Why is she SCREAMING!!!

[Anonymous]

Please help. Today I have been using Simply Thick in 6 weeks DD Neocate bottles. She has been doing GREAT!!! This evening she started drinking fine (Dr. Brown sz 1) then acts if she cant get anything from the nipple. I poke the nole several times and reinstriduced it STILL acting like she wants it but then cries. I switched to a faster flowing bottle nipple (Avent Sz 1). When she drank from this the swallows sounded like they hurt!!! I dont know what to do. She really aggressively goes for the nipple and then cries before she even sucks. She is congested, I gave her a saline only breathing treatment and suctioned her nose—-NOTHING. Please help. She is miserable. I have a sink full of dirty bottles from switching them.

Paige, 6weeks, Prevacid 7.5 mg 3 times a day, Neocate

[Anonymous]

I really don’t know much about simply thick so hopefully someone else can chime in on that. I do know that when we started thickening Isaac’s bottles at 8 weeks old we used a stage 1 playtex nurser nipple. It worked well for about a month then he was ready for a faster flow. We have tried 6 different bottles at this point and i just wanted to mention how bad avent was for giving Isaac gas but then again some people love avent!

I hope this is just a temporary thing with her and it will clear up soon!

[Anonymous]

I think it’s really hard to tell what’s going on when they are that young. She might just be having a bad day. I’d try a few days of consistency and if there are still problems then try to switch bottles/nipples.

Avent bottles killed Ally. She would scream like crazy on them; I think they caused her to swallow alot of air, which was very painful for her. We used Doc Brown’s and when she needed a faster nipple, we just switched from #1 to #2 to Y cut.

[Anonymous]

Hi – this might be a stupid question but what are “DD Neocate bottles?” . .. I breastfed my daughter exclusively up until she started daycare then I did pumped bottles. .. I know from my own experience that my daughter would get ticked if it wasn’t the right “fit” nipple for her so maybe if you switched bottles its just a matter of she doesn’t like the shape of the nipple and its not necessarily the flow? Being congested could actually be really bothering her too and maybe its a stage because of that?

At that age I would do SLOW flow nipples. I know your thickening but most refluxers can’t handle a faster flow so if anything I would go as low as you could without getting the nipple clogged. .. easier said than done right?

Any better today?

[Anonymous]

I think she meant that she was putting the simply thick in her DD (Dear Daughter’s ) bottles of Neocate. She is using the Dr. Brown’s bottles with the size one nipples. (there are no stupid questions, Liz!)

I am glad that Sophia is doing so well!

[Anonymous]

Thanks!!! I have noticed that she is much more fussy and congested in the evening. Last night she screamed while I was feeding her for her 8’ish bottle and her 10:30 bottle. At 10:30 she took ALMOST 2 oz. She usually will take 3-3.5oz. She then slept from 11:15 till 4am!! She ate (3oz) with a small amount of fussing, nothing like the evening, and went back to sleep until 8. For some reason she is the most congested in the evening. I also notice that swallowing hurts in the evening. Is this what they call “colic”? Or is there something to it. Because of our frustration we have agreed to a 2nd PH probe scheduled for tomarrow!! We have to drive 1.5 hurs to Mobile, AL (where the closest Ped GI specialists are). We then have to go back Friday to have it pulled!! I think this is a waste. She just had on (off meds) 2 weeks ago. This one will be on meds so maybe we will see…. thanks so much all of you. I am now a “junkie” to this site.

[Anonymous]

OOH – lol, thought it was some new fangled bottle – lol. Thanks for the clarification .

Hey shannon. .. one more thought .. . is your daughter always congested especially in the evenings or is this a cold/flu type congestion? If the thickening agent is causing irritability on the MSPI side of things then one of the possible side effects could be congestion. Buuut now that you mention that she just started prevacid solutabs it also raises a big hmmm. .. I would have her taken off of the solutabs immediately and switch to another formulation that does not have any chance of effecting her dietarily. I betcha thats contributing more so than the simply thick. I just did a search and saw that you already posted a question on that very topic. .. mothers intuition – its a great thing –

Good luck with the probe. You could always put it off if your going to make med changes and do it after you know for sure if further testing is needed? That is of course just a suggestion – you need to do whats best for all of you… just throwing it out there.

~Liz

[Anonymous]

Thanks. She is FREQUENTLY congested after feeding. Though seemed to be worse in the evening TILL today. Now today I cant get her to eat her bottles!! I am getting ready to give her a saline only breathing tx and the I am going to take her off of the thickener for a few days. I would like to try Zegrid. I hear it is great. Maybe I will swich to this and THEN next week do the probe. I am so confused. COuld be the exhaustion HUH???? LOL

[Anonymous]

Oh Shannon – I’m sure its a little bit of everything. Word to the wise from having been there done that. Whenever your introing meds and other variables go slow and keep a journal. At one point I was so out of control with switching meds, food, formula, breastmilk, my own diet I thought for sure I would go insane. Your best bet is to make one change at a time and observe the results in up to two week time frames. If you take her off the thickener and she gets worse than you know that she needs a thickener and to go back on .. .then change the meds or dosage etc. .. . I suggested putting testing off because it just seems like when the doctors don’t know what else to do they suggest some test. . .which isn’t alltogether wrong but when the least invasive things haven’t been done first why make you and your lo go through another round of proceedures?

Hope you find some answers soon whatever you decide to do.

~Liz

[Anonymous]

Excellent advice on one change at a time. I am still horrible about changing too many little things then never know what happened. The congestion could also be a sign that the reflux is not under control. Our congestion went away once prevacid dose was right. We used saline several times a day but did not suction. Keeps things moving and moist in their little noses.

[Anonymous]

Shannon – any improvements, changes, feeling any better?

[Anonymous]

Thank you for asking. She seems to be a bit better. She is EXTREMELY gassy the last couple of days. I wonder if it could be from Simply Thick? The dr is sending her to a Feeding Therapist. She cries so much when we feed her. He tried to feed her and she wouldnt eat for him or me at all. She was hungry though. Wish us luck!!

Hope all is well for you.

[Anonymous]

Shannon, I really hope that the feeding therapy is the answer. We are also in the same boat, and things are so difficult as my daughter won’t take anything if she’s awake right now. Let’s pray the feeding therapy works. We have our appointment in 1 week. Good luck. Please keep us posted.

[Anonymous]

Don’t know if this will help, but here’s what I’ve experienced.

My son had rice cereal added to his bottles starting at 1 month old. I would take a rubber nipple with three holes (the yellow-orange colored ones) and heat a large saftey pin and stick them in the holes to melt/widen the holes. I think when he was smaller I would only widen one hole. This will not work with the clear silicone nipples, they don’t melt. This worked great for my son, he could not drink out of the “Y” cut nipples – it came out too fast and he’d choke.

Also, I had to hold my son sitting perfectly upright with his back straight and his head tilted back to feed him, or he would have trouble with the milk going down his trachea (he’d choke and everything would come back up and out his mouth if he was tilted back even a little). My son has/had tracheomalacia and laryngomalacia which are soft immature parts of the airway that will make a child sound congested after eating and they will often have a croupy cough even when they are not sick. I have posted some info on the malacias under the “respitory” topic on this forum. I believe the melacias are largely ignored by doctors and they don’t take it seriously because it strengthens up on it’s own (most of the time) by the time they are 2 yrs old. Also, Laryngomalacia causes reflux to be worse because the lungs push on the stomach because they don’t deflate properly upon exhilation.

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