I have lots of questions

[Anonymous]

Hi – This is my first time posting to this board. I have several questions. My 8 1/2 mo. old son was diagnosed with reflux and then milk/soy protein allergy. Up until that point, he wasn’t sleeping well at all. We were up at least 3-4X a night. And naps were only 20 minutes if we were lucky.

He saw a gastroenterologist that diagnosed the allergy. He also had an upper GI – which the gastroenterologist says wasn’t all that impressive. He didn’t seem too concerned about the reflux. He is on Zantac for the reflux. Anyway, they put him on Neocate on December 4th. December 5th was the first time he slept for 4 hours or more! His appetite increased as well. But, now we are finding that his appetite has decreased. He does want the bottle, but isn’t very interested in the baby food. He seems as though he is gagging more on the baby food. If we don’t make it thin enough, he gags. What, if any, is the correlation between reflux and the gagging. To add to all of this, he has “reactive airway disease.” He has had pneumonia twice.

Today he was diagnosed with double ear infection! The Dr. put him on Biaxin- which she said should be taken with food. She says “give him a cracker or something.” Well, he can’t even tolerate the baby food! I tried to give him a little smidgen of a cracker and he threw up from gagging on it!

Does it sound like he isn’t tolerating the neocate any more? Is this gagging thing common? The Dr. thinks that maybe he is transitioning from baby food to real food. I know he does look at my food like he wants it, but like I said, the gagging is terrible.

I could go on & on. Needless to say, he is up at least 1-2X a night still. I am exhausted (I have a 4yr old too and I work.) Since he’s not eating as much, we’ve been putting a little cereal in his bottle at night. Is this a bad thing to do? It does seem to help him sleep a bit.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I know I’m all over the place with the questions. As I said, I am exhausted! Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks, Elaine

[hellbennt]

JGroupie Intro: my intro: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=853&am p;PN=1&TPN=1

Reflux & ear infections: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2310

Reflux-what I have learned: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2948&a mp;PN=3

[Anonymous]

Hello and welcome,

As for the connection between gagging and reflux, I don’t know if there is a proven connection but my son was a terrible gagger. I had a hard time getting him to eat solids because of it and when we moved on to table food it was even worse. He was over a year old before he could eat a cheerio without gagging and throwing up. The good news is that he did outgrow it and he can eat anything he wants now.

Have you tried the Gerber Puffs? Those were the first things that Myles learned to eat without gagging. They dissolve more quickly than cheerios and crackers.

Does your son choke or gag during bottle feeds as well, or just with solids? If he’s choking during bottle feedings as well I’d request a swallow study, espcially given he also has reactive airway disease. Sometimes refluxers aspirate during feedings and this causes respiratory problems for them.

I think it’s just fine to add cereal to his bottles if it makes him comortable and helps him to sleep better. Many of our reflux babies are on thickened feeds all day long.

Do you think he’s waking at night due to hunger or reflux pain? If you think it’s reflux pain, you may want to ask about a PPI medicaiton for him. Most of us here have found that Zantac is only minimally effective since it is a very weight sensitive drug and babies quickly outgrow their dose, and some platuau on and can no longer get relief. You can read about some current research into PPI meds for infant reflux at http://www.marci-kids.com

Be sure to check Laura’s intro (stickied in the Introduce Yourself Forum). It contains lots of valuable information which may help you.

Good luck and glad you found us. I hope you’re little guy is eating and sleeping better soon.

[Anonymous]

If he has a milk soy protein intollerance or allergy you might want to be careful of what brand of cereal you add to his bottles. We used Beachnut because it doesn’t contain any soy or milk. We also had a horrible time with gagging. Colton was 15 months before he really could eat solids. I really feel for you because we have a non sleeper on our hands too. I would continue with the Neocate and just be careful of what type of solids you introduce. Oh and I don’t see any problem in adding cereal if you think it helps.

[Anonymous]

Hi Elaine, and welcome.

Bryce has always been a horrible gagger too. Working with an occupational therapist really helped him. You might want to consider getting an evaluation from Early Intervention. They can really help with feeding issues as well as the gagging.

Good luck with everything!

[Anonymous]

Both of my boys are bad gaggers too. Now that Luke is older it is gone, but when he was a baby it was horrible. He threw up all the time. We used to put a receiving blanket in his lap to catch it. Justice is much better. He has only really gagged on the star puffs. I learned to put them in the side of his mouth. He then learned to chew them and did great. Sadly we are on a break from them right now, but he loved them. Also, about the cereal. Gerber brand has milk in it. I know it doesn’t say it, but it does. My son had a bad reaction to it. We now do a wild oats brand brown rice. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Hi – Thanks for all of the advice. I have been using beechnut cereal – I originally didn’t know that Gerber contained milk! We have decided to try and slowly thicken up his cereal and see if we can progress that way. He doesn’t gag on his bottle at all. He has an appt. on Monday for a well baby check, so I’m also going to discuss this with the ped.

His original symptoms of reflux seemed like “normal” things a baby does. Spitting up was the most common symptom. But it wasn’t projectile so I figured it couldn’t be reflux! When I was speaking to his ped. about possibly having reflux I said that he couldn’t have reflux – he wasn’t projectile. She said that didn’t mean anything! He’s not spitting up that much at all anymore- really not at all. Since this was the most noteable symptom, I’m assuming the Zantac is working???

I’m not sure if he is waking at night because he’s hungry or hurting from the reflux. He isn’t waking as often as he was, so I’m not sure if he is just in a sleep pattern now. He seems to wake at the same time (or within 1/2 hour either way). Last night we actually had a good night. He made it 1hr past the bewitching hour!! He doesn’t wake up screaming or anything and he does take at least a 6 oz bottle.

Well, I guess we will keep plugging away, and hope he outgrows all of this stuff soon enough!!!!

Thanks again for the advice.

Elaine

[Author]

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