Infant reflux and breathing

Has anyone's infant stopped breathing due to spitting up/reflux? My baby did this today and it was very scary. About 90 minutes after he ate, he was laying on his side and spit up a bit and stopped breathing for what felt like a long time (it may have been 10 seconds or so). His face started turning red and he looked scared too. He's stopped breathing for a second previously with this reflux, but I've never seen him do what happened today. My husband has taken CPR and finally flipped him over, hit him on the back, and he was ok then.

We have him on Axid 3x/day (although i don't know if it's supposed to be taken before a meal, after, or what) and Oatmeal with his formula, but the reflux doesn't seem to be much better. We are consulting with a GI doctor due to a mlik allergy as well.

(Edited)-- My other question to this is since he is not choking on a solid food or anything, is this situation life threatening if it happens again?

Message edited 8/15/2011 4:53:03 PM.

Re: Infant reflux and breathing

I would call your Ped ASAP. This happened to my sister's baby and he was admitted to the hospital and had to be on an apnea monitor once home. Her baby had reflux and her DH had to do rescue breathing as both his nose and throat were blocked by the spit up.

Re: Infant reflux and breathing

Call your ped as soon as you can. My second son had similar issues and he was put on Alimentum and breathing treatments. Hugs and best of luck!

Re: Infant reflux and breathing

My son has the same type of reflux as yours....he's on axis 3x a day also and has oatmeal in his bottle of Nutramagin formula to cut down on the spitting up. He also has a milk protein allergy. However, thankfully my son has never experienced what you did. He occassionally will cough after or even during eating. I don't feel like the formula which is hypoallergenic or the acid reducer are helping all the way as I'm covered in spit up everytime he eats. If it was just a laundry issue I wouldn't care but it's beyond that. I agree with the PP that you should call you ped immediately. I don't mean to be an alarmist but I'm just sharing what I would do. I wish you the best of luck. I'll be thinking of you and am sure everything will be ok.

Re: Infant reflux and breathing

our dd did this too. It was so scary, I became a very light sleeper because the only way I knew it was happening was the way she would move around on her sheets. She really did not make a noise or cry.
We spoke to our ped and they put her on reflux medicine. Once she got that she was a lot better.
I would call your ped, good luck!

Re: Infant reflux and breathing

My niece would stop breathing due to reflux. She did use a monitor when she came home from the hospital... they did a whole workup... and she was a newborn (almost premie).

Babies turn blue... not red when they stop breathing though.

I agree with all above: you should get yours checked out... and hit the foot first if yours stops breathing.

Re: Infant reflux and breathing

Thanks. I spoke to the pediatrician yesterday and she asked me the same thing-did he turn blue or lose color. He didn't. Just red. So maybe he was breathing and just chocking on the spit up. We also use Neocate for a milk allergy.

Re: Infant reflux and breathing

Re: Infant reflux and breathing

Mine stopped breathing I called 911 went to the hospital and they diagnosed her with reflux. Apparently newborns have a reflex that when something enters the trachea, they stopped breathing to prevent aspiration.