I've been exclusively breastfeeding my DS since he was born until this past Saturday. I had also been milk/soy free since 8 May and then on a complete elimination diet since 17 May. None of my diet changes seemed to help.

Since I wondered if I might have a hindmilk/foremilk imbalance, we decided to do a couple days of a lactose free formula to even out my supply and see if it would help. And he is doing a little better. . .he refluxes some after eating formula but not as much as my breastmilk. On breastmilk, he would wake up about 1 hour after eating with the same reflux symptons as before and would cry until I feed him. On formula, its the same pattern but it's 2 hours after eating that he wakes up.

Could formula being "heavier" then breastmilk lesson his reflux? I really don't want to stop breastfeeding. Is there a way to thicken my breastmilk to see if it has the same result of the formula?

Thanks for y'all support. I really appreciate the advice!
Lisa

Have you tired pumping off the first little bit or formilk right before nursing him? Otherwise you could pump and then add some rice or oatmeal to thicken it up.

Sorry that is the best I can come up with. I hope you can find soemthing that will help.

I agree with Kelly. Expressing your bm and adding rice or oatmeal to thicken it may be helpful. I had to thicken Brenna's formula (Nutramigen is very thin like bm) to milkshake consistency to keep her from refluxing it all back up.

If you think you may have a foremilk/hindmilk imbalance you may want to try nursing on only one side per feeding. This way he should get the fatty, more filling hindmilk and may have less symptoms including wanting to nurse after only an hour after being put down. It is really difficult to thicken breastmilk with cereal. The breastmilk breaks down the cereal too quickly therefore it only maintains it consistency if you mix 1-2 oz at a time. Commercial thickeners work somewhat better. Switching completely to formula may not help once you start feeding it on a consistent basis b/c formula takes longer to digest than breastmilk therefore there may be more in his tummy for a longer time in which to reflux.

Hi Lisa:

Your post sounds exactly like one I wrote several months ago about Roman!!! No matter what dietary changes I made, no improvement in his symptoms. Tried formula which seemed to satisfy him longer, but still didn't get rid of symptoms - plus he hated the taste and fought every feeding. We were sure my milk was too much/too fast or something so we tried pumping first, feeding only one side, using a nipple shield etc... Nothing worked until we got him on the right dose of Prevacid and now we realize all his problems were thanks to reflux. Is he on medication? *EDIT*: I just re-read your siggy and saw that he is on medication. What is he taking? I would suggest upping the dose or trying a new med because his reflux is still not under control...

Like Lori said, you could try pumping and mixing your milk with cereal to thicken it, but realistically that might get pretty inconvenient, pretty fast. I think if I had tried to keep pumping every feed, I would've given up breastfeeding long ago, because it felt like I was spending every minute of my day either feeding or pumping!!! But it's certainly worth a try!

Best of luck - let us know what works for you! :hug:

Hi Lisa:

I went ahead and merged your two posts since they seem to be identical. Hope that's okay!

Thanks!