking her up then elicits a burp, and this frequently

comes as long as an hour after a feeding. She also exhibits other

symptoms, especially “wet” sounding burps, some spitting up, excessive

drooling and painful burping/spit up as long as an

hour after feeding.

We’ve spoken to our doctor this week and are trying

some immediate recommendations, such as propping her

at a 30-degree angle when feeding, keeping her upright

10-15 minutes after feedings, putting her crib

mattress at a 30-degree angle, etc. Our doctor has

told us to try these things this week, then call on

Friday to check in, which we will do.

In the meantime, I’m reaching out to you all because

we’re desperately seeking solutions. The biggest

problem is the night wakings. It’s making everyone in

the house unhappy, for obvious reasons.

To give a small example, the first night we propped

her mattress on the doc’s recommendation, she slept 7

solid hours. That was Monday. We were overjoyed. Last

night, she was up again every 2 hours. I have no idea

why. Was it something that I ate that got into her

diet? (I’m almost exclusively breastfeeding–was supplementing a bit with

formula but dropped it as it seemed to make her spitting up worse.) Was

it the fact that we tried NOT swaddling her

since she’s breaking out of the swaddle? There are so

many variables, it’s hard to say. The only constant is

frequent nights of very bad sleep for everyone, which

is taking its toll.

Please let me know if you’re having or have had any

similar experiences, and any advice you’ve got. We’d

be eternally grateful for solutions.Kareng72007-6-27 15:30:29

[Anonymous]

I’m so sorry to hear your struggles. I hope the new Dr is on your side. My only advice is to stick to your guns. If you want to continue breastfeeding do not compromise. Ask that the meds be tried first and if that doesn’t work you will look at options then (of course you still don’t have to but that might sound like a compromise to the Dr).

Another idea is, perhaps a combination of PPI and H2 for awhile. At one time Alana was on the marci kids dose of prevacid and the max dose of zantac for her weight.

Goodluck.

[Anonymous]

Gosh, Jennifer, I’m so sorry to hear about all of this. What a mess, and not having a doctor on your side has got to make even more stressful. Hang in there though. Breastfeeding a refluxer is really the best thing you can do. They can digest your milk so much more easily than anything else. I think Claire’s suggestion about TED is a good one. That way you could at least find out if anything else could be bothering him and gain the satisfaction of knowing that you have tried everything you can. How long have you been on your current diet?

My guess is, however, that he just needs higher meds. Now you just have to find a doctor to listen to you. Maybe print out the Marci-kids info and take it to your new doctor? Hopefully, he will be willing to listen.

I know how it feels to miss your other kid(s). I only have one other, but it’s been hard watching her grow up so much this year, and feeling like I have had very little to do with it.

Hang in there.

I’m originally from Ohio, and, ironically enough, my mom’s a radiology tech. at Cincinnati Children’s! I’ll ask her if she has heard anything good/bad about gi’s in the hospital.

[Anonymous]

momof4 wrote:

Heidi,

I have a question for you…did your other boys get that kind of relief? If so, what meds did they take? It seems to me that the most relief comes from Zegerid as a general rule…I’m just wondering if your other refluxers were on Zegerid as well. I think I remember you saying that your boys had reflux too, but I may be thinking of someone else.

I so wish Zegerid was around for my boys. Its such a miracle drug.

With my older two kids they did not use medication for reflux. My oldest is almost 17. He had reflux severely. He was actually hospitalized for his inability to stay asleep (I just realized in the past week that it was reflux causing the problem because Maggie was doing the same thing. I could feel with Maggie the acid coming up and not coming all the way out but it would wake her up just like Johnny). When he was hospitalized I was not allowed to stay with him for the first 36 hours ( I know crazy. Now a days that would never happen). One of things they discovered was Johnny over ate and that is why he was gaining weight. When they fed him less, he just spit it all back out and could not maintain his weight. We did TEDs with Johnny, no luck, formula, homemade formula, goats milk and back to breast feeding. We spoon fed him rice cereal really young and gripe water seem to help some (remember this was before medication). By the time he was 5 months old or so he was on full solids. He had a thing for dill pickles (ya I am not sure who gives their 5 month old dill pickles but we did). I think there is something in dill pickles that helped relieve the acid as Johnny sucked on them all the time.

