8 mo old wakes 3 times+ a night??

Okay, I’ll try to address each thing…

Is she on a ppi drug? MEaning, prevacid, prilosec, losec (if you’re in Canada) or zegerid? These drugs are MUCH more effective with severe reflux than zantac. I would recommend going onto one if you are still having these kind of troubles and aren’t on one yet. If you are on one, then is your dose high enough? Some dosing guidelines are on this site: http://www.marci-kids.com (look for ppi info and dosing) This website also explains what the ppi drugs do, in comparison to the H-2 blockers like zantac.

Have you considered giving up cheese again to see if that makes a difference for her? I’ve read and other moms talk about the proteins building up in their systems, so if you begin the test for dairy or soy, they might do okay and then suddenly three months later symptoms start returning. THis is because the proteins sometimes have to get to a threashold and THEN they become uncomfortable again. Just an idea.

Your nights sound VERY familiar. At this point are you willing to test? We avoided testing for Lucas (only a UGI at 5 mos) until he was nearly 10 mos old. At that point I was going crazy, had already done the elimination diet nad saw that he was STILL WAking in crazy patterns. He was maxed out on teh dose of zegerid (the ppi drug) and doing mylanta and other drugs as needed. We had an endoscopy and ph probe test and it was VERY VERY VERY Helpful. It basically found that he has a hiatal hernia (very rare) and that he was refluxing every ten minutes, day and night. I think if you could know how nad when she is refluxing it would legitimize your instincts about what’s going on at ngiht and around naptime. On the other hand, it could show that she really isn’t refluxing nad then you could feel better about CIO, etc. However, it sounds to me like your instinct is that she is in pain and especially it seems so from the fact that she gets worse from teh crying, etc. This is exactly like my little guy. I also sometimes give a bit of bread (we use bread w/o milk or soy in it) or O cereal in the night because the lack of food can cause acid to build in their stomachs as well. So having a bit of food and swallowing something down can make them feel better. Kinda like bfing, but only it’s solids. Do you use Mylanta Cherry Supreme? Where do you live? I hear they don’t have it in Canada and New Zealand….but if you are in teh States, it’s wonderful and can really help you at night. We also tried a med called carafate which helped us when things were at their worst at night.

I’ve used the aloe vera for Lucas only, not for myself. So, he gets it directly and it has really helped. Also, I’ve used probiotics for him, these natural remedies were recommended to us by my chiropractor. We went to her after the surgeon told us there was nothing he could do and although our situation was horrible, it wasn’t bad enough to do surgery. Their hands were tied, so we went to a chiropractor.

As for it being different with your first….I’ve only had one child and he’s a severe refluxer…so I don’t know what “normal” really is. But I would say that although it’s natural to compare, it’s not really fair to compare a refluxer to a fully healthy child. I am fully convinced that the refluxers don’t sleep well because they are in pain, and this is something that non-refluxers don’t experience. It seems nearly EVERY refluxer has trouble sleeping, some are just worse than others (lucky us, we have those!) Anyway, I know the spoiling thing is tempting to think about, but if you are getting through things as best you can, and it’s so hard with the no sleep thing and waking every hour— try not to bother yourself with “am I spoiling?” You can only do the best you can do. I let go of that long ago and still have people who try to tell me otherwise.

I feel like since you haven’t tested and it seems she isn’t on a ppi, that you have a lot of room for improvement in her sleeping. Do you know what a ph probe test is? THere’s lot of info on this board, under “procedures” I think is what it’s called. You can even do a search for posts inquiring about that test. That test, although invasive and no fun, gave us information that was invaluable. The endoscopy is also valuable and can tell you if there are eosinophilic cells and other allergic things going on, as well as how much damage there is to the esophagus. She may have esophagitis, which once it is better, might really help your situation. It would be rare for her to have a hiatal hernia, but this is another reason for severe sleeping problems and frequent waking. The hiatal hernia was our missing puzzle piece, knowing that this is the problem helped me so much. Just to KNOW was better than not knowing. And it made me feel so much better when people questioned my decisions and instincts.

Hope I haven’t flooded you with info, think about some of these things. 8 mos was when I was SO TIRED of not knowing what was going on, we switched docs, got higher meds, did the elim diet very strictly, and scheduled an endoscopy and ph probe right around that time. The test didn’t happen until 10 mos, but I know how it is to feel like you’ve HAD IT with the situation. Hang in there. and WAY TO GO TO KEEP BFING on the elim diet. It’s rough….but so worth it if they feel better!!