New to LIF...need advice..acid reflux and cereal

My DD was diagnosed with mild reflux, the dr told me what to do, keep upright do not lay flat after bottle...she told me if the problem gets a little bit worse she would recommend putting cereal in her bottles...Now that I am thinking about , how does this help?? Anyone experience this?

Re: New to LIF...need advice..acid reflux and cereal

The cereal is supposed to weigh the formula down, make it thicker so it doesn't come up that easily. We did that, and we tried Enfamil A.R. which is made thicker specifically for acid reflux. It works for some, not for us. But by 6 months, she'd outgrown the worst of it.

Good luck, it can get frustrating, but know it doesn't last forever

Re: New to LIF...need advice..acid reflux and cereal

As the previous post stated the cereal does exactly what they said....weighs down the formula or breast milk making it harder for it to come back up. My DS was just diagnosed with reflux (and a milk protein allergy) and my pediatrician suggested the same thing with the keeping them upright during and after feedings for atleast a half hour. We did not try the rice cereal and have him on a low dosage of an acid reducer (Axid). So far it seems to be working so I'm happy.....either way, many times the babies outgrow the reflux (caused by an immature digestive system) by the age of 12 months if not sooner.

Re: New to LIF...need advice..acid reflux and cereal

I have heard that newer studies on this have said that it doesn't really help! It does make the formula or BM heavier...but for my DS it didnt matter...it would still come up..and it was mroe frustrating to get out of the bottle for my DS...I stopped it and just did all the other (ie. sitting up and not moving him around much after a bottle, etc) stuff until he grew out of it!

Re: New to LIF...need advice..acid reflux and cereal

From a ped dieititian

I very very rarely recommend adding cereal in the bottle, except for very extreme reflux. Studies have shown that adding cereal to the bottle at a young age (less than 4mths) had adverse effects -

It changes sucking mechanism
adds additional calories, carbohydrates and decreasing protein and nutrient profile of formula/bm (b/c baby does not consume as much formula now that it is displaced by cereal)
Increases risk for allergies, since babys gut is not mature enough to digest these carbohydrates.

I recommend the product enfamil ar. The benefit is that the product thickens in the gut, not in the bottle. Therefore reducing spit up/reflux. It works great alone and is severe cases along with medications like zantac. It also maintains the nutrient profile of routine formula, 20kcal/oz, and goes through regular nipple. I find the ready to feed works a bit better over the powder also.

HTH!

Re: New to LIF...need advice..acid reflux and cereal

Honeslty I would just switch to an added rice starch formula
Enfamil AR or Similac RS - if it gets worse.
They are made for that issue

Re: New to LIF...need advice..acid reflux and cereal

DS had BAD reflux starting at a month. We tried everything. He also seemed sensitive to milk proteins. We started him on Axid at a month and that did nothing. We went with the bigger "guns" and put him on Prevacid. He was a different child, but still not great. As a last resort we went with the cereal in the bottle. We used Oatmeal as opposed to Rice b/c DS had some constipation issues. I have to say that although its a pain in the you know what it def made our lives easier. At 3 months he was on cereal in all of his bottles. He never had any adverse effects from it. By 4 months he was eating cereal off of a spoon and by 5 months we were able to slowly wean the cereal out of the bottle. It gets better, hang in there. DS is going to be a year old in 2 weeks and he is STILL on Prevacid. We tried to take him off and it was HORRIBLE! But when he is on the meds he is a happy happy boy. He eats just about anything and no issues.

Re: New to LIF...need advice..acid reflux and cereal

Thank you all so much!!!! My DD is on Similac allementum due to milk protein allergy. So far I am trying all the precautions for the reflux, at this point her reflux is minor (so I am happy about that) She seems to be fussy when I burp her during the first 2 ounces. Th last ounce she seems to be less fussy when burping. Its after I keep her upright for the 20 - 30 minutes that we are struggling to keep her comfortable. Its not every bottle only 1 to 2 bottles a day that she may be fussy after it. She usually goes right down for her nap in an elevated bassinet or her chair(which she seems to not like that much anymore) i am very appreciative of all the advice and to know I am not the only one out there. I am just trying to keep her comfortable and not form any bad habits of holding her all the time which I have been pretty good at not doing unles she is so uncomfortable and screaming.

The formula that everyone is referring to Similac AR---- that is specific to acid relfux, right? not the allementum? is the similac AR okay for babies with milk protein allergy?

Re: New to LIF...need advice..acid reflux and cereal

No..its enfamil AR

I am going to change my recommendation now that I know LO has a milk pro allergy.

I would try to go with nutramigen powder (not ready to use). The nutramigen powder is the only one on the market that has a probiotic lactobacillius gg tadded to it that helps heal the babies gut, which is damaged due to allergen. The studies that I have seen on the formula show a 100% success rate over the ready to use nutramigen and allimentum.

My 2nd reason for making this recommendation is that if you look at your bottle of allimenum you will see that table sugar (sucrose) is the second ingredient in the formula. Its about 11tsp/d (think about putting 11 sugar packets in your coffee!!) When there is a milk pro allergy the gut barrier are damaged..the first enzyme that gets removed is sucrase (which digest sucrose), soo..if sucrase is removed there is no way to digest sucrose...making babies have spit up, and pain. I actually see a good number of patients that have this problem and a switch to nutramigen is a good fix.

If that doesnt' help...you may need to go to do the rice cereal, or an amino acid product.

Re: New to LIF...need advice..acid reflux and cereal

This helped with DS's reflux! We didnt want to switch to a formula with rice bc he already had trouble pooping. The formula with cereal worked amazing!

Re: New to LIF...need advice..acid reflux and cereal

We have been giving DD Nutramigen powder (first with rice), then was constipated, and now gets a lil oatmeal. Been doing this since about 5-6 weeks, and it's helped her alot.

Re: New to LIF...need advice..acid reflux and cereal

My Dr switched us to nutramegin last night, so tonight at 8pm will be 24 hours. I see a minimal difference so far. But again I have to give it some time. Dr said after a couple of days we will try cereal in the nutramegin. I am using the powder as well. Then if all else fails then we will try medicine.

Thank you all for the hope with the nutramegin and rice cereal, at least I know I am not alone!!!!!!!!!!!!

Re: New to LIF...need advice..acid reflux and cereal

UPDATE....need thoughts

My DD is definately calmer on the nutramagin and now we started cereal in night bottle becasue she is spitting up every bottle 1-4 times..started last night and the 2 bottles after there was no spit up. the 2 afternoon bottles she spit up a lot. one bottle with each burp out came what went in. Tonight is night 2. The night bottle with cereal she had one small spit up. Now waiting to see the next two bottles, I am assuming if the next 2 bottles she doesnt spit up then cereal is the trick. The dr said if spit up stops then we will do cereal in one morning and one night bottle

Anyone have to do this and found this with spitting up?

Re: New to LIF...need advice..acid reflux and cereal

adding cereal will help with spit up and is usually the last step in controlling severe spit up....

Re: New to LIF...need advice..acid reflux and cereal

the two bottles after the cereal bottle has gotten better. SO i guess when i call today the dr they will say that I will have to do cereal in one morning and one night bottle and hopefully that will do the trick
Thank you for your thoughts and advice I greatly appreciate it

Re: New to LIF...need advice..acid reflux and cereal

We tried cereal, but it didn't work as well as the Enfamil AR. Now, they are both on Prilosec and I thicken their formula with xantham gum and they are doing really well.