James my 15 year old same story except we just breast fed. He gained weight a lot slower then Johnny. He did rice and gripe water really young for some relief.

Levi is 9 and he was our first on zantact. It helped but there still was some discomfort. It was hard to keep up with the weight gain. Again we did rice cereal and gripe water with the zantact then he went on regland (it was before there was any documented problems. We got our first wedge and what a huge help that was.

Liam who is 8 same story as Levi but we did not use regland. Liam did not gain weight but did not loose. He has always been really small like 10% until the last year or so. Liam developed some eating issues as a baby and toddler. I breast fed him until 2 1/2 because of those issues. When Liam was 5 he got pretty sick and was diagnosed with juvenile arthritis. It took about a year on his medication and he finally started gaining weight. When he was being tested for JA, we discovered in an upper GI then he was still refluxing so we treat that as needed.

My oldest and Maggie have been the far worst. It was a lot harder with Johnny as there was no medication, and it was okay then for a baby to be in pain and scream for hours. Now I would never accept any doctor telling me its okay for my child to be in pain. That is a bunch of hogwash (thankfully our pediatrician feels that same way). I believe within my hearts of hearts that because Johnny was not treated as an infant for his reflux that it has caused permanent damage. He suffers horrible from it now and has ulcers (of course part of the problem is he is 16 and will only take his medication when he is really hurting).

[Anonymous]

Thanks Everybody for your heartfelt sympathyand sweet words.

This is so hard. I actually did e-mail Dr. Jack Newman and he said to forget the thickening and the formula and just bf her because in the end bf will be less damaging to her then if she aspirates with formula because it’s a foreign body. I also talked to a rep from LLL and her advice was the same. Dr. Newman also said that they don’t even know if she’s aspirating on the breast because the test was done with a bottle.

Here are my thoughts: Neither of these people have actually seen Kate feed or have talked to the docs involved with her care therefore all they can do is speculate. I believe Dr. Jack Newman to be very good at what he does but he’s trying his best to give me advice just based on an e-mail so I have to take that into consideration. I believe Kate is aspirating more at the breast then she does with the bottle. From what I understand after a day on the computer and on the phone, even silent aspiration causes such discomfort for the baby which would explain her whimpering, discomfort and agitation. She gulps so much air and that makes her throw up even more then she does already.My heart is breaking. Her case is so complicated because her symptoms are all over the map and I feel like I’m trying to put a 4000 piece puzzle together without the box. I feel so helpless. I don’t know now if I should thicken the feedings, formula feed or what. I’ll call her G.I doc on Monday but I’m sure I’ll only get his nurse and she’ll just tell me to thicken the feeds like the speech therapist says. I thickened her afternoon feed with Simply Thick and she still struggled. She wasn’t gulping as much air though so maybe………

Thank you all who are reading for letting me unload. In addition to all of this, my in-laws came last night from Minnasota(drove) and stormed out of the house at 11:30p.m after a long time coming confrontation. It was inevitable really. They drove back home. That’s another story. Please say a prayer for my daughter and I! I hope this can all be resolved soon. I appreciate all of you so much!!

[hellbennt]

hey everyone & Claire!

Claire PM’d me & I answered pretty much what all of you did:

there is ‘simply thick’ and also ‘thick it’ that can be used to thicken breastmilk- if this is the way to go, then do a search* to figure out which one is best- see below about how to find out if you need to go this route:

the first thing to do since it’s a weekend is to call: The La Leche League Breastfeeding Helpline – US began on June 1, 2007. Everyone in the U.S.A. will have access to toll free breastfeeding help 24 hours a day. Just call 1-877-4-LALECHE (1-877-452-5324). I would also email dr. jack newman because why not?

