Please Help – Not sure what to do!

[Anonymous]

Hi Everyone. I have a call in to my doctor about this, but in the meantime I found this site when doing some research on the internet and I was wondering if anyone could help me.

My DS is going to be 10 weeks old on Saturday. He has been on zantac for reflux since 5 weeks. It really does seem to help at night time – he has been sleeping for anywhere between 5 and 7 hours at a time on his side in his positioner in the crib. However, I really don’t think the zantac is helping at all during the day and in fact his reflux symptoms have gotten worse. I need to start by saying that he is generally a very happy baby. I continuously read about reflux and pain but I have never seen any sign that my baby is in pain. It is very confusing because he can lay on his back just fine for diaper changes and to play under his play mat – he is totally content here – but cannot even for a few minutes tolerate sleeping flat on his back. He continuously makes a gulping/swallowing sound during the day and is very “gurgly”. This makes it very difficult for him to stay down for a nap. I’ve tried to encourage sleeping on his belly for naps (I thought kids with reflux were more comfy in this position), but he acts like I am torturing him in this position! Here are my dilemmas:

-I don’t get why he can get a diaper change and play on his back just fine but cannot sleep here despite being swaddled.

-Why does he sleep well at night (he does make noise but generally stays down for btwn 5 and 7 hours), yet during the day, naps are awful.

-Why is he still so gurgly and constantly swallowing/gulping during the day despite giving him zantac in the morning?

-He is by no means a miserable baby but could this be something more severe than reflux?

-Why does he burp fabulousy during feeding (I burp him 2-3x) during a 4.5oz bottle) but then 20 minutes later, he is spitting up like crazy?

I am so confused! Any advice/info would be greatly appreciated! Thanks so much.

[Anonymous]

It sounds to me like you probably either need to go up on the Zantac dose as it is very weight sensitive or he needs a stronger medicine something like Prevacid/Nexium/Zegerid. He probably sleeps so well at night b/c he is exhausted from not sleeping during the day(just a guess). The Zantac or any of the reflux meds aren’t going to stop the reflux they are just going to make it not hurt. It is possible that he has pyloric stenosis but the only way to figure that out is to have an upper gi done which will check for structural abnormailities. It is easily fixed with surgery. My daughter who doesn’t have reflux like my son did spits up occasionally up to 90 mins after she has eaten. Some babies just spit.

I would check out Marci-kids website… lots of good information and I would look at Laura’s groupie intro as she has tons of information stored there.

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