My 6 week old has had excessive mucos in his nose and throat which has been causing him to gag for the past 4 weeks. He drinks 4 oz every 2 hours, he does not make it past 2 hours of sleep, I try to distract him when he wakes up but will scream until i give him his bottle and he acts like he is starving. I use a cool mist humidifier, saline drops and the bulb to help with the mucos and it does not make a difference. I took him to the Dr thinking maby he might have a milk allergy to the formula and Dr says he has reflux??? and perscribed zantax but he has no signs of reflux except the gagging but he gags cause of the mucos.
any advice please!!!!!!!
my daughter had this- I had to add cereal to her bottle. she also continue to bring this back up and finally at 9 mos old switched her to powdered milk with cereal and added vitamins to it. she never threw up another bottle. We had switched formula several times before I tried this on my own.
I know the diagnosis sounds weird, but our daughter had a cough caused by post-nasal drip, and a barium swallow finally did show it to be reflux. Looking back I know it caused her sleep problems as a baby, too. Sometimes I could only get her to stay down by putting her in her carseat instead of her bassinet, and I thought it was because it was cozier (we couldn't swaddle her for unrelated reasons), but now I think the incline helped (the carseat isn't really recommended though because of the loose straps). I guess the acid can irritate the throat and nose and cause the mucous. Our daughter ended up on Zyrtec, too, but I don't think the allergies and reflux necessarily go together. I guess I'm trying to say--give the Zantac a chance!
Good luck.
My son had severe reflux when he was a baby. What appears to be mucus is really the sucretions (sp?) that the acid is pushing back up. The milk actually soothes the reflux as it goes down, but can end up making it worse if he gets too much. The Zantac will start to make it better in the next few days. Just don't over feed him. Hope you get it figured out soon.
Amy K
Our baby boy had the same problem at that age. One thought on his drainage, do you run your cool mist humidifier all the time (or every night)? Our son also had lots of drainage in his throat and I thought I was doing the right thing but one day the pediatrician asked me this question. I was proud to tell him yes, thinking I was doing a really good thing. He told me to stop using it so much. That the moisture in the house may be excessive since our weather had not been extremely dry and it wasn't like we were running the heat full blast and drying out the air in the house. I stopped using it all the time and only did it when his nose was stopped up and stuffy. It really did help. We also switched to a soy formula. Maybe this will help you and your baby too!
I am a mother of 3, a nurse, and work for a ENT dr. sometimes they don't show other signs of reflux except the excessive mucous and fussiness. drinking soothes them, but sometimes they drink too much then spit up alot (sometimes out of their nose). Is the Zantac making him less fussy? I used soy formula with all 3 kids and think it's a lot more gentle on their bellies. If it keeps on, I'd try to get a referral to a Ear Nose &Throat dr., they might want to put a scope down his nose. This allows them to see his vocal cords and any redness caused by reflux. Does he make lots of squeaky noises when he breaths or gag easily? Sometimes they have floppy vocal cords (laryngomalacia) that most of the time just goes away as they mature, but I see the ENT dr. usually prescribe Zantac and possibly put the baby on thickeners (either using rice cereal, or a prescription for Simply Thick or Thick-It) Hope this helps.
Milk will cause mucus to increase. Try putting him on a soy base formula or a lactose free formula. Don't lay him down flat because that causes the mucus to build up in his throat. Get one of those wedge pillows and prop him up a little with rolled up receiving blankets around him to help keep him from rolling off. I hope he gets better soon.
J.
Sounds like my little baby. While he did indeed have reflux, the congestion eased up when we started the medication Singulair for allergies. If your dr isn't able to help your baby, I would find a new one.
Hey B.,
I am not sure it is Reflux either. Of course each baby can express different symptoms and have varing degrees of severity.
If you think it is just mucous and based on what you describe I would almost agree, then I have only one suggestion.
Most people use saline drops and suctioning wrong!
Not saying you are as I am not there to see.
You are suppose to put a few drops in each nostril.
Wait for them to mix with the mucous.
Then squeeze the bulb syringe in.
Then place in the nostril you are sucking from at the same angle as the nostril flares. Also at the same time place you finger over the other nostril to seal off and release the bulb. Of course release the other nostril too. It is easier said then done, takes practice and is best learned if you have your doctor or nurse show you how to do it. You repeat this multiple times and you will be suprised by the amount of mucous you are able to pull out.
