Help!! Nothing helping baby with acid reflux!!?

Question

Our 3 week old baby has been diagnosed with acid reflux. The doc put him on Prosobee (Enfamil soy based formula) with rice cereal and Infant Zantac. He's still throwing up almost every meal. His doc said that he wants him off of the Zantac and if he's still throwing up tomorrow that he wants him to see a specialist. Has anyone gone through this? Any ideas?? He's miserable!

Answer 1

Our son was on Zantac for awhile.  When that didn't solve the problem, he was switched to Prevacid, which worked much better for him.  I have read that rice cereal doesn't really do anything: we didn't try it at that age.  Our son was on soy, but I am sorry that he was.  It is not as easily absorbed and made him iron deficient.  If it is not doing much, switch him back or try an elemental formula like Nutramigen.

Keeping the baby upright in a bouncer chair or front pack during the day, and propping the head of the bassinet up with a towel also helped (make sure to vary his position, though--our son's head flattened out in the back from too much time in one bouncer).  

Note that throwing up and spitting up are different, that most babies spit up, and that acid reflux is a concern with spitting up because of the acidity that hurts the babies' esophagus, not because spit-up itself is considered a medical problem.  Babies that spit up but that do not cry and fuss are not treated.  Spit up is normal, because a flap that stops the stomach acids from going up does not fully form for several months. The medications do not stop spitting up: they just reduce the acidity of the stomach acids so it does not burn the babies so much.

Answer 2

I would get him checked for PYLORIC STENOSIS. My son was getting sick too and at 5 weeks I brought him to the emergency and they did an ultrasound on his tummy and then got him to drink his milk during the ultrasound to see if it was pyloric stenosis and it was. Look it up if u dont know what it is, there are some good sites on the web.  They did the surgery the next day and now he's perfect.. doesn't get sick at all... and very rarely spits up.  I would definitly recommend getting him checked for that. Good luck!

Answer 3

Have him check for pyloric.

Answer 4

My son has acid reflux also, and has had it since birth. Luckily i never got the whole throwing up thing, but you should ask about prevacid solutabs. Thats what they put my son on cause he had it so bad, he wouldnt even eat.

Answer 5

My best friend has with both of her daughters.  Her son was fine.  She ended up putting both of them on Nutramigen.  Which is very expensive and smells terrible, but amazingly it did work some.  With her youngest she also started putting something in the formula called 'Thick-it" (I think) and that helped a little. It is something she's still battling with but it's better after the switch to Nutramigen.  A specialist will probably tell you to try that or Alimentum anyway.  Best of luck.  

Answer 6

Yep, I went through this with my son.  He was on Zantac, I had to add rice to his bottles, but his formula was changed a couple of times.  He had to be on Enfamil Nutramagin and then Enfamil Gentlease when he got a bit older.  It could just be the formula.  I know how frustrating it is when they have acid reflux.  Also, try burping him after every ounce.  That seemed to help my son.  Make sure he sits upright for at least 20 minutes after feedings.  My son is almost 6 months old, and he still spits up a lot, but isn't in any pain anymore.  Sometimes you have to try a few formulas before finding the right one combined with the acid reflux treatment.  Good luck!

Answer 7

We went through this when my son was younger. He would spit out the medicine. We had to wait it out. He eventually out grew it. We had my son checked for pyloric stenosis but he didnt have it.

We proped up his crib mattres with something we ordered from onestepahead.com for reflux and kept him upright as much as possible.

Good luck I know how trying it is.