reflux baby refusing bottle

My girl is not eating well and I am at my wits end. She's on zantac and prevacid but here in the last few days she screams as soon as we position her to eat. Then we fight the whole bottle until she shuts down and sleep eats. I know that's not good but I cannot let her just go hungry. I know she's hungry because she immediately puts her hands to her mouth to suck or sucks on my finger, even after 5-6 hrs of sleep she fights the bottle. I hope someone has some advice I dunno what to do and I'm afraid she will just not eat period and the worst will happen that she has to get a tube...I just want to prevent that

 

Are you sitting her nice and upright to feed? Making sure she's had her meds at least 30 minutes before a feed helps too. Can you feed her smaller amounts more often? Just a couple ounces here and a couple ounces there. Poor girlie!

 

Well I tried the couple of oz every few hrs and she wouldn't wake up to eat..so tired. And the meds we give three times a day I guess I wasn't aware about the 30mins before eating but I figured I'd see some improvement the next feeding after and its a fight all feeding. And yup very upright in almost sitting/burping position. I have tried walking around under the fan so she could watch it(worked for one feeding) and rocking her in our recliner(worked for one feeding) so I just don't know...

 

The only other thing I can think of is maybe she has an ear infection? The sucking motion of eating may be causing her pain. Any other general fussiness? Trouble sleeping at all?

 

It sounds like your daughter's reflux isn't under control and she's in pain and is refluxing almost immediately after starting to eat. Can you talk to your pedi about switching to a different medicine? For my daughter, Zantac did nothing, and Prevacid only worked for about a month. We switched to compounded Prilosec and it worked a million times better. Is your daughter getting formula or breastmilk? A lot of reflux babies have milk protein sensitivities so regular formula will cause their reflux to act up. You may have to move to Nutramigen or Alimentum. Or if you're pumping, cut all dairy out of your diet. I had to eliminate all dairy for the time I pumped, and then when we supplemented with formula, only Nutramigen worked. Everything else caused a major reflux flare up.

Finally, feeding her upright is necessary, but so is keeping her upright for at least 30 minutes after her meal. That means holding her, propping her in a chair, or putting her on a reflux wedge. Pretty much she should probably never be flat on her back. Not even while sleeping. We had to buy a reflux wedge (from the Tucker Sling company if you want one) and Piper slept on that for the first six months of her life. It was really weird at first since she had to be strapped in so she didn't slide down, but it helped so much.

Last but not least... if you're open to it, look into pediatric chiropractors. We didn't take Piper to one until she was four, but I wish we had done it sooner. Her reflux is totally under control now, and I know several parents who took their infants to the chiropractor and had the reflux totally go away after several appointments.

Good luck!

 

In addition to what the others have suggested, what about a different kind of nipple, like a faster one where she doesn't have to suck as hard? One of our boys, the one with the worst reflux, fought his bottles a LOT. Sometimes we would feed him part of it with a dropper, and that seemed to be less painful for him. It's time consuming, but some days that was the only way we managed to get enough formula in him.

Also, do you give them probiotics? That can help with reflux, too. We used a power called Primadophilus Children that we added to their bottles once a day.