I need sleep…

[Anonymous]

Zaine who is 91/2 months is still waking up 6-7 times a night and 2-3 of though times are to eat.He should not be eating at night at this age…RIGHT?And not 2-3 times…RIGHT?When I feed him he normally goes back to sleep but within a hour or two is back up whinning and rolling around..most of the time I will have to get up and hold him or lay on the couch with him just to get him to go back to sleep.

Should his reflux just not be under control at night?Or is he waking up out of habit?Or could it be his tummy hurts?Or could he really be hungry?

How do I know which one of these things it is??Please help I really need some sleep as I have a 3 yr old too.

Thanks!!

[Anonymous]

My best guess is that the Zantac is doing nothing for him. It did nothing for my little girl and she never slept well until she finally outgrew her reflux. Many babies get better relief from their reflux pain with PPI medicaitons like Zegerid or Prevacid. Myles really turned the corner once he was on the right dose of Prevacid.

These drugs do take two weeks to work. Did you stay with it two weeks when you tried them initially? Also, many doctors under dose our babies because they are not aware that babies metablolize PPI meds 3 times faster than adults so they need higher doses given three times daily. Perhaps his dose was too low and that’s why he got no relief.

Here’s the marci-kids link with PPI dosing information. I printed this and faxed it to my doctor. That’s how I convinced her to put Myles on the higher dose of Prevacid that he needed. (10 mg 3X’s daily). He has done very well since then.

http://www.marci-kids.com/

I’m sorry things are so hard right now.I’ve been there and I sure know what it’s like.

[Anonymous]

I see you tried Prevacid packs, most docs suggest way too low of a dose – so many get discouraged and try something else. If you have a high enough dose – you’ll notice improvement immediately. You may also want to try Prevacid twice a day and Zantac before bedtime. My son stopped his night wakings at 28 months when I started giving him Prevacid in the am and Pepcid AC (H2ra like zantac) before bedtime. I’m still dumbfounded that it worked! (of course you gotta bring it up with the docs first).

I think by 4 months they don’t have to eat during the night? I don’t think he’s not waking up because he’s hungry, he’s just eating cuz it’s offered. My son would wake up several times in the middle of the night, but would feriociously swat the bottle away. I was forced to let him CIO and it worked great (except for the listening to him scream for an hour). when he woke up, he was happy and bubbly for the first time ever!

I suggest talking to the doc about a med change and if your still having problems. It turned out my son had partial sleep apnea that’s causing his over-tired-unable-to-fall-asleep issues. He gets his large tonsils and adenoids taken out next friday – If I had known he had large tonsils I would have asked that they take them out years ago!!

[Anonymous]

What about teething?? Emma would get up whining when she was teething. Ibuphren works great. Teething also aggravates reflux making it worse on top of it. I noticed also Emma would get up b/c of gas, she still has it really bad. I would give her mylanta before bedtime and that seemed to help. Are you able to try Zegerid, will your doc prescibe it?? We love it here. As soon as I got her on the proper dosage of it, I eliminated her zantac at night (we still keep it on hand for emergency’s)

[hellbennt]

is the zantac dose high enough? how much does he weigh? have you tried giving zantac and mylanta cherry supreme before bed? what about offering a squirt of mylanta followed by some water when he wakes? maybe a PPI would help- I know you’d like to think about decreasing meds at this age, not increasing/adding them

[Anonymous]

Natasha, we are in a similar situation to you, except Hailey is a year old. To answer your question, as long as your son is eating during the day, he should be able to go throughout the night without needing to wake for food. At least that’s what we’ve been told by every doc we’ve seen. But, at 9.5 months, I still have known some babies to wake for food- but once, not 2 or 3 times. What you describe sounds to me like your son’s reflux is not under control, at least at night. My daughter also whines a lot at night and rolls around- more like whimpering and crying out, trying to get herself comfortable. We also feed her 1-2 times at night, so I know where you’re coming from. It sounds like your son is waking because he is uncomfortable, and out of habit, he is looking for you to soothe him back to sleep, sometimes with a bottle, and sometimes by holding him. I would be surprised if he was hungry all of those times. He likely is just eating because it is being offered and he expects it. But I also know breaking this habit is easier said than done (notice I said we are still feeding my dd at night as well, but she also has serious feeding issues, which is partly why we still feed her). A doc we saw told us as well that the more you feed them at night, the worse the night time reflux is, and so it’s a viscous cycle… they wake up, you feed them, they wake up more b/c the reflux gets aggravated etc.

Anyhow, I feel your pain. I too am so sleep deprived that most times I can hardly sleep straight. There are several gentle sleep training techniques that you can try with your son (The baby whisperer or good night/sleep tight), but first it sounds like you really need to get his night time pain under control to stop the wakings in the first place. I notice he is on zantac, but I would consider giving a PPI another try. When he tried it the first time, how long was he on it, and what symptoms did he have? Then, when you get the pain under control, you can work on sleep training and phasing out bottles (some people have had success by gradually diluting the bottles).

Hang in there.

[Anonymous]

Everyone has given you such wonderful advice….i just wanted to add that we also had a child waking every 1.5-2 hours until he was nearly 18 months old. I would breastfeed him back to sleep because this was teh only way either of us could sleep….and it was absolutely horrible horrible horrible!!– the sleep deprivation. Also, probably after changing doses and introducing a ppi you will see a huge difference….HOWEVER:

after looking into the possible ppi meds and dosing, and appropriately high doses of ppis, zantac, mylanta, etc. and looking into gentle sleep solutions behavior wise (I also recommend the No Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley) ….if he is still waking and uncomfortable, you need to look into MSPI and other food issues.

My child has milk soy protein intolerance (MSPI– so we removed all dairy and soy and beef from his diet at 8 mos) and didn’t sleep for more than two hours in a row until we also removed all gluten from his diet at nearly 18 mos. Food allergies and food intolerances (not hte same thing, but often presenting similar symptoms) can cause night wakings, upset tummies, etc. My son woke crying, burping, screaming…nearly every time he EVER woke up. When he woke without crying, we talked about it for a few days following because it would be so unusual.

I just want to let you know tehre are other things out there that can cause night wakings and these food problems often go hand in hand with reflux. My son has legitimate severe reflux, but on top of that, has obvious food problems. We are still in the process of testing for food allergies and the allergist said that even if they aren’t traditional full blown ALLERGIES, sensitive stomachs and protein intolerances can cause these symptoms as well. Good news is that you can control their diets (not fun, butyou can!) and your own, if you are breastfeeding (also no fun, but you can) and they often grow out of both allergies and intolerances by age five, but often by age 2-3. If you suspect he is in pain and other things should have taken care of it, don’t give up until you find an answer.

Have you had any testing done for his reflux?– upper gi, endoscopy, ph probe to see what’s going on? Is he generally happy during the day? Our son was pretty much a dream during the day from 11 mos on, yet still screamed so much at night that hte neighbors have heard him many many times. So, just cause they are fine all day doesn’t mean they are really totally fine. It’s a very tricky thing, though, with behaviorial issues in there as well. I understand what you are going through, hang in there!!!

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