Next, I would speak to the doctor about how to continue breastfeeding- the pulminologist just might have ideas– maybe you can breastfeed at certain times in the day w/o it being detrimental to her and then the rest of the time pump & bottle feed. I truly do not know about aspiration so I would most certainly express my concerns to the experts– both breastfeeding experts (la leche & dr newman) and the pulm…

I would gather that the speech person who did the swallow study who found the aspiration is associated with a doctor- I’m guessing the Pulm? I would FAX your questions Monday so that you know what to do starting Monday as far as breastfeeding/bottle feeding etc.

about the endoscopy: this is actually good because they will look for eos cells and if everything looks good you most likely can go start eating whatever you want again. I am not you, nor do I know your baby, but from all that you’ve posted it may not be mspi. now, the endoscopy can only show if there is allergy stuff going on, not intolerances, but at leat then you’ll know for sure about allergies and you might decide to try adding milk and soy back to you diet. or not.

*to do a search: there’s the ‘search’ button located in the upper right hand corner of the screen

you put the key word/s you’re searching for

then you choose “Topic Subject” from the drop- down menu of “Search In”

then I like to choose “All Forums” from the drop- down menu of “Search Forum”

then I like to choose “Topic Start Date” from the drop- down menu of “Sort Results By” (this way I get all the posts from the past that might help me)

hellbennt2007-6-23 10:25:14

[Anonymous]

I think breast milk can be thickened with Simply Thick. I’m not positive, but you could look into that.

I really feel for you. I remember how horrible it was to have so many issues with breast feeding. All I wanted was to breast feed my babies without trauma – the way babies are meant to be fed. But reflux ruined that for me and it was extremely emotionally painful. I had to pump and bottle feed all three of my children. I still feel a twinge of grief when I see moms nursing their happy little babies.

I think it’s great that you are going to see a Pulmonologist. If he agrees that the tests need to be done then maybe you will feel more calm about it. Also don’t be afraid to call the hospital and ask specifically what to expect for both of these tests. I’ve done that each time my children have had to undergo any kind of a test and it really helped to calm my nerves. I just the dept where the test was going to be done and said, “My baby having such and such test. I’m really nervous about. Can you tell me exactly what will be done?”

Liza had to be on prophylactic antibiotics for a long time (over a year) because she was born with a UTI and she had kidney reflux (diagnosed via the VCUG). I completely understand your reservations about that. You hate to have you baby on meds long term, but you’re scared they will get kidney damage if you stop the meds. Did her first UTI show kindey reflux?

I hope things start to improve soon.

[Anonymous]

I’m so frustrated about so many things…….where do I start……… Well, right now I’m so frustrated trying to figure out how to give her the Zegerid but besides that there’s a whole boatload of frutsration. I’m sorry if this is long.

Well, Kate saw the urologist and he advised us to keep her on the antibiotic for two more months. I really don’t want her on a daily antibiotic but I aslo don’t want her kidneys to be scarred from too many infections. I guess this is meeting in the middle. If she gets a UTI while on the meds, he wants to repeat her VCUG. He was nice andidn’t seem too worried. Of course that’s not his job, that’s MY job

We also saw the ped G.I who was great. Very open minded and seemingly very competent and proactive. By the description of all of her sympotms he suspected swallowing disfunction and ordered a three stage swallow. It showed she was aspirating a little into her longs with my breast milk but the thicker consistencies she did a little better. He wants me to thicken and bottle feed but I don’t know what to do. That doesn’t seem like it’s the biggest issue. I mean, would that be causing her pain when she eats? I want the best for her, believe me, but I don’t know if I should use an SNS or bottlefeed or just keep bf! Any advice? My gut is to just keep bf normally and get her pain undercntrol. We have a consultaion with a pulmonologist(sp?) July 3rd because our G.I wants to do an endoscapy and bronchoscopy(sp?). I’m so scared and so angry that we still havn’t found a way to help her yet after everything we’ve tried. I’m exhausted and discouraged. I’m scared for her having to be put under for the procedure. I don’t know how safe it is! I aslo feel like I’ve failed her. I feel like I should have some clue by now what’s going on. I keep running through my head ” Have I described her symptoms well enough? Have I been persistent enough? Have I made enough phonecalls? Exhausted all my resources?!!!” I’m so tired of watched her struggle, I know all of you can relate. This is the hardest thing. I get so sad when I see other mamas feeding their babies so smoothly. Why can’t I give her that?

