Hey there!! I am in search of all you mommies that survived severe reflux with your children while breastfeeding and I desparately need some encouragement. Sorry this a bit lengthy . . .
From the time he was born, I've had difficulty with my DS latching. Being experienced at breastfeeding (still tadem feeding in fact) I was so surprised. He'd latch, unlatch, fuss, latch, unlatch, fuss. It was terribly annoying, but I continued on this breastfeeding journey because I believe it is the absolute best for him. No lactation consultant really had answers just said he'd get the hang of it . . . . but we soon found his issues the hard way:
He started losing weight, and on day #10 of his life, had a life threatening choking spell, that required back blows and sunctioning and he ended up in the hospital with hypoxia and pneumonia . . . . the cause and diagnosis REFLUX. I was in denial, as my child HAD NEVER spit up out his mouth before. He was started on Zantac, and eventually discharged home and slowly started putting on weight.
I've done my research now, and realize he does have almost all the symptoms of "silent" reflux, he just never spits out his mouth, it washes in his lungs and in his throat and nose. The fussy feeding, unlatching, arching his head and back, screaming during sound sleep, frequent respiratory problems, slow weight gain. He know has an ear infection partly due to this problem and is already on antibiotics at 2 months old.
I am frustrated and feel guilty, that my milk is causing this. I have read KellyMom which says food allergies could be to blame and have cut dairy out of my diet for the past 3 days. I had significantly limited it prior to that but now I WITHOUT ANY (thanksgiving was a real blast eating ONLY turkey) and am really really struggling. I eat cheese with most meals. Milk is in so many products and I am hungry all the time, in fact, I am losing 1-2 pounds a day. Despite this sacrifice, just last night again, he choked and milk came out his nose again. I am going to try to do this no-dairy thing for a minimum of 2 weeks to see if it helps. My biggest question is, did any of you cut out dairy while breastfeeding and if so WHEN did you see improvement??? And any other words of encouragement or your personal stories would be appreciated.
My first son had it pretty bad but he wasn't breastfeed. He was on lactose free formula and on Zantac. He started getting better at around 8 months old. We waited way too long to put him on zantac...he was 5 months when we started it. He was eating about an once before starting screaming... Sleeping was not in our vocabulary! He would sleep 15 min then wake up and scream. He had a hard time sitting up by himself because he was arching his back and screaming so much...
My 4 month old also has reflux and is on Zantac since he was 2 weeks old. He is a super good baby and EBF. Even if he has reflux, he is so much better than my oldest was. I know it's hard...and I guess every child is different...but it will go away eventually. I hope your baby gets better soon...
Quoting Marti123:From the time he was born, I've had difficulty with my DS latching. Being experienced at breastfeeding (still tadem feeding in fact) I was so surprised. He'd latch, unlatch, fuss, latch, unlatch, fuss. It was terribly annoying, but I continued on this breastfeeding journey because I believe it is the absolute best for him. No lactation consultant really had answers just said he'd get the hang of it . . . . but we soon found his issues the hard way:
Hmm. That's a symptom of overactive letdown, too...iin fact, I REALLY think that's what you've got going.
He started losing weight, and on day #10 of his life, had a life threatening choking spell, that required back blows and sunctioning and he ended up in the hospital with hypoxia and pneumonia . . . . the cause and diagnosis REFLUX. I was in denial, as my child HAD NEVER spit up out his mouth before. He was started on Zantac, and eventually discharged home and slowly started putting on weight.
Overactive letdown is often mistaken for reflux. Your symptoms are DEAD-ON for overactive letdown. I've been there too. Look it up on kellymom.com...
I've done my research now, and realize he does have almost all the symptoms of "silent" reflux, he just never spits out his mouth, it washes in his lungs and in his throat and nose. The fussy feeding, unlatching, arching his head and back, screaming during sound sleep, frequent respiratory problems, slow weight gain. He know has an ear infection partly due to this problem and is already on antibiotics at 2 months old.
I am frustrated and feel guilty, that my milk is causing this.
No guilt allowed...not needed. Guilt profits you nothing. OK?
I have read KellyMom which says food allergies could be to blame and have cut dairy out of my diet for the past 3 days. I had significantly limited it prior to that but now I WITHOUT ANY (thanksgiving was a real blast eating ONLY turkey) and am really really struggling. I eat cheese with most meals. Milk is in so many products and I am hungry all the time, in fact, I am losing 1-2 pounds a day. Despite this sacrifice, just last night again, he choked and milk came out his nose again. I am going to try to do this no-dairy thing for a minimum of 2 weeks to see if it helps. My biggest question is, did any of you cut out dairy while breastfeeding and if so WHEN did you see improvement??? And any other words of encouragement or your personal stories would be appreciated.
Dairy sticks for six weeks. It will be a long haul...but you should see some improvement by next week.
