Nurses for hours!

[Anonymous]

I have a 6 week old baby boy who has recently been diagnosed with acid reflux. I have read that most babies are reluctant to nurse when they have reflux. My son, however, wants to nurse for hours at a time and is only happy when nursing. Last night he nursed from 11 pm to 4:30 am. When I tried to delatch him, he would scream. The doctor thinks that he is in pain and trying to coat his throat and comfort himself. Has anyone else experienced this? His primary reflux symptoms are spitting up, fussiness for most of the day, gagging, grimaces, etc. He is sleeping better during the day on zantac, but still seems to be in pain. How long should I give the zantac? It has been 6 days. The doctor said 1 to 2 weeks, but this seems like a long time. I am new to this site, and I would appreciate any help/ advice.

[hellbennt]

hi & welcome!

I have a LOT to say & (most of) it’s here:

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

scroll down, you’ll see a ‘section’ about breastfeeding your GERDling

the constant feeding is called ‘comfort’ feeding & is not uncommon…

so glad you found us!

~laura

[Anonymous]

Is it normal for comfort feeding to last 5 or 6 hours with no breaks? I have friends who tell me that I am creating a bad habit by allowing him to feed like this, but it breaks my heart to see him cry when I take him off the breast. If I find medication that works for the reflux, will the comfort feeding subside? Does zantac take longer than a week to fully work? What do you recommend?

[Anonymous]

We were comfort feeding as well, but not when I was bf Cooper just would eat nonstop if I let him. I have heard of many moms who nurse all night long so I think it is still pretty common. I would look into getting a different med, probably a ppi (prevacid, zegreid or nexium to help with the pain.

[hellbennt]

I wouldn’t worry about ‘habits’ at this point…I would work on getting the medications ‘right’ and work on other things and then everything else should all fall into place…I’m not ‘into’ schedules with mybabies, especially my reflux baby- now this isn’t to say that once the reflux is controlled that you can’t have routines (rather than schedules) but we can talk about this later

so: the zantac should start to work I’d say at least a couple of days into it- I would check out the dose; my educated guess is that you could go higher- read here: Zantac dosing- my/other’s question: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9539&PID=82914#82914

So I’d give the zantac, get a ped GI (or family doctor willing to work with you) and get a prescription for a PPI (see above link I gave you in the other post- ‘groupie intro’)

so yes I found the comfort feeding did subside once baby was on his way to being properly medicated- I say on his way bcse (unfortunately) this can take some time as you get it worked out…

anyway, you can cross that bridge when you come to it…

HTH (hope this helps)

~laura

[Anonymous]

He is 8 pounds 9 ounces and is taking 1 ml two times per day. He is taking better naps since he has been on it, but is still in pain. I am so grateful to have found this site. Thanks for the input!

[hellbennt]

ok that’s 3.9 kilos

max zantac is 10mgs per kilo

so 10 x 3.9 = 39mgs total for the day of zantac

it’s 15mgs per ml

so that’s 2.6mls a day total of zantac he can have at the ‘highest’ dose

he’s on 2mls a day & so therefore can have an ‘extra’ .6ml a day…

I would see about starting a PPI…

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

[Anonymous]

I agree with the others completely about the meds – perhaps a switch to a PPI (like Prevacid, Zegerid, etc.) may help improve his discomfort, as it has for so many of our little GERDlings.

My son Ben (now 2 & 1/2) was a comfort feeder as well!! A lot of reflux babies are the opposite and find feeding to be terribly uncomfortable, but there are some who do what you described and seem to feed constanly to help soothe their throat/esophagus. When Ben was only 2 days old, he started the comfort feeding and nursed from about 11 pm to 7:30 the next morning (ouch!). From that day on, until he finally outgrew his reflux, he would eat huge amounts and very frequently. He was nearly 20 pounds at his 4 month check-up!

MFPIx22007-10-08 23:38:08

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