Signs of Reflux

Updated on March 18, 2009
K. asks from San Antonio, TX
26 answers

Can anyone tell me what the signs of acid reflux are in a newborn? My daughter is a month old and formula fed. After she finishes a bottle she always sounds like she is swallowing like the milk is trying to come up. Sometimes even hours after she has finished her bottle. She also grunts alot and just seems uncomfortable in general. Also right now I have her on Enfamil Gentalease and nothing has changed so I was thinking of trying a soy based formula. Any advice? Thanks!

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P.V.

answers from McAllen on

Hi,, some of the signs might be a lot of sudden painful crying for no reason and then quiet the same way, when crying the baby may stretch all the way back forming an arch with her body. If you suspect she is suffering of reflux talk to her pediatrician about it to look for the best solution for her since it is a painful condition for the baby. I wish you the best.

Maria

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T.S.

answers from Austin on

My 11 week old has reflux and he is now on zantac. It has helped a lot but we have to keep upping his dose with the tiniest weight gain or it comes back again. I breastfeed him also, and I have had to cut out ALL dairy and tomatoes. There is still spit up, but not nearly as much as before.

Oh and it is helping him to sleep so much better! No more moaning and grunting all night long!

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J.H.

answers from Houston on

hello K..i went threw this with my son when he was a baby and he is 14 now and still has acid reflux.i had to put him on the soy milk and that made wonders for his spiting up.it sure sounds like ur baby made need to be put on soy milk try that and see if that helps if not i would see the doctor.good luck

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L.B.

answers from Odessa on

We dealt with this with my son who grew out of it and now my daughter (4 mths) is really, really bad. I mixed his and now her bottles in the blender with a really thick cereal mix. I take 24 oz of water, one cup of Enfamil formula (just switched to soy to see if that helps) and anywhere from 2 1/2 cups of cereal to 3 and blend away. It worked like a pro for my son. We have an upper GI series scheduled for my daughter. I'm suspecting a more serious tracheoesophageal problem that just reflux. We have better luck with a slower flow nipple than faster. We're now trying to feed her like 2 oz at a time and let it settle. And always keep her elevated after feedings.

I'd use rice cereal at first and then she'll probably get constipated and then I'd switch to oatmeal. Oatmeal works best and keeps them moving great. It's a larger grain and seems to sustain them better as well.

Good luck to you and congrats on your new little girl!

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S.R.

answers from Beaumont on

Does she arch her back alot? YOu can talk to you Pedi about the reflux and if formula changing does not help they could put her on a reflux medicine. My second child was on it for a year and it helped him alot. He slept better and everything! Hope you have some luck also

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K.G.

answers from Houston on

My cousins little girl has acid reflex very badly and they tried soy and it is working wonders. They did this to try to keep from using meds and it seems to be working so far.

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M.T.

answers from Houston on

Dear K.,

With acid reflux, the milk or food comes back up. Sometimes it's a little bit of vomit, and sometimes ALOT. It used to make my daughter cry because it was so acidic. Unless your little girl is throwing up, it doesn't sound like reflux....but she might be having some gas from the formula. If she's pooping and sleeping well, I'd stay on the same formula. When they are this little, changing them to something else (soy)....might cause more harm than good. Good luck.

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M.T.

answers from Houston on

K.,

I have not had a chance to read your responses so far, so I hope you are getting some good feedback - I'm sure you are with this site. My second child (boy) had terrible acid reflux. We ended up seeing a pediatric gasterologist for a couple of years with hi (he is now 5 and a happy healthy boy!). I believe there are many different sounds and ways that acid reflux presents itself in newborns. For my son, he did make many gurgling/swallowing sounds, but the biggest sign was the congestion he got when we laid him down. I was told that was from the acid coming up and not from any normal means of congestion. I thought he was having horrible allergies as an infant! He slept for a LONG TIME (months) in a bouncy seat so he was up on an angle and not lying flat in his crib. We did try the "wedges" they sell to keep them up on an angle, but as an infant he always seemed to slide down to the bottom. Good luck... you should definately have her tested and work with a Dr that has experience in the area of acid reflux! Bless her heart, I know how miserable my son was and how stressed out I was trying to help him. Let us know how she is doing and if you found good help. Blessings!
M.

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A.B.

answers from Houston on

My daughter had similar symptoms, but never spit up, so I never thought she had reflux. She was miserable, though, so I took her to the doctor! Her pediatrician diagnosed here with silent reflux, which is where the milk comes back up along with acid, but does not come out in spit up, it just goes back down the esophagus, burning it again. Along with keeping her upright most of the time (like in a swing or bouncer), holding her upright after feedings, keeping her head elevated at night, he prescribed her Prevacid which really helped her out. I weaned her off of Prevacid at 6 months, around when she started sitting up, and now she is just fine! I would take her to her pediatrician ASAP! I hope she starts feeling better!

