Acid Reflux May Be Robbing Your Baby (and You!) of Sleep
“I’ve done everything I can think of to help my baby sleep and they’re still crying!” Have you found yourself saying these words? I know I did! If you’ve done everything to put your baby at ease (checked their diaper, made sure they weren’t too hot or too cold, it’s not too bright, it’s too noisy, they’re fed, they’re not sick, there isn’t something scratchy in their onesie, etc.) and they’re still upset, it might be acid reflux.
A lot of people chock up their upset baby to just having colic (sever intestinal issues), and are willing to gut through it (no pun intended). But you may be able to help your baby, and yourself, through it.
Acid Reflux – How can you tell if your baby has it?
The following are the symptoms I’m aware of but it is by no means an all inclusive list! I’m not in the medical field. I’m just a mom who researched the heck out of this for my own son. This is a short list of things that I personally looked for in my son.
Does your baby…
- spit up or vomit after feedings?
- always seem hungry but then arch away from the breast or bottle?
- choke, gag, or cough, especially during or after a feeding?
- have a lot of gas or frequently burps or hiccups?
- seem irritable during or after feedings, especially if you lay them down?
- have trouble settling down or sleeping?
I’ll explain later in this post, but my kid never spit up or vomited so your kid doesn’t necessarily have to have all of these symptoms. The gastroenterologist even said that acid reflux can be difficult to diagnose. Sometimes you have to put them on medication and THEN see if that improves things.
How You Can Help Your Baby Get Through Acid Reflux
Besides putting them on prescribed medication, you can;
- keep them somewhat upright while feeding; whether that’s by breast or bottle feeding
- continue to keep upright for at least 20 minutes after feeding
- lay them down to sleep slightly inclined with their head a little above the rest of their body – We used the Fisher-Price Jumperoo for activity time. And we used the Rock n’ Play Sleeper and the Hushamok hammock for sleep, depending on his mood.
- help them expel gas – Our little guy had trouble releasing gas; as in, he couldn’t seem to fart out all the air he swallowed while crying. We used a weird but fantastic device called the Windi. We lovingly call it “the butt trumpet.” You’ll see why. I was shocked that the gastroenterologist knew what it was and said that it was great that we were using it. Some people said that using a baby rectal thermometer did the same job but I didn’t find that to be the case for our baby. But if you already have a rectal thermometer, you may want to give that a try before buying the Windi.
Our Baby’s Journey with Acid Reflux
I had no idea my baby had acid reflux for far too long!
Following the pediatrician’s advice, I had already modified my diet and the baby’s many times over, thinking that he had an allergy to something (dairy, soy, etc.). But he was still fussy, hangry (yes, angrily hungry), and never slept more than 30 minutes at a time. There were definitely nights this new mom cried herself to sleep from sheer exhaustion. It was only from the suggestion of a babysitter who said she had seen this before that we took him to see a gastroenterologist at two months old.
The gastroenterologist diagnosed our son with GER.
What the heck is GER or GERD?
GERD stands for gastroesophageal reflux disease. It’s basically severe acid reflux. GER is more mild and so it’s not categorized as a disease. I’m not a doctor and I don’t pretend to be, so for an in-depth description of what exactly GER/GERD entails, click on the link. I’ll wait….Yay, you’re back!
My husband and I had briefly considered acid reflux as our baby’s issue because that’s what my husband and his siblings suffered from as babies. However, we quickly dismissed the idea because they all projectile vomited and our baby never did. Come to find out that he had silent reflux, which is even worse because he would vomit up but then swallow it back, burning his esophagus both ways!
The Gastroenterologist – A Light At the End of the Tunnel
The gastroenterologist prescribed ranitidine (you might have heard of it as Zantac). I can’t recall now how much she prescribed but it wasn’t much. As much as I didn’t want to give our baby meds that weren’t absolutely necessary, the gastroenterologist didn’t want to prescribe meds that weren’t absolutely necessary either.
Not wanting to let our infant suffer any more, we put the ranitidine in with a bottle of formula and within a week, he turned into a different baby. In less than a week, he turned into the fabled angel baby that someone else always seemed to have. He was finally getting the rest he needed.
You and Your Baby Don’t Have to Suffer
Whenever I tell moms this story, more often than not, they say that they suspect that their child also had GER but they didn’t do anything about it. Hindsight really is 20/20 isn’t it? That blows!
They were told it was colic, that they should suck it up and that this too shall pass.
One close friend told me how she had to rely on both sets of grandparents, friends, and neighbors to help with their “colicky” baby. It literally took a village to get through the first year of her baby’s life.
Another close friend confided that after too many a sleepless night, she screamed along with her baby because she couldn’t figure out what was wrong. She contemplated divorcing her husband who was gone all the time (he’s a doctor, believe it or not) and she had post-partum depression for two years!
It was only many years later that they realized they didn’t have to have suffered through. I felt very lucky that we had caught our baby’s reflux when we did.
How Things Improved For Us
At less than one year of age, our baby had gone from never sleeping long and being irritable to blissful sleeper and all giggles and smiles. Here’s exactly how he changed;
- taking almost an hour to settle down to sleep to less than 15 minutes
- sleeping no more than 20 minutes at a time all throughout the day and night to daytime napping (30-90 minutes) and nighttime sleeping (4-7 hours)
- taking at least 40 minutes to feed (bottle or breast) to being done in 20 minutes flat
- being irritable and stingy with smiles to giggling and smiling all the time
Isn’t that crazy? I told his gastroenterologist that she was a miracle worker!
We weaned our son off the ranitidine at around 7 months old and kicked it completely less than a month later. We still don’t know if his digestive tract just finally matured or if the medication and the measures we took were what helped him. But it really doesn’t matter since whatever it was did the trick!
Are you and your baby suffering without sleep? I know how desperate for answers you must be feeling. Hopefully, you have a good idea now if your baby has acid reflux/GERD and know what to do about it. We went over four non-medication methods you can use to help your baby and what my family had to do with our own GER diagnosed baby. You don’t necessarily have to throw up your hands and believe what others say about your baby that they’re “just colicky.” Blissful sleep may just be around the corner!
Did your baby have GER/GERD? Or do you think they might? Share your story!