I don’t mean to be throwing myself a pity party, well…….sort of I guess it’s just a lot for a first time mom. Well, for ANY mom to go through and watch her baby go through. Thanks for letting me vent.

Kate’s Mommy2007-6-22 21:33:8

[Anonymous]

I just wanted to say that breastfeeding Sarah didn’t help me lose weight (at least not dramatically). BUT when I STOPPED nursing/pumping…I almost immediately lost another 10-15 pounds. I guess my body was holding onto some fat stores while BF and once I was done they were GONE!

Definitely get checked out if you’re concerned but that might be what happpened to you as well!

[Anonymous]

The whole thing with Body for Life and this weight issue is that with BFL, you were probably gaining a lot more muscle and since muscle weighs more than fat, you prob weren’t losing weight, just toning up. When I’m running a lot, I don’t really notice it on the scale, but my clothes fit better all areas. BF’ing always just took the weight off me sooooo fast and I felt like I was eating like a pig and I still lost wt.

This sounds more like the BF thing or maybe something medical. More than a pound or two a week if you’re not trying, seems kinda drastic to me. Not like something is seriously wrong, just healthy wt loss usually isn’t more than that.

Are you doing Body for Life and breastfeeding? That could be it, cause that’s a lot of calories you’re burning if so…… I couldn’t tell from your post.

Either way, if you do get checked out and everythings fine– more power to ya!

I got really sick when Owen was really sick b’fore we figured out what was going on. I lost 18lbs like nothing and before, I would really have to try to lose. But it was just b/c I couldn’t eat anything I was sick to my stomach with worry, and I had no time to eat b/c of everything we were going through. I never gained any of it back and my clothes fit better than before I ever had kids….. BUT I really need to get back to exercising cause I have NO tone!!! I’m skinny but kinda flabby! Oh well!

I finally have a baby who sleeps through the night, or at least for the last week he has! Maybe in a couple of months after I catch up on my sleep I’ll get back into the exercise groove! I went and bought some new workout clothes this week so even if I’m not exercising, I look good! Ha Ha!

[Anonymous]

Since you’ve been breastfeeding for a while and the weight loss just started, it wouldn’t hurt to have your doctor check your thyroid level.

[Anonymous]

My son thrived on 15-18 ounces of breast milk or formula a day. All babies are different. Also my son gave up the bottle at 7 months (a long story….probably due to untreated reflux for the first few months and a mild feeding aversion). He was only drinking one bottle a day (at bedtime), and he would not take a sippy cut either. So, all day I fed him by spoon. I’d make his oatmeal with tons of milk….it was runny and messy but he got his fluids that way. Also I added formula to his baby foods and I spoon fed him 4 ounces of breast milk once a day. I gave him straw cups or sippy cups at every meal and eventually he began drinking water from a straw cup at 13 months.

So, in my opinion, if he won’t take a bottle at daycare, but he drinks three of them at home, or he gets his formula from a cup/spoon/mixed in cereal/or whatever, it shouldn’t matter. In three months they’ll be telling you to get him off of the bottle anyway!

Find what works for you and him, and as long as he’s happy, growing and hydrated, that’s all that matters.

[Anonymous]

Hey Trina, Just wanted to say hello from another breastfeeding mama. I know how difficult it is, and what you have described sounds like both of my little refluxers. It got bad with both of them right around 4-5 months, so you are probably in the peak of it with your little one. I ended up feeding Benjamin by putting him in his bouncy seat and hanging over him! A crazy sight to see, but he just wouldn’t eat otherwise.

I ended up getting his meds increased at this time and it made a huge difference! He ate so much better and is a big chunk to prove it! I also have OALD and that has made it even more difficult, so, like Emily mentioned, I would be happy to discuss how we worked with this as well.

Best of luck to you!