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W.W.

answers from Houston on

Hi K.,
My son had reflux from birth. He arched his back, always acted hungry, cried a lot, always sounded like he was choking when he was drinking. We had him on Nutramigen. It turns out he has a milk allergy and I should have put him on a soy formula. He had a lot of problems and at 5 years old still has some problems. Find yourself a special nutritionalist who deals with babies. I had so much trouble trying to find help. Try some Mycolin and if your baby suddenly seems to find relief he may have some relfux. My poor baby had so much pain. He had to go on medication from the age of 6 weeks. My son has autism now. I think that the milk may have also contributed to this as he is very allergic to it. They do not always throw up, sometimes the acid just sits in their esophagus and burns like crazy.
Soy is not perfect either. Almond milk is great. When yo make up the formula let it sit for a while to reduce the bubbles in it. That will make it less gassy for the baby.
Find a good formula and use that, but I do definatley recommend a really good nutritionalist. We have one but she is in Austin. Her name is Deirdre Earls and she works at The Thoughtful House. She also works independantly.
Good luck.

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A.P.

answers from Houston on

K.,

We switched our son to Similac soy-based formula when he was about 2 months old. He would scream through his feedings and got to the point where he refused to eat, although he was starving. We ended up in the ER one night and the Dr. on staff told us to add cereal to the bottle in order to keep the formula down.

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C.H.

answers from Houston on

It sounds like you have gotten a lot of great advice so I'll be brief. Both of my little ones had/have reflux. My son grew out of it at 18 months old and my daughter has it now (she's 3 months.) She grunts like crazy, and especially did for the first 8 weeks. She is on Prevacid and Bethanechol now. I had to thicken my son's milk with rice cereal until he was a year old to keep it down. Haven't done that with my daughter, yet. There's a great book that is really helpful called Colic Solved, by Dr. Bryan Vartabedian. He is a pediatric gastroenterologist in The Woodlands and is very hard to get in to see. Hope this helps!

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M.B.

answers from Longview on

Although I am having to remember back, my daughter is 11, the soy milk helped my daughter immediatley after switching from enfamil. I gave her mylacon for her gas but it was no time after switching to soy, the next day I think, when she started to feel better!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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S.O.

answers from Corpus Christi on

My son, who will be 4 months old tomorrow, was just diagnosed with acid reflux and they started him on Prilosec. He has been real collicy (is that a word? lol) and he spits up alot. When he spits up it's looks similar to cottage cheese! Yuck, right? The medicine has started to help, but he's still spitting up quite a bit, so the dr. said we are probably just going to try a different medicine. Good luck to you! I would definitely take her to the doctor and get his opinion though. Have a great day!

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J.B.

answers from Houston on

My youngest suffered from reflux (colic). The most helpful things we found were using Enfamil or Similac AR formulas - which are thickened and reduce spitting up a LOT. Keeping the baby upright for 20-30 minutes after eating helps them to get it down. There is a wedge pillow you can buy for this too but they're a little strange. Carrying the baby in a front carrier on your body is also helpful - I think it's the combination of the movement and being upright. We tried the prescription meds too but I was not convinced they were helping. Good luck....just know it will end!

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V.B.

answers from Houston on

My son had reflux and was diagnosed around 6 or 8 weeks old. I was nursing him and after every feeding, he would arch his back and scream for about 30 miinutes. I kept thinking he just needed to burp or something, but no amount of burping ever helped. He also spit up a lot (and I mean A LOT!). Sometimes I wondered what the point of feeding him was because it seemed like he would spit up everything I just fed him. Anyway, once he was diagnosed, he was put on Prevacid and was a whole new baby. He still spit up, but he became a "happy spitter" in that he didn't cry anymore.

You should probably discuss these symptoms with her pediatrician because it doesn't sound like reflux to me, really, but could be gas or some allergy to the forumula. I personally wouldn't change formulas without discussing it with the doctor either. Just give them a call...they are usually more than willing to talk to you. Good luck!

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T.W.

answers from Austin on

i never thought my daughter had reflux b/c she never spit up. it took me until she was 8 weeks old to get her tested b/c i didn't think that was the problem. turns out it was and what she had was silent reflux so she never actually "spit up". she would scream anytime i tried to lay her down, sounded like she was swallowing it down when it came back up in her throat, miserable, colicky etc. turns out colic in most babies is reflux... if you think it might be, definitely have her tested. once i got my daughter on prevacid she was a normal baby. unfortunately at 17 months she's still on it. anytime i try to wean her off to see if the reflux is gone we have the same symptoms as before. some kids outgrow when the start solid foods, some at 1 year, and some like mine don't. i would also ask your pedi about trying a soy formula instead of a milk based. sometimes a milk allergy causes similar symptoms. good luck!

