Sleep tips for an infant with reflux

[Anonymous]

Hello! My four-month-old baby boy was recently diagnosed with silent gastroesophogeal reflux. One of the major pain points for infants with reflux is sleeping in comfort. He won't let me burp him after he eats (he usually nurses from one side and falls asleep) and when I put him on his back in the crib...he wakes up and cries in pain. Lately, I have tried putting him on his side, which seems like a comfortable position to him, however, he eventually rolls on his back and wakes up.

Does anyone have tips for getting a baby with reflux to sleep well? A friend of my MIL recommended the "nap nanny", but this product was recalled in 2010...it works like a sleep positioner and sleep positioners pose a risk of SIDS.

Thank you in advance for any advice you can offer!

[Anonymous]

my son slept in his car seat which was in his crib for 2 months. You can also try propping up the whole crib or just the mattress (underneath the sheet) It was a great day when he rolled over back to front so we could put him to sleep on his side in the crib.

[Anonymous]

Thank you! We tried raising one end of his mattress a tiny bit, but it doesn't help since he slides around and wakes up. We also tried having him sleep on his side, but he rolls on his back and wakes up.

[Anonymous]

A bouncy seat?

[Anonymous]

He won't let me burp him after he eats (he usually nurses from one side and falls asleep)

Burp him anyway OP!!! I know it's hard to wake them up when they are sleeping but with reflux it's really important.

You don't need to elevate the crib that much to get an effect. We just put a couple of books under the mattress, enough to give it just a little lift but not enough to allow him to slide everywhere, and this seemed to help. However, sounds like you've got yourself a pretty active sleeper there so even that may not work. In that case, try the bouncy seat or a swing. Also talk to your ped about Prevacid, it worked wonders for my son.

[Anonymous]

Have you tried Zantac and Prevacid? Zantac helped things for my son, but it really took prevacid before his reflux was really under control. Other things that helped were putting a wedge under his mattress to elevate it and keeping him upright for 30 minutes after eating. Another item to try would be to cut dairy from your diet and see if that helps.

[Anonymous]

Thanks PP's! He started Zantac last week and it helps a bit, but it doesn't make a big difference. We have a follow-up appt. with the pediatrician this weekend.

The problem is that he arches his back and screams when I try to burp him. I have tried different positions, but nothing works so far.

[Anonymous]

We had the problem of sliding when we tried to elevate one side of the crib. So he slept in his bouncy a lot, slept with us a lot, and we had something else that I'm trying to find the link for...

[Anonymous]

Hold him upright for at least 30 minutes before you lay him down. That worked for our DC. Pain in the ass when you are trying to get some sleep yourself but that's reflux for you

[Anonymous]

One of our 10 week old twins has reflux. Regarding medications, please keep in mind that Zantac and Prevacid only help with the burning, the don't stop the reflux itself. In our case, the regurgitation is more the problem than the burning. I agree with a previous poster that it is more important to burp them than to let them sleep. If we burp him, he'll wake up (often loudly), but will sleep better when he finally gets to sleep. Without burping, he will wake up not just once, but hourly as the gasses get into his system. He'll wake up from gas and either need to burp or have flatulence before he can go back to sleep. On advice from our pediatrician, we make sure that he is burped and kept with his head above his stomach for at least 20 minutes after eating. It's helped a lot.

Some solutions: If your mattress is harder, then consider getting some sort of wedge. We have a healthy back wedge (10") like this one: http://www.healthyback.com/products/Healthyback/Healthy-back-bed-wedge/108 that we cover with large beach towels safety pinned on that works pretty well. We put his behind and legs on the crib mattress and the back and head on the wedge. He does occasionally roll off, but it happens less often than he would wake up from reflux. For a softer mattress, like the one we have in our PnP, we put a boppy pillow under one end and the mattress naturally folds when the baby's weight is on it so that again, he is on the incline from the waist up and flat from the waist down. This position helps keep him from rolling off.

He does occasionally sleep in the bouncy seat and after burping sometimes the bouncy seat with the vibration on will help soothe him to sleep. Last, we also have an reclined position swing (the FP Aquarium Cradle Swing). Sometimes the motion and the reclined position help him sleep.

And unfortunately, sometimes nothing seems to work, but we have the worst results when he hasn't been properly burped. That's the key to improvement (at least for us). Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Awesome suggestions! Thank you everyone. I will keep trying to burp him...hopefully, he will let me so he will feel/sleep better. Also hope to try the wedge suggestion...it's worth a shot.

[Anonymous]

I feel your pain OP, or at least my poor DD does . My pediatrician recommended keeping her a little forward (30 degree angle) like on your chest to help with the regurgitation. So far that seems to help a bit

[Anonymous]

My DS also had reflux (took meds from a newborn - 18 months and then again from ages 4 - 6). He saw a gastro dr as well as a pulmonologist. He also slept in his car seat for about six months. This was the only way he would sleep through the night.

[Anonymous]

There is a wedge you can buy at most baby stores that fits perfectly underneath the crib sheet, on to of the mattress - just elevates their heads a few inches. We hung onto it and still use it when our now post-reflux baby has a bad cold. Burping and keeping upright are key; for us another big issue was making sure the meds were right - Prevacid dosages need to be adjusted frequently and the compounded version can lose effectiveness (this is something of a debate about how quickly etc; all I know is once I read up on this and changed to solutabs, sleep became much much better.) Finally, with our ped's blessing (although she said she couldn't formally advise this because of AAP recs) we started letting him sleep on his stomach much earlier than you're supposed to do. (I forget now, but it might have been at 2 months?) I slept next to his crib and agonized about it but he was infinitely more comfortable. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Finally, with our ped's blessing (although she said she couldn't formally advise this because of AAP recs) we started letting him sleep on his stomach much earlier than you're supposed to do. (I forget now, but it might have been at 2 months?) I slept next to his crib and agonized about it but he was infinitely more comfortable. Good luck!

The most dangerous period for SIDS is 2-4 months. The danger starts to wane at 6 months to 12 months. You are supposed to try to have them sleep on their backs as long as possible, although from 6M+ it will get harder and harder. The suggestion is from 6 months-12months to try to put them on their back and roll them back on their back if they roll to the side. After 12 months, the danger of SIDS from sleeping on their side/stomach drops to the point that the warnings stop.