As a new mommy back in January, I expected breastfeeding to be CAKE. I expected to be able to adjust to my new mommy schedule and life with a baby. But suddenly, Harper’s tummy just DID NOT want breastfeeding to be that easy and medically, Harper’s body was just different. It wasn’t digesting food’s properly, her valve between her esophagus and sphincter just were not quite ready or capable to do it’s job, resulting in sleepless nights, a crying, screaming baby and A LOT of spit up. Pictures like this one were far too common… 😂 Gross I know. But if you’re reading this, you’ll probably want to get used to it 🤣
Sound familiar to you? If you’ve read my “Never Ending Breastfeeding Vs. Formula Debate” article, you are fully aware of all the tummy issues we went through with Harper as an infant. We were sent to a Pediatric Gastroenterologist when she was about 6 weeks old and she was diagnosed with Reflux and Cows Milk Allergy.
Because of this, I have had many other moms reach out to me asking for advice, tips, and generally what Harper’s story was and how we handled it. I guess I never realized how common reflux can actually be, I was very much in the dark. We are so grateful to have an AMAZING pediatrician who helped us every step of the way and was our saving grace when it came to what to do and how to help make Harper’s and our lives better, even when we couldn’t stop the reflux. So today I just want to share with you all these tips I was given along the way and the things that really worked well for Harper and her reflux.
The Diagnosis
First and foremost I am going to just share a little bit about how we figured out Harper had reflux in the first place. The symptoms she had, how she acted etc…
When we got home from the hospital with Harper, we noticed right away that she had A LOT of spit up- I mean WAY more than a typical baby. Sometimes even throw up-like projectile throw up at 3 in the morning (sorry for the details 😂) This combined with her gassiness led to her pediatrician recommending I cut out dairy.
After cutting dairy, her gassiness and vomiting improved (because of her cows milk allergy), but she was STILL spitting up a ton and crying immediately. She wouldn’t sleep when I laid her down at night, she would just wake up, arch her back, squirm around and make this loud grunting sound.She would hiccup almost constantlywhich then would also wake her from any nap or at night and sometimes would even wake up choking on her own spit up. Not only was I not sleeping because of all the noises she was making, but I was terrified to fall asleep.
It became pretty obvious to our pediatrician that Harper had some reflux issues. We tried MANY different things to help it before introducing medication, and even then we still implemented most, if not all of these tricks. Here’s what we tried and found to be beneficial!
Feeding Tricks
1. Rice Cereal
Before officially diagnosing the reflux, our pediatrician had us first try thickening her milk with rice cerealto thicken the contents in her tummy and make them less likely to come up. Before every feed, I would use my hand pump to extract about half an ounce of milk(just a teaspoon or two). I would then mix in just1/4 teaspoon of rice cerealand use a syringe (bottle works if you are bottle feeding) to feed it to Harper first, then I would breastfeed as normal. I did notice some improvement with this method at night time, which is mainly when I would do this.
**As with anything you ever put into your babies body- talk to your pediatrician about trying this first!
2. Burping every 1-2 ounces.
This is SO CRUCIAL! The reason we burp our babies is to get rid of gas bubbles in their belly. Unfortunately, with a baby with reflux, instead of a burp just being an air bubble being released, whatever contents (milk) are ABOVE the gas bubble are bound to come up with it. Therefore, the less gas bubbles in your babies belly, the less likely a gas bubble will push up more spit up and cause a burning in your baby’s esophagus.
3. Holding your baby up-right (head elevated-not literally “up-right”- just not flat on her back) during and after feeds- for at least 20 minutes. Now I know this is a tough one to hear and to follow through with, but it is also very important- especially at night. At this point I was still waking up every 2-3 hours to feed. So for example, at 1 AM- I go in, pump, mix the rice cereal, breastfeed (taking about 15-20 minutes), then I had to sit in that comfy rocking chair FIGHTING the urge to fall asleep for just 20 more minutes. If I was lucky, she would go back down fine in her bassinet, and I would start over 1-2 hours later. All so that this precious little girl would sleep soundly and not choke on her own spit up.
If you’re reading this as a new mom, struggling to help your baby with reflux-HANG IN THERE. I KNOW this sounds miserable… and most nights IS miserablebut after that first week of Harper sleeping through the night (which was at just 3 months old)I actually MISSED this time with her.
One thing I found to be incredibly helpfulwith these long feeding sessions was a“Netflix station”in her nursery. My husband set up a little TV tray for me right next to her rocking chair withmy laptop, headphones and a couple healthy snacks(especially if you’re breastfeeding!) I think I watched the entire two seasons of ‘Fuller House’ and all of the seasons of ‘Parks and Rec’ during my night time feeds 😂. I always plugged in headphones to make sure Harper wouldn’t confuse day time and night time and made sure to turn the brightness way down on my laptop. This helped keep me awake and entertained-especially during that extra 20 minutes when she was already done eating and back asleep.
Sleeping Tricks
1. Elevating the Head
While we were still in the hospital when Harper was born, the nurses noticed right away that her spit up was affecting her sleep and they started elevating the head of her little plastic bassinet. It didn’t really click with us at the time, because they didn’t really tell us we could continue to do this. But this was again another recommendation from our pediatrician that was SO BENEFICIAL to not just Harper’s sleep, but mine as well.
