Breastfeeding and Refluxby Valorie Delp | More from this Blogger 10 Feb 2008 06:12 AM There are a few things you can count on with a newborn. They will definitely sleep. . .and wake. . .around the clock. They will soil through their diapers and their clothing at least once before they are 6 months old. And they spit up. I tend to think that reflux is often over diagnosed. That's not to minimize the experience of those parents whose infants have reflux. It's a difficult experience because reflux babies are in so much pain that they are frequently crying, very clingy and generally smell sort of like. . .well. . .puke. It's a rough start for mom in the beginning. But we do live in a world where we want a quick fix, and studies are starting to show that far too many infants have been prescribed medication for what could be considered normal spit up. Someone in the forums asked about breastfeeding and reflux, and so I thought I'd take a blog to answer. Reflux in the breastfeeding world is less common. There are a few theories for this. The first is that a breastfed infant is rarely over fed. (Yep, that is to say that some babies spit up excessively because they are stuffed to the gills from bottle feeding.) The second idea is that because breastmilk is more easily digested, it's just not sitting in their waiting to come back up. My own personal thought is that of true reflux issues, it doesn't matter how you have fed the baby. Breastfeeding or formula feeding doesn't cause true reflux. Babies with reflux do tend to want to eat in smaller portions and may do better breastfeeding because they can control how much they're getting. . .but that's really more dependent on the individual baby and the severity of the reflux. So does your baby have reflux? Two tell tale signs are spit up coupled with pain/screaming, and weight loss. Make sure to check out my next blog on how to manage breastfeeding with a reflux baby. Related Articles: Learn more about Valorie Delp  Hello everybody! My name is Valorie and I am one busy lady! When I'm not writing or editing for families, I am busy trying to get my brood of 5 in line. Relevantbaby tags User Comments  DivasMomma (20907) 10 Feb 2008 11:56 AMhaha...i love the part "they are frequently crying, very clingy and generally smell sort of like. . .well. . .puke." so true...my poor 3 month old is forced into the tub every night because she just smells so bad :-( SarahMomOfOneBabyBoy (45) 17 Mar 2008 02:47 PMI have a "happy spitter" - and have for the past 11 1/2 months. Ugh. I am thankful that he is not bothered by spitting up, but he always smells like vomit (which is nice for me now that I have horrible morning sickness), and our carpets will never be the same. Nor will our friends' carpets! I'm not sure this will ever end! jenedge (18) 19 Apr 2009 08:36 PMWeight loss isn't a sign always of reflux parents. My baby has reflux (diagnosed by two docs and a barium test too) and my baby never lost weight and gained weight well. Reflux is mainly categorized by spitting up alot or vomiting entire bottles, fussiness, and etc...Try hypoallergic formula and add rice to the bottles. Dr Brown bottles are great also, you will have to buy Y nipples if you add rice to the bottle. You can add 1 tbsp of rice cereal to each ounce of formula. This makes the bottle a milkshake consistancy which helps them not throw it up so easily. It is safe, my child has been on rice in the bottle since 2 wks of age under the doc's care. Prevacid is also great for reflux. Keep the baby as upright as possible too. My doc used Prevacid and Carafate on my child and the combo worked great.  Valorie Delp (49340) 20 Apr 2009 04:04 AMJenedge--are you missing that these articles are for breastfed babies? Weight loss is not always an indicator of reflux but you will find doctors very reticent to diagnose reflux without weight loss. That can be frustrating. Community Tags breastfeeding, babies, infants, reflux, spit up Discuss this article
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