9 week old baby-Suffering from colic/reflux

first NO SUGAR WATER PLEASE!

it's fine to give colic drops when the baby is uncontrollably uneasy.

i would recommend you to check if there is any change you have made in your diet recently. i feel that something in your diet is the main culprit.

Latha

 

Hugs. I know how difficult it is for the mother when the baby has reflux. What you described, actually brought back vivid memories of DS's newborn time. This link on how to manage reflux helped me a lot.
Most children go through a growth spurt at 10 days, 3 weeks, 6 weeks, 12 weeks, 6 months, 9 months, 1 year... He nurses incessantly for almost 4 to 5 days and then for the next week or so he is inconsolable. This is roughly the time DS growth spurted, your mileage may vary... I have noticed my child getting more reflux-y around the time he gets his shots.
We were also prescribed domstal. We were also told not to use it very much.
So what helped us was trying to burp him frequently. If burping on your shoulder does not work, try other burping methods. What worked for me is to either sit up DS on my lap, his back supported by my belly and trying to gently press his belly or laying DS on his stomach on my forearms and patting his back toward his head, very, very gently. All of it my sound scary, but it easy and helps.
We tried to latch him in the football hold or vertically, so that he does not swallow a lot of air. I burped him at least two times while feeding and once after. For 30 minutes after nursing, he was held vertically. We were also told to put DS on smaller and more frequent feeds, so DS basically nursed every 1.5 to 2 hours.
For most times, he slept DS also slept only on his left side. We rolled up a saree and bolstered his back with it so that he stayed lying on the left side for at least 30 minutes after we put him down.
I second Latha, see if there are things in your diet that is irritating him. DS's trigger was milk and when I reduced dairy in my meals to just half a glass to whiten my coffee, DS did so much better.
Just wanted to say, it is possible to deal with reflux without any other thing like gripe water or sugar water, or anything other than just breastmilk. Also wanted to tell you that DS's reflux stopped bothering him the minute he learned to turn onto his tummy.
Hang in therem mommy. It is excellent you are breastfeeding, breastmilk coats the gullet and actually makes the reflux a little less painful than with say formula or other supplements like gripe water. Hugs again.

 

Hi
always feed him while you are sitting ,that helps you and your child better.
vijji

 

Is this a clicking sound? This another interesting link on it... it looks like your child is breaking the seal and gulping a lot of air while doing nursing. Do you think you have overactive let down? That could be another cause. The links I sent you have ways of taming an overactive let down and this link here has useful tips on latching.

We basically had DS vertical for 30 min to 1 hr vertical after his feeding, wearing him in a sling. After that we lay DS down on his left side and supported his back with a rolled up saree or towel and his put a folded up cotton saree under his neck for support. DS stayed in that position for hardly 20 to 30 minutes, but that was sufficient for him to keep his food down. Laying the child on the left side ensured that the opening of the stomach is at higher level than the food pipe, so it reduces the amount of food that is brought back up.
Do it gently, of course. Never try to keep the child on the left side all through his nap.
Arching the back is a typical sign of reflux - different from colic. Does the domstal work for you? Do use it at times when your son has worse reflux.
Hope that helps

 

Please do not give gripe water. It is not necessary for the baby. My LO had reflux (she is almost 6 months now and much better) and gripe water/bonisan was strictly avoided as per my pedi's recommendation. Kids will do well without it - so do not use it.

 

YAY for the LO. Given how quickly it seems to be feeling better for your child, I think DC will be out of pain pretty soon.

Yep, seconding Anitha here... You see the young one's intestine is open till around 6 months and anything other than mother's milk or formula is capable of doing much harm. For some children like my son, formula was the culprit. Our paed put him on preemie formula for weight gain for the very low birthweight baby. We had to give him formula every alternate feed - at least 6 times a day - bringing it down to twice a day. After every formula feeds DS would reflux so badly with his head thrown back and back arched. We finally realised it was the formula, slowly built up my supply and stopped the formula. When we introduced dairy at 9 months, we realised DS has Whey protein allergy - which was used in the preemie formula.
Long story short, for children prone to allergy keep it to mommy's milk till AT LEAST 6 months. If you are up to it, look up Child-led Weaning. The website I linked you to is the one that saved my breastfeeding relationship. Do let me know if you are interested in doing a child-led weaning and nursing exclusively for longer than six months. We did till DS turned 7.5 months and we managed to keep allergic reactions to bare minimum.
Hang in there, DS's symptoms started going down in the third month and completely disappered by 6 months. It resurfaces now when we have been a little lax in keeping his diet dairy free.
If your elders are the sort who will listen to reason tell them the current recommendation from doctors is nothing but BM. If not, just tell them politely this area is not open for discussion and then change the topic of discussion to something a lot more pleasant. Hope things get easy quick for you.

 

Hi Shashi,

Burping is a must. Make it a habit to burp regularly as suggested by tikka. Initially even I was not an expert at burping but with practice I managed to burp successfully. You can insert the LO on the shoulder and move your hand smoothly on the back for a burp,I felt this is to be more effective for my LO. Also giving juice of three ajwain leaves and tulasi leaves regularly would solve all the stomach complaints.

You can have water boiled with vayavidang (available in ayurvedic stores) this will help when you are nursing to relieve colic. I prefer Carmicide to gripe water. In very acute situations carmicide can be given.

Try and avoid dals and potatoes for atleast three months. Go in for more of greens in your diet.

Regards,
Lynette