Rice Cereal and REflux

[Anonymous]

Our son’s ped recommended 1 tsp rice cereal per ounce of formula to help keep the milk down. Well, DH and I started adding the rice last week and things were going well even though we had to make some adjustments like cut the nipples a tad larger, etc. Well, we decided to start crushing the rice with a rolling pin in a bag to help get it through the nipples better as any cereal nipples are too fast for him! Now it seems his reflux is worse even though he is getting the same amount of rice. I would measure out the tsp’s and put each bottle’s rice individually in there to crush it. Does the texture of the rice matter with reflux? I mean, do the flakes help better than crushing it or does it not matter since rice expands anyhow? I am just kinda wondering if changing the composition has somewhat lessened it’s affects.

[Anonymous]

It’s hard to say. You may be making it thinner, and so maybe it’s coming up easier? The other possibility is that by cutting the nipple you’ve increased the flow rate, causing him to eat faster/more and reflux more. Just thinking out loud, though…Not sure. But I responded to your other thread. I would guess that the rice is related to your son’s constipation. Thickening can be somewhat controversial. We needed to do it with my dd, b/c she choked on her feeds otherwise. We used oatmeal b/c it’s easier on the tummy. Others have used simply thick.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the replies! We just started thickening his feeds with rice a week ago and he has had constipation for over 3 weeks. BTW, is oatmeal good for infants as young as 5 weeks?

[Anonymous]

I also was told to put rice ceral in my daughter’s formula to help with reflux. During a one day stay at the hopsital for iv Zantac therapy the GI dr told us to quit putting ceral in her bottle and not to burp her and until she was done eating,also her formula was switched to again to Good Start, with doing these two things it help to a degree,but we had to change her meds.(Nexium, Periactin and Erythromycin). Since we have done the above we have seen a huge improvement in her. She still has reflux but the pain is under control and that is what is important.

Ashlynn Nikole 6-3 -07 Reflux since birth

Danika Piper 11-3-05 Happy go lucky toddler

[Anonymous]

Why did he/she tell you to stop putting in the rice?

[Anonymous]

I personaly believe that it was upsetting her stomach and reflux even more. He said to try this to see if it helped with her feedings(which could take a hour to complete). I noticed shortly a day or so that she was less cranky than before. I did try this at home prior to this and noticed a change .

Her first GI dr who I did not like told me to increase the cereal, which I noticed that she became more upset.

I switched GI dr and love the one we have now and this is the one who said to take the cereal out.

From my understanding rice cereal can upset tummy’s even more. And with my little one it did this and also increased her reflux.

[Anonymous]

I don’t really think that any solids are great for a baby’s tummy when they’re that young. I just know that rice made Hailey’s constipation so much worse than it already was. We held off thickening until she was over 5 months old, b/c I didn’t want to introduce grains until I really had to. Our GI wasn’t a fan of adding cereal to the bottle either, for the same reason. I guess it’s kind of controversial that way.

[Anonymous]

Thanks girls. I know the last few days DS reflux has gotten worse and he has been on the cereal for a week tomorrow. Today he projectile vomited 2 times and he only has done that one other time ever (which was yesterday). We thought switching formulas maybe what irritated his reflux but now I am starting to wonder. I don’t want to make his milk any thicker because I am afraid he will choke on it! You would think after a week of being on Prevacid and the rice there would be a difference. Also, the weird thing is that the rice seemed to work at first or something did because a few days after he started those two things he was a lot better…..I am just so tired of trying these different things and there not being a solution that works for more than two days. I am half tempted to just take him off the rice at least to see if that helps.

[hellbennt]

there’s a ‘section’ about ‘what to feed my reflux baby’ here that has info about thickening:

J

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

[Anonymous]

With a lot of things that are tryed they will work for a week and then things will go back to the way they were before. For my first son that is how it went. Zantac worked for a week and every single formula worked for a week and then once that week was up things went back to the way they were before. I also don’t like the idea of giving a baby that young anything, but breastmilk or formula. We used rice, oatmeal, and barley and I can’t say any of them helped. We did it for so long though that Luke got to the point he didn’t know how to swollow anything that wasn’t thick.

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