Lessons on #refluxingbaby

0.65% saline nasal drop and nasal aspirator – these two things are your saviors if your baby throws up violently through the mouth as well as nostrils. Sometimes the baby will suddenly cry out loudly from a deep sleep with signs of choking and inability to breathe, even if you can’t see any milk spit up around, it is because of reflux only. Such situations are frightening and maddening for a new mom. I have been all alone through them, so cluelessly and helplessly crying with my baby incessantly.

First of all, don’t lose your calm, yes the baby is in pain and you have to relieve him/her. Don’t let the baby’s loud wails affect you at all. Keep calm and pick up the baby carefully to upright position onto the shoulder. Grab the nasal drop. Bring the baby to head down position in front of you. Hold the head firmly and squeeze in a good amount of nasal drop in both nostrils. Then move the baby to shoulder again and start burping. If the baby is still being restless after 3 to 5 minutes of burping, then grab the nasal aspirator, while pressing the bulb of the aspirator to insert the thin silicone tip into one of the nostrils and release. The sudden vacuum created in the bulb will pull out all the milk spit up and mucus collected in the nostril. It won’t happen in one go. Try it for 5 to 6 times and you can see the collections in the silicone tip. Do the same for both the nostrils. As soon as the nose clears up baby will feel relaxed.

Refluxing babies have a lot of hiccups. Usually, after 2 to 3 spit ups the baby starts to have hiccups. It isn’t painful though it can irritate the baby and affect sleep. But the good part is that there won’t be any more spit up after this feed once the baby gets hiccups. Hiccups mark the end of spit up episodes until the next feed. Burping the baby will arrest the hiccup usually.; But if it takes more than 5 minutes you can breastfeed the baby or give 1 tsp water. I gave 2 ml gripe water initially and later 3 ml which also helped a lot.

A very common problem of babies is spit ups vomiting or reflux whatever you may call it. 5 to 6 sit-ups per day is normal but more than that like 10 to 15 spit-ups per day is worrisome. There come weight gain issues and it also becomes messy. Managing a refluxing baby is very tiresome. Babies have a weak gastroesophageal sphincter which fails to keep the ingested food down in the tummy. that is why the milk comes up to the mouth. this is known as Gastroesophageal Reflux disease a.k.a GERD. it is common in preterm babies and in babies with

Yes, I’ve worked in the NICU and I can very well differentiate between an emergency and a routine complaint, yet, as a new mom, I too panicked at my baby’s discomfort and landed up in the pediatrician’s office very often. Not one pediatrician, but as many as I could.

The pediatricians prescribe drugs like Rantac, Ondem, Domstal, and Granexa for refluxes but they actually are of no help. Still, you can use them for some relief initially for a couple of weeks. If you see any change then continue but if you don’t see any appreciable change then you can stop them, rather you should stop them. As it adds up to more work for an already overloaded mew mom and also the baby’s developing digestive system is affected.

But Colic Aid and colimex have been helpful for colic though. If the baby twists and turns and arches a lot then identify it as colic pain.

There is two type of colimex available in the medical store.

1. A) Colimex = Dicycloimine + simethicone
2. B) colimex df + = simethicone.

Use A) Colimex for instant relief.

If the baby sticks out tongue like nauseating and expecting a vomit then colic aid, al5zyme, or gripe water help to reduce it instantly by changing the taste.

You can also try homeopathy medicines, they work better than allopathy. My baby got some relief with those small white balls.