But if it's OAL as I suspect...the position switches you'll find on kellymom effect an IMMEDIATE improvement...as in, instantly.
Thanks so much for your input and reading my story. About the OAL, one LC thought this was contributing to it as well. So we do the "heads up" positions already, feed only one breast at a time, and pull DS off when my letdown occurs and manually express it into his burp cloth for several minutes, prior to re-latching. These techniques seemed to help some, but they occurred simutaneously with Zantac increase titration, so it's hard to know for sure. I hope this is a portion of it, because Kellymom says this should start getting better around the 12th week or so, and that would be great!!
Quoting gdiamante:
Quoting Marti123:
Dairy sticks for six weeks. It will be a long haul...but you should see some improvement by next week.
But if it's OAL as I suspect...the position switches you'll find on kellymom effect an IMMEDIATE improvement...as in, instantly.
I agree with Gdiamante, we thought colic, we thought reflux, we had ALLLLLL these issues with my oldest and found that it was OAL. I was shocked, but as soon as that chilled out it wasbetter. NOT everyone with OAL gets better at 12 weeks as a warning, depends on the degree of OAL, sometimes it lessens at 12-14 weeks but still is OAL for a while....keep trying to block feeding and upright feeding and things like that.
My daughter started with reflux at 4 weeks old and was put on reglan (never will I allow that again) and zantac. I had her switched to prevacid because zantac did not work. I did cut out MILK because I was told that dairy can cause it BUT I was told that cheese and other products made with dairy were fine. I was told this by my LC and pediatrician. So if you see no difference in him, I would stop stressing yourself out with cutting everything. You need the nutrients for breastfeeding and to keep yourself healthy. Another big one is chocolate. I did not eat much so it had no affect. My DD did start to get better around 4 months old. It started again around 17 months and she was on prevacid again and had an endoscopy. At 2 1/2 they did another enoscopy and a PH study where they run a tube through the nose to the stomach to measure the amount of acid. To my surprise she had NONE. They finally did another test and discovered she had slow digestion. She is now on meds for that 4x a day. So I feel your pain in not knowing what is wrong with your child but do not ever feel any guilt. It will get better.
My youngest had reflux, but we never medicated him for it. He also had thrush, very severely, over and over. I started to notice that his spitting up got much worse when he had outbreaks of thrush. He had it in his mouth and a nasty diaper rash from it. Candida (the strain of yeast that causes thrush) can cause digestive issues in adults, from what I've read, so it makes sense that it would cause reflux-type issues in babies too. If he has been on antibiotics it would make him more susceptible to thrush, so you see where I'm going? Anyway, check for symptoms of thrush, and see if you can do anything there to make a difference. Sorry about you and your baby's rough start, hope this helps, good luck!
Well I know I am of no help to you but you kind of helped me. My son is 2 months old and has pretty bad reflux (it comes from the intestinal defect he had when born though) and I breastfeed. He's been on Zantac since he was born - but I was never really sure if my eating habits could possibly help it at all? I don't drink alot of milk or anything but I just eat whatever I want...
So maybe I should consider something like that. Thanks. And just a Q for anyone - if something I eat gives me reflux/heartburn does that mean he will get the same effects or worsen his reflux?
Quoting BlazzinBebe88:Well I know I am of no help to you but you kind of helped me. My son is 2 months old and has pretty bad reflux (it comes from the intestinal defect he had when born though) and I breastfeed. He's been on Zantac since he was born - but I was never really sure if my eating habits could possibly help it at all? I don't drink alot of milk or anything but I just eat whatever I want...
So maybe I should consider something like that. Thanks. And just a Q for anyone - if something I eat gives me reflux/heartburn does that mean he will get the same effects or worsen his reflux?
It can. COnsidering the intestinal defect, I'd be talking to the ped about your diet.
Quoting bugsmom06:
My daughter started with reflux at 4 weeks old and was put on reglan (never will I allow that again) and zantac. I had her switched to prevacid because zantac did not work. I did cut out MILK because I was told that dairy can cause it BUT I was told that cheese and other products made with dairy were fine. I was told this by my LC and pediatrician. So if you see no difference in him, I would stop stressing yourself out with cutting everything. You need the nutrients for breastfeeding and to keep yourself healthy. Another big one is chocolate. I did not eat much so it had no affect. My DD did start to get better around 4 months old. It started again around 17 months and she was on prevacid again and had an endoscopy. At 2 1/2 they did another enoscopy and a PH study where they run a tube through the nose to the stomach to measure the amount of acid. To my surprise she had NONE. They finally did another test and discovered she had slow digestion. She is now on meds for that 4x a day. So I feel your pain in not knowing what is wrong with your child but do not ever feel any guilt. It will get better.
I haven't asked a LC about this, but if this is true, you are my new best friend, lol!!
what Dad should know about supporting a breastfeeding wife...
- Marti123
on Nov. 27, 2009 at 10:12 AM