Fighting Sleep or Pain

[Anonymous]

I am brand new to message boards but I’m giving it a shot. My little guy is 5 months and diagnosed with GERD, on 7.5 Prevacid 2x day and just started rice cereal at night. He will not nap good – 10-30 minutes if I’m lucky at a time but wants to and needs to approx. every 2 hours. He gets very whiny and I know he’s tired. Sleeps decent if riding in my husbands truck. Every little noise wakes him up – doesn’t matter what it is. At night he will not go to sleep happily and I don’t know if he’s uncomfortable or just overtired. He seems exhausted to me but will not stop crying. Takes a good hour of rocking, breastfeeding, crying, putting to bed 2-3 times before he will actually go to sleep. What do I do? The doctors tell me to do whatever I need to do to get through this and correct any problems after he is outgrown his GERD but I don’t know. How do I know if he’s uncomfortable or just not wanting to be put in his crib? He sleeps on a wedge in a pack-n-play. He has improved in the last 2 weeks with sleeping at night. The GI doctor split his medicine up to to times a day instead of one and that has helped and I think the cereal has helped. He is exclusively breastfed. I am too afraid to let him cry (unless he is just whimpering). I am afraid it will make his tummy upset or his reflux worse when he gets so upset. Help, I am very confused on how to get my poor little guy some more sleep. He has bags under his eyes. I think he just is overtired at nighttime but how do I deal with that.

Thanks,

[Anonymous]

Hi there and welcome!

I agree with tending to his cries unless you are sure he is not in pain. We did do cry it out after the boys were out of pain and we were sure of it, but if we questioned if they were uncomfortable, we erred on the side of caution, as you need to do what feels right.

That said, it does sound like your baby is overtired. Can you try giving him a bit of Mylanta a few minutes before bedtime to see if that helps (spaced from the prevacid at least a couple of hours) or maybe try seeing the pattern, and putting him down before he get to that point of no return (I’m sure you know what I mean ) it is really hard in these months and we found that months 4 through 7 were the worst and then things really got much better, so you are in the thick of it and it will get better!!!! Maybe adding one more dose of prevacid in the middle of the day if your GI is willing?

You are doing an amazing job and I am really glad your doctors are saying do what you need to as I whole heartedly agree with that!!!!!! You do have to do what you need to in order to try to comfort your baby and all of you get a bit of sleep! I promise you can correct any “habits” after but I believe once you get him all figured out, it will not be that hard as he will be comfortable!!!

Hang in there! I am sure others will have more advice, too…….

[Anonymous]

A couple of things…

1) since you are breastfeeding – what do his diapers look like? Any mucous (looks like snot) in them? Stinky gas? Color?

2) I personally would hold off on the rice cereal until he’s feeling/sleeping better… many GERD babies have very sensitive GI tracts & rice is hard to digest for them

3) Check out marci-kids.com to check their recommended dosage for Prevacid w/ your current dose

I would definitely not CIO until he is feeling better. In my opinion it seems like he is miserable due to intolerances &/or reflux pain. The waking after 10-30 min naps is what sticks out to me.

In the meantime, have you tried babywearing? I would definitely suggest this – esp for an inconsolable, overtired baby. Also, will he sleep in the swing? This works miracles in our house as well.

Hang in there…erinntx2008-12-09 12:36:50

[Anonymous]

Hi, I agree with what the other ladies have said. I do think he is overtired, but I think that is probably b/c he is in pain during the day and can’t get comfortable enough to relax to take a nap. There are many of us on here who had babies that would wake after 30 min or less of a nap and that only improved once the reflux is under control and they didn’t hurt anymore. I was anti swing when my little guy was young, but looking back I should have just put him in the thing and let him sleep. Do what works until it doesn’t anymore… that is my motto with reflux babies!

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