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M.L.

answers from Houston on

My daughter has it. As an infant, she had severe colic that lasted until she was 6 mns. Also, she threw up so much of her formula at just about every feeding. My doc was able to help find a formula that worked for her as best as possible. We put her on Mylaca (sp?) drops that did help a little. I understand medication is much better now. At around 8 or 9 yrs of age, she began complaining of the burning sensation.

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M.P.

answers from Houston on

My son had it as an infant. His signs were not just spitting up after a bottle but projectile vomiting. We would sometimes go thru about 3 burp cloths after a bottle. I would have to hold him up right after a bottle for about 45 minutes. The doctor switched our formula 3 times and had him on Prevacid. The Prevacid helped but we ended up putting him on ProSobee (soy formula). This did the trick! He is now almost 2 yrs.old and is on Silk. I tried giving him regular 2% milk and it messed him up, so it really is going to be trial & error to find out what's going to work with your little one. Good luck to you!

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A.V.

answers from Houston on

Hi K.,

I am a mother of two children ages 6 and 11. Before trying a new formula you may want to check with your Pediatrician to see what they suggest. Normally, if it's acid reflux your baby will regurgitiate or spit up after their feeding. Other things to think about your baby may be taking in too much formula and she might be too full. The formula may not be agreeing with her and causing some discomfort. I'm not certain if your baby is crying a lot due to this but it's possible her immature stomach is trying to understand her as well. Try doing some baby massage on her tummy normally this will help soothe the bubbles. Monitor her and call her Pediatrician.

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E.B.

answers from Sherman on

My daughter was diagnosed with reflux during her first month. (She's never had formula, only breastmilk.) She kept doing this swallowing noise alot and spit up more than normal. (Sometimes projectile.) Our pedi put her on Axid. (She was also very colicky and was on Levsin drops.) She stayed on Axid until she was between 4 and 6 months if I remember right. I also had help figuring out her reflux because my mother-in-law said my husband had it until he was 8 months old, and she said my daughter was showing the same signs. Definately talk to your doctor about it.

J.M.

answers from Austin on

Hi K.,

I do not know if you are interested in natural healing, but it sounds like she needs some baby protiotics. A good place to check this all out and purchase top quality products for babies is www.natren.com. I would suggest a good calcium, mineral, and probiotics, I think it is something like first start. Babies a week old have taken this with much success.

www.creeksideherbhouse.com is a good place to learn about natural healing. The theory page is the place to start, but there is a lot of good information on all the pages of that site.

All my contact information is on the bottom of the home page.

Hope this helps

Blessings
J. M

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M.M.

answers from Houston on

My son has it horrible (13 weeks) - we are on Prevacid and Zantac and it is still an issue.

For us - pain while eating; a foul smell out of his mouth; spitting up out the mouth and thru the nose; *really* wet burps.

We are seeing a GI due to it - at 3 weeks, our son had surgery for pyloric stenosis and we were warned about his reflux - they weren't kidding. Hoping he grows out of it.

Oh, and he is on Ailementum (sp) rather than the soy -

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S.O.

answers from San Antonio on

Make sure you are giving her enough of a chance to burp half way through her feeding and again at the end. Make sure to sit her up and still at least 20 minutes after feeding (like in her car seat or swing). Don't lay her down right after feeding or move her around a lot. She probably doesn't have reflux, but is needing to burp somehow. Also, make sure that the nipple your using is slow flow for now. She may just be drinking too fast and swallowing too much air. But, all these are suggestions for reflux anyway. They help either way. My daughter had reflux since birth, she would spit up awfully after each feeding if it wasn't handled properly.

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B.C.

answers from Houston on

Yes, my daughter is now 11 months. She is on axid. It helps but she still spits up like crazy. She would cry after eating and really wiggle. We had such a hard time feeding her. After she started the axid, it helped so much. She is also on Enfamil AR formula. It has added rice to help keep everything down. She is so much easier to feed. Call your doctor and tell them the what is going on and he would probably give you some advice.

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R.C.

answers from Houston on

Hi K.! My son had acid reflux and we had to eventually put him on acid reflux medicine. He was throwing up really bad everytime he would have a bottle and once we put him on the medicine he got alot better. We decided to start weaning him off the medicine around Christmas time and he was doing good for a few months and recently he started throwing up again. His doctor thought that maybe it was the solids we were feeding him (I started giving him solids around the middle of January) the doctor thought that maybe his system was still too sensitive to the solids so he suggested we stop for awhile and see if that helped. It kinda helped but he was still throwing up so I thought maybe he was allergic to milk, he has been on Nestle Goodstart forever so I went out and bought a can of the Nestle Soy. He drank about 8 ounces of the soy and that night he was soooo sick, it was the worst night ever! Not sure if he was sick from the soy or if he just had a 24 hour bug. You might want to talk to your doctor before you switch just to get his/her advice. Another tip that would help us with our son is after he would have a bottle we would sit him up for at least 30 minutes and that seemed to help. I hope things get better for you and your little one =)

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