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Lucy is the sweetest little 6 month old you have ever seen, but we have had quite the journey to get here!
She has suffered from terrible silent reflux for her entire little life. Eating and sleeping have been incredibly difficult for her.
After we figured out that she had silent reflux, things started to get a little bit better. Now, with the combination of her outgrowing the reflux period, and the other steps we took, she is a delightful baby!
And her parents aren’t nearly as sleep deprived now either.
There are a few things that helped us tremendously both to get through the reflux time and to help it improve.
Due to the reflux, Lucy couldn’t be put down, and she would especially scream if she was laying down on a flat surface. The only place that she was able to comfortably sleep for the first three months of her life were in a baby wrap carrier.
I used my Solly wrap for every one of her naps (and some nighttime sleep) all day every day. I was able to have her get good quality rest and not be in pain and also tend to my 20 month old daughter at the same time.
Without the carrier, we would have had a lot more screaming and a much more tired mama.
Another place she was able to get a little bit of rest was in the carseat.
Now, she wouldn’t sleep unless the car was going 60 mph, but she would get some rest in a moving car. This enabled Clay to be able to take her in the early morning hours and let me get some rest.
Every morning for months, Clay drove her around from 4am until 7am. Sometimes this was the only sleep I got through the night. I am so thankful to have such a wonderful husband, and thankful for a great carseat!
That is a key thing when you have a baby with reflux.
Let other people help you.
I felt like a failure because I could not get my baby to sleep or be comfortable. That was purely sleep deprivation speaking, and by letting Clay take her for a few hours, I was a better mom and wife.
Don’t worry about bad habits. You are in the throes reflux. You do whatever you need to do to help baby rest.
When Lucy was about 2 months old, we had her lip and tongue ties released.
This helped some with the reflux and a lot with the nursing issues. Get multiple opinions.
We were told there was no lip or tongue tie by some and that there was by others but not to worry about it. We took her to an oral surgeon who confirmed the ties and released them in office.
Her ability to nurse improved over the next few weeks after the release procedures, but it definitely wasn’t a complete solution.
At 3 months, I cut out all dairy and caffeine in my diet.
This happened kind of by chance. We decided to do a round of Whole30 to try to keep our energy and health up since we were sleeping around 4 hours a night.
I’m not sure if it really helped or not, but I figured since it could have an impact on Lucy I would just stay without it.
I’m adding dairy back in when she turns 8 months, so we’ll see how that goes!
When she was about 3.5 months old, we finally tried medication.
We initially tried an H2 blocker called Pepcid. I had high hopes for the medicine and it did in fact seem to help control the reflux. On the two days she was on the drug she did not refuse to eat at all.
That was huge and just confirmed to me that she had been in pain and that’s why she would scream when she tried to eat a lot of the time.
Unfortunately, the Pepcid gave her intense stomach pains and crazy gas. She had relief from the reflux pain, but the side effects weren’t worth it for us.
After this we tried an PPI, which I found out later is all that our pediatric GI prescribes at all because they’re generally more effective for babies. After we started the Prevacid, things got worse for a few weeks. Then, they miraculously got better.
From the reading I have done, this is normal, and something called the acid battle. Finally, Lucy was able to eat without crying and sleep without waking in pain 20 minutes after she went to sleep.
We’re now in the process of weaning her off of medication and so far it’s going well.
Our goal with her gastroenterologist is for her to be off of the medication by 7 months old. She is currently taking just a half dose a day and is doing good so far!
This has definitely been a long and hard journey.
Reflux is so hard. It is hard on not only the baby, but the entire family. The idea that if a baby is crying they’re sleepy, hungry or need a diaper change does not apply. Babies with reflux just cry.
They cry and scream and you feel utterly and completely helpless. You’re exhausted and feel like a failure.
If you’re in the middle of this, just know that it will get better. Your baby will outgrow it, or you will find a medication or diet change that helps.
Until then, get help if you can and try to just snuggle your baby when they’re calm.