RESTLESS SLEEP!

[Anonymous]

I need help! Peyton has started this restless sleeping the last week or so. It usually starts around midnight until 5 or whenever we get up. He will grunt and moan constanly, draw his legs up, and squirm, squirm, squirm! He looks like he in pain and he cries out sometimes. He doesn’t wake up and is breastfeeding every 2 hours. I’m sure he is refluxing. I change his positioning to find out if it will make him more comfortable but no luck. I hate seeing him unable to rest comfortably, and I hate not being able to sleep either of course. He will sleep a couple of minutes and then start all over again, it is so frustrating. He was doing ok with nighttime sleep, getting up to feed and going right back to sleep…I miss those days 🙂

He is on Prilosec 1 ml /day, I’m sure that’s low. Oh, he doesn’t do this during his daytime naps. Thanks

Aby

[Anonymous]

Hi Aby,
Do you have Peyton sleeping on an incline? That really made a difference for my son even before he was on the right meds. Also, I’m sure his sleep will improve immensely once he’s on a higher dose of Prilosec. Good luck with that!

[Anonymous]

At night he sleeps on tummy down on my chest and I lay at an incline. When he sleeps in his crib he is on the Tucker wedge.

Aby

[Anonymous]

I would definitely look into getting a med. increase. That made all the difference for us with our sleep issues.

[Anonymous]

We got his meds increased to 18 mg of Prilosec 3 x last Monday. We haven’t had any improvements with the night sleep. All this grunting and squirming and GRUNTING! When you increase med doses, will it take another 2 weeks or so to see an improvement?

Aby

[Anonymous]

hi aby, that is our son as well. but he doesnt grunt. he just squirms and rolls around a lot. meds never helped w/us. but i think in your case with the grunting it sounds like gas. have you done the diet to see if it helps.. forgive me if you have.

[Anonymous]

For Myles it took 10 days once his meds were increased to an adequate dose.

This may be redundant, sorry… but have you checked to see that his Prilosec is being compounded properly?

[Anonymous]

I have cut out dairy for now but really don’t see a big difference. I am trying to gear myself up for the TED I’ll try giving him some mylicon drops before bed, but I think it’s more reflux than gas, but who knows? He doesn’t wake up while he’s doing all this but he cries out sometimes. Of course, it is keeping me up. He doesn’t do it so much during the day during his naps either…Oh the mysteries of GERD. I’ll pray that maybe it’ll get better as the days goes with his new dose.

Aby

[Anonymous]

just wanted to point out if you are giving less than 3.5 ml at a time of a compound, there will not be enough buffer and it will be degraded in the stomach. so basically, the medicine is being destroyed in his body.

i would look into getting the marci-kids.com recommended dose and dosing him at least 2 times a day with possibly an h2 blocker at night. for several months my son required the highest dose that marci-kids.com recommended PLUS an h2 blocker before bed and he slept like an angel after that.

Mommy2myboy2007-6-24 10:37:6

[Anonymous]

Aby,

This sounds exactly like Caden as a newborn. I also had to sleep with him on my chest. And, he grunted constantly. I could tell it was reflux too, but the Prevacid didn’t seem to help him.

He stopped doing that completely when he was between 3 and 4 months old (the grunting I mean). The restless sleep continued though and has improved on certain days but is awful on others…

He still sleeps with me and nurses whenever he wants during the night, but he doesn’t sleep on my chest anymore just next to me.

I hope you find something that helps him soon.

Have you considered some type of sleeping wedge or pillow for the bed? I know they make an acid reflux wedge or pillow out there. I’m searching for one for Caden right now.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Oh, and TED didn’t help us either. I hope it helps your little one

[hellbennt]

I would:

check the compound if it’s a compound

check how you’re administering the PPI if it is not a compound

split the dose into ‘uneven’ doses & give a larger dose at night

if you have zantac, give that at night (ped GI highest dose is 10mgs/kilo)

or give mylanta at night

or both

keep a food journal: what you eat takes about 3-5hrs to make it to your milk. you might see a pattern that what you eat at night is affecting him. could even be something like a vitamin you take in the evening or a medication or just something you eat in the evening…

hellbennt2007-07-02 18:33:07

[Anonymous]

Hi guys-

My Anna did the same thing! It actually has a name, “Grunting Baby Syndrome”. I don’t think it has anything to do with reflux. Anna’s went away around 3 months old as well. It drove me CRAZY; I thought something was wrong with her, and she would grunt and squirm while we watched her in her crib at night. The pedi told us (and it’s also in the Baby 411 book) that this is just the baby getting used to digestion, and most of the time it’s an issue of coordinating his bowel movements…they actually have to learn to have a BM! I know it sounds crazy but check it out more at:

http://parentingsolved.typepad.com/parenting_solved/2006/11/grunting_baby_s.html

and

http://www.drspock.com/discussion/message/0,1812,42220,00.html

As a new parent I was freaked out until I understood it. I know, that on top of reflux (and Anna’s was MISERABLE reflux until Prevacid) can make anyone nuts! It will go away…hang in there.

[Anonymous]

That’s interesting…I’ll check out the link. It has gotten a little better lately. Maybe it’s his meds helping or him getting older (10 weeks). He does it most often around 3 a.m… don’t know why. Maybe he’s getting ready for the big BM he has in the morning when he wakes up It’s funny but true because his diaper is usually only wet when he wakes up. I can’t wait until he grows out of it!

Aby

[Anonymous]

My GI asked me if my little guy was doing this as she said sometimes you find the medicine wears off a little at night. She said if this was happening she would try Zantac or Tagamet at night to see if it helped as they had had success with that. This group is hesitant to increase the PPI doses to the Marci-Kids level as little testing has been done officially. They do agree that children metabolize the medicine faster so it could wear off, but they are hesitant to increase the dose. So if you end up with the same issue, ask to try the Zantac or something like it for night. It might be that lying down that long eventually his reflux just really bothers him.

It can take a few days for an increased dose to work. I don’t know that it is as long as the initial dosing (2 weeks), but its a stonger dose trying to stop more of the acid production so it still needs time to build up in their system and be effective.

[Author]

Posts