I can tell you that I did not get it right for my oldest until she was near 7 months when the doctor asked me to show how I was doing it. I have it down now for my second and the stuffiness is better after suctioned.
Of course you do not want to over suction as you will just cause inflamation in the nasal cavity, so I think you are only suppose to do it 4 times a day. I do twice a day, in the morning and then before bed when congested.
Though your baby is only 6 weeks and so I highly recommend having your doc show you how to do it.
Only other things in general that have been told to me by medical persons and are now part of my opinion. are:
Babies born before 39 weeks have a higher incidence of reflux.
Spitting up does not mean acid reflux.
Baby bottles should not be thickened with cereal until 4 months.
When adding cereal, start with Oatmeal or Barley, rice ceral increases constipation.
If you think it is an allergy, switch to a soy formula.
As for thickening formula to keep it down for a child that acid reflux, one that spits up alot or one that has congestion and just needs the formula to stay down out of the way of mucous, try a ready to feed mix like in the ready made nursette bottles or in the cans. Powder formula once mixed with water is not the same thickness as ready to feed formula and so it is lighter and comes up more often. I know this for sure and spent alot of time verifying this information.
I am a mom to a severe acid reflux baby that could keep nothing down and no med helped until she was nearly one. To add to that she did not stop vomiting until 2. We still have GERD, and are hoping it is outgrown with age, though not likely. We maintain an acid free or reduced acid diet and have not needed medications for almost one year. And now onto to baby number 2 who is a stuffy allergy filled blessing, hoping reflux clear.
Best Wishes,
-MB
Hey sweetie I work for an Allergiest/Immunologist and you can make an appointment with him here's his info.
Theron McCormick, MD
7777 Hennessy Blvd Ste 502
Baton Rouge, La 70808
###-###-#### or Fax# ###-###-####
but all in all If he is spitting up milk like projectale vomiting their is a high chance that he may be allergic to it so you may want to get him checked out by one in your area...
We had J on Reglan at that age and it really helped. The thing that aggrevates it the most is overfeeding. When he is upset he is getting air trapped in his tummy so if you feed him on top of that then he will be in pain and spit up lots of milk. Keep him sitting nearly all the way up when you feed him and after for a while, we even had J sleep in a bouncy seat until he was just too uncomfortable and needing to turn over. We sat it in the baby bed and since it had straps on it and toys hanging down from the bar across the top we could put him in it during the day too and just pick up the whole thing and sit it on the counter. After he had digested some of his formula then he could get out and do tummy time and play more.
If it really is too much mucus then hold the baby on his tummy on your arm, groin in hand, head in crook of elbow and hang his head and help it drain out. You are doing other stuff right so he should be better soon.
My daughter was throwing up and was real congested. The ENT diagnosed her with reflux. The medicine helped her. Good luck!
My daughter had something similar about that age. We tried every kind of formula out there for her stomach, but nothing worked. I massaged her tummy and did the exercises that are supposed to help get the gas out, used the bulb and drops, and everything me and my Mom-in-law could think of. The doc finally did a scan to make sure everything inside her was ok and put her zantac. Everything turned out to be fine, and the zantac really helped (took a few days for it to really start working, so give it a chance!)
If the mucus is really worrisome, ask the doc about zertec. My other daughter had asthma and seasonal allergies, the allergies aggravated the asthma, and that led to a whole bunch of other problems.
Hope your little one feels better soon!
I had this problem with my son, except I was nursing. New babies don't always understand their bodies so they cry for food even though they are not hungry, just in pain. Then they cry because they are too full. It's just an endless cycle. I cut dairy from my diet and used lots of gas drops on my son, which helped. My daughter had the same issue, but I had to use formula because of low milk production. When she started showing the signs around 6 weeks I switched to a soy based formula and she was perfectly fine.
The congestion could be caused from a milk allergy. He also could have reflux just like the Dr. said. What kind of formula does he use? If it is a milk based one, buy a soy based one to see if it helps. If it does, tell the Dr. and ask to be switched to the soy one, if you have WIC (you have to get a Dr. prescription to switch to the soy one). If you do not have WIC then just switch it yourself.
