30 minute naps????

perhaps his dose is too low, have you seen the dosing on marci-kids.com?

my son is the SAME way.. he has been for months. i posted several times about this… asking if it was only him. 30 minute naps to the MINUTE! we time them all the time. my personal conclusion is because the sleep cycle goes through waves and at the end up 30 minutes it goes into a lighter stage and than into a deep sleep cycle.. i think our babies arent making it into it because during the light stage they feel the reflux and it is waking them up. i have a t.v monitor and i watch at that moment and he looks as if he just refluxed and than tries to get comfortable and cant fall back asleep.

i also noticed he started sleeping bad during the night when he reached around 3 months.. he arches and turns his head all night, but is not in pain.. it looks like the same thing he does at the end of the 30 min nap, but is able to fall back asleep, i think because he is just so tired. well thats my theory on this. i know its horrible.. we just added pepcid to the mix last week and are waiting to see if it helps.. everyone on here seems to think the prevacid needs to be upted as well.. i never thought he needed to up his meds because he never crys any more.. but i think what is going on with their sleep might mean they are still producing acid.

It’s definitely true that babies generally move into a lighter stage of sleep 30-45 minutes after falling asleep. This is why it’s so common for them to wake up 30 – 45 minutes into a nap. If they are used to falling asleep alone (not rocked or fed to sleep) AND they are not in any pain or discomfort, they usually are able to fall back to sleep and finish their nap. I saw this all the time as a nanny. Babies who were not sleep trained (taught to fall asleep on their own) rarely slept more than 30 – 45 minutes at nap time.

That being said, I agree that CIO is a bad idea for a reflux baby. I’d make sure his dose is high enough and then when he seems to be pain free you can start trying to teach him to fall asleep on his own by putting him down groggy but awake.

What dose is he on now?

Lauren,

It sounds like it could be a medication issue. He’s only getting Prevacid once per day. Most babies need at least two doses and marci-kids actually recommends three doses per day. Also, he may have outgrown his Pepcid dosem or his dose may have not been hight enough to begin with. H2 Blockers like Pepcid/Zantac are very weight sensitive. Babies often outgrow their dose and many plateau on it an no longer get any relief. Laura’s intro does have a link for Zantac dosing information.

You said he was arching at night or when he wakes from his nap….that definitely sounds like a pain response. I’d really look into getting his Prevacid increased. That’s what finally turned things around for Myles.

Some babies are better at coping with pain or have a higher tolerance to pain than others. My daughter who had silent reflux and was never properly medicated didn’t really cry or scream much at night, but she was up every 20 – 60 minutes whining, tossing and turning, and/or moaning and groaning. Sometimes she cried, but it was a half asleep, pathetic kind of cry. Rarely did she scream or cry loudly. I didn’t know anyting about reflux back then and because she wasn’t screaming I didn’t realize her pain was so bad, so I accepted her doctor’s suggestion of using Zantac and nothing else. Finally when she outgrew her reflux she began sleeping 11 – 12 hours at night without so much as a peep! I still feel bad for not realizing that she was in pain and not doing more to help her.

Of course, I’m not trying to tell you that your baby is in pain, because I certainly do not know. I’m just sharing my experience to give you something to think about as you try to work through all of this. I hope you figure out what’s keeping him up at night and that he (and you) are getting more sleep soon.

Good luck and please keep us posted.

naomi,

to help him fall asleep on his own.. i was very adiment on laying him down when i knew he was tired (fully awake), put his binky in his mouth and let him fall asleep… sometimes he does, but most of the time he doesnt right away… i watch him through our monitor, and let him whine and try and get comfortable.. finally i will only go in there if it turns into a real cry.. if i think he is looking for his binky, or if he flipped himself over to his back and cant get back to his tummy. sooo.. when i go in there, i dont rock him.. i keep him in the bed, rub his back put the binky in his mouth etc.. sometimes i have to go in several times until he falls asleep. if he does scream and cry and doesnt seem to fall alseep through out it all.. i will pick him up and wait until i think he really is tired.

i hope this helps…..

~lauren

I feel your pain. My 6 month old only takes naps if I hold him and let him nurse and the way we sleep at night is he nurses on me all night long. My poor two year doesn’t get much attention at all. I feel like a horrible mom to Luke. Justice started out sleeping 7 hr stretches at about 2 months (guessing on the age) and then all of a sudden it was every 30 min he would wake up. We tryed everything you could think of and nothing worked until I started nursing him in bed. There are other moms who have posted in the past on here that once they stopped the meds their babies slept fine. We are actually going to try stopping his meds. today. He is 6 months now and I know it is possible he could be better now. We will see. Hang in there and I hope things get better soon.

my daughter has the same problems with sometimes waking up out of her nap after 30 min, even when I put her down and her eyes are open. I tried the whole self soothe, CIO thing with her, and she did fall asleep, but she still only slept for 30 min. Then I just figured, life is too short, and I will never get this time back with her. Sot I hold her and walk her around for every nap until she is asleep (granted, she is ususally asleep by 10 min, so it is not that bad. And if she does wake up early from her nap (for some reason I only have this problem with her 2nd nap) I go up there and hold her a bit more to see if she will sleep, and if she doesn’t ….well I just put her to bed earlier. Like I said, I felt that life is to short to let her cry all that time. 🙂 And for Brianna it has worked…she now is a great napper (for the most part) and awesome at night!!!