While Harper was still in our bedroom in her bassinet, we started elevating the head of the bassinet by simply stacking some books under the head end to elevate it just slightly (just an inch or two off the ground).Let gravity help you- it helps keep the contents of baby’s tummy down and results in better sleep.
We noticed as she started to get bigger she was more wiggly and started sliding down the bassinet, sometimes to the side. So we had to move her to her crib between 2-3 months of age. We purchased this Crib Wedge from Amazon- which also turned out to be a life saver. We used this until she was about 5 months old! (It is also SO helpful when baby is congested- it helps keep babies head elevated and prevents more congestion).
I especially noticed the benefits of this Crib Wedge when Harper was about 4 months old. I had removed the crib wedge to see how she would do, and she had a HUGE sleep regression. I couldn’t understand why she kept waking up after being asleep for just a couple of minutes. After a few days of this I finally just stood in her room for a few minutes after putting her down for a nap and sure enough….she woke herself up by choking on spit up!
I put the crib wedge back in until she was no longer spitting up- she slept like an angel.
2. Swaddle Sleep Sack
Because of the constant discomfort in her chest and throat, especially while laying down, Harper was always wiggling around and grunting while swaddled in her bassinet, which always resulted in getting out of her swaddle and being tangled in a lose blanket (scary, I know). We had thought for the longest time that it was because she didn’t want to be swaddled…but sure enough her startle reflex made things worse when she was un-swaddled. We made the switch VERY early on to these velcro sleep sacks, and they were a life saver. Harper could wiggle around and grunt all she needed to clear her throat and at the same time stayed safely swaddled with her arms tucked in tight. Our favorite brand was the HALO Swaddle Sacks. We never really tried any other brand since we liked these so much… you can buy them at Target, Buy Buy Baby, or Here for Amazon
I loved these ones because they helped transition to arms-out sleeping. We could still keep one arm in, then when we had no arms swaddled, her body was still tight and secure, which gave her the feeling of being swaddled.
Daytime Tips
1. Eat, Play, Sleep
We started this routine with Harper very early on (helped her sleep through the night at 3 months old!). It worked out well during the daytime with her reflux because right after she would eat, I couldn’t lay her down to sleep anyways (she still needed to be help upright for 20 minutes!) That also meant no tummy time for at least 20 minutes… I usually waited even longer to put her on her tummy.
We used our Boppy pillow a TON during this time. She loved to prop up on the boppy and make fun faces with me and Daddy. And if need to, you can always prop your baby up if you need free hands for a second instead of lying them flat on the ground.
Another huge play time tip…NO BOUNCING.I know you see mom’s bouncing .their babies and babies having fun bouncing…but wait until they are OLDER! Harper loves bouncing now. But when she was suffering as much as she was from reflux, it only made things worse.
As for naps…until she was about 3 1/2- 4 months old, she napped in her Rock & Play. This kept her head more elevated, so she had better naps during the day.
Side note- DO NOT buy the most expensive Rock & Play!! It’s the one with a fancy canopy and a digital projector type thing…. We had this one and I had to go back and exchange it THREE TIMES in the first SIX WEEKS of having Harper because the motor kept going out. Do you know how stressful it is to drive a newborn in the snow to Buy Buy Baby because it’s the only thing she will nap & sleep in!? I was livid. 😂
Anyways, rant over. We finally downgraded to the one linked here and had no issues 😆
2. Laundry
If you think your baby’s spit up is bad now…I’m sorry to say…it will most likely get worse.
Harper’s peaked around 12 weeks old and started to decrease more when she was about 4 1/2 months old and stopped altogether between 5 and 7 months. During that peak stage (and even before) I was changing Harper’s outfits what seemed like every HOUR. The smell was nauseating and her clothes were soaked. I didn’t have enough outfits for this girl! I finally started putting bibs on her to help protect her clothes, and this was quite the laundry saver. If you haven’t already… invest in some bibs and some burp rags.
Harper went through at least 5 or more bibs a day… and depending on how often you do laundry, that’s how many you’ll want to have. (I ended up with A TON OF BIBS)
I recommend the bibs that wrap around the head and velcro in the front. Or the bibs with snaps.Harper got a lot of rashes from the bibs that velcro in the back. You can find really great ones through Amazon Prime. This is a really cute set of 12 bandana bibs for only $22.97!
I also went through TONS of burp rags every day. I had them scattered all over the house for whenever I needed one and ALWAYS put one under her when we did tummy time. Other wise I would have been washing her mat daily. You can also buy a bunch of these here on Amazon!
3. Medicine
After all these tips and tricks, Harper was still miserable. Her pediatrician initially prescribed a baby Zantac…but it did nothing. So she prescribed a different medication called Prevacid (this is the same medicine her pediatric gastroenterologist prescribed as well). This one was a bit pricier and we had to go to a special pharmacy that would make compound medications. But it was 100 percent worth it.
With this medication and all these tips and tricks I talked about, Harper’s reflux became incredibly manageable and got to the point where really the only thing we noticed was the gross smell all the time (hence the bibs and burp rags 😂) and this of course didn’t bother Harper…she was great! Once she started sitting up on her own we noticed a huge decrease in her spit up. At about 5 months old we switched her back to the Zantac, then around 7 months she was off of it completely. There hasn’t been a trace of reflux since then!! SEE! Even with her reflux and tummy troubles, she is still a beautiful, growing, happy, healthy baby!
So PLEASE believe me when I say… IT WILL GET BETTER. And with these tips and tricks, hopefully it will get better sooner than later.