thickened feedings??

[Anonymous]

So my DD is a silent refluxer who vomits occasionally…can anyone tell me if thickening the feedings has REALLY helped?? I’ve avoided it so far because rice cereal gives her gas….but gas might better than the arching and crying and not sleeping at night. What amount of rice cereal has worked for you??

[hellbennt]

I’d try:

carafate or something at night; do a search for carafate- it’s helped many of our little one for night time break through acid!

mylanta

zantac

zantac & maylanta,

adjusting the prevacid dose to be more at night- so maybe 9mgs in the evening and 6mgs in the am?

I’m not a fan of thickening, w/o a ftt problem (needing calories) or a spit up problem (again, gaining weight issue) or an aspiration problem (thin liquid getting into lungs)

that’s my opinion.

I never thickened so all I know is from all that I’ve researched (close to 3 yrs now). I’ve read pros & cons about it.

Hope you find the answer you’re looking for!

[Anonymous]

My son has been on thickened formula (oatmeal cereal) since he was about a month old(maybe 2?). It is one of the main factors in keeping his reflux under control (along with the prevacid of course). Oatmeal is much better for us than rice, Aidan also had constipation and gas from rice. His is pretty thick, 3 tbs per 4 oz, orrigionally it was 4 tbs per 4 oz, (1tbs per oz), but that was to thick for him so I cut it by one. Some may say OMG that’s a ton of cereal, but it has worked for him. He is roly poly (almost 19 lbs) but that’s not from the cereal, that’s just how my babies are (first ds was 21 at 5 mos).Anyway, I think thickening is worth a try, especially for silent refluxers as ANYTHING that keeps that food/acid down in their tummy is good….you might want to try it…(btw I have done the math, and even with the amount of cereal in my son’s bottles he’s not getting a huge amount of calories over what he should be getting, he drinks about 20 oz a day which is fine for his age) He is on a perfect growth curve, gaining exactly what he should be, no more, no less. Medicine can keep the reflux from hurting their throats, but things like thickened bottles can actually help to keep it from coming up.Aidansmom792006-6-3 12:27:15

[Anonymous]

So here’s the question — how do you get the oatmeal to come through the nipple of the bottle??? Even a fast nipple??? I have tried and my DD gets frustrated…..

[Anonymous]

We thickened and it helped. Matthew was a silent refluxer most of the time but he had episodes of spitting through the nose and those are so painful. He would just cry hysterically for a long time. The thickness was great because the vomit would only make it up to his mouth…. and that was not as painful because of the meds.

We used Dr Browns and managed to get it through the #3 nipple… but we were using a slightly different cereal in spain which really dissolves well. Some people i hear blend it before they give it. Also, got to play with the consistency a little bit.

Oh and Matthew was refusing to eat so yes, the calories really really helped him

[Anonymous]

We thickened Kaelyn’s bottles with rice at first and switched to oatmeal to help with gas and constipation issues. We did 1 Tbsp per ounce. She was a HUGE spitter and the cereal really seemed to help. We tried to cut back on the cereal several times and the amount that she would spit up would increase greatly. As Laura said, it works better for some babies than others. You might want to try it, keep a record of how it goes for a week or two, and then decide if it’s working or not.

As for the nipples, I’m afraid that I’m not much help. Kaelyn had an incredibly strong suck, so we actually used Dr. Brown’s Level 1 and 2 nipples (depending on how sleepy she was). She also was a comfort feeder, so we were trying to lengthen her feeds. Y cut nipples are supposed to be really helpful. Maybe you could try those?

[Anonymous]

my dd is a silent rfluxer on .7 ml prevacid 2x per day. We’ve been doing the whole fromula switch thing too. We did try to thicken her formula with cereal and never got the right consistency. Enfamil AR is the formula thickened with rice cereal. Unfortunately it constipated Kenzie terribly; however, I know two people who use it and got great results with their babies. After too many formula switched we are now on Alimentum RTF- it is a thicker fromula. These kids should just come with a manual.

Good luck -I hope things improve quickly for you.

Denise

Mom to Maddie 4 y/o h/o projectile reflux; TJ (20 mons old) and Mackenzie- 11 weeks- silent relux x 7 weeks (prevacid 2x/ day; Alimentum) I’m also a speech therapist with a background in feeding.

[Anonymous]

ahh yeah the nipple, the ONLY bottle I have found that works with Aidan’s oatmeal/formula ratio is the dr.browns y cut nipple bottles (I LOATHE the things b/c of all the stupid parts) I tried a number of other bottles with y cut nipples and it was the only one that worked.

[Anonymous]

I use the Dr. Brown’s Y cut, too. They were too fast flowing for Myles the first few months but work perfectly now.

[Author]

Posts