Hi everyone!

I am a mama to a 29 month old girl and a 2 month old boy. We are done having a family with our little guy and it this little guy that happens to have GERD. He is a sweet sweet boy that wakes up with smiles in the mornings and coos happily at 6am until feeding time. Up until a couple of days ago the current dose of zantac and reglan were helping him stay happy all day long and helping his delayed emptying. Looks like he just reached the weight limit for the current dose so hopefully our doc will call us back today so that we can get him weighed and his dose adjusted if that is the best route.

Our daughter had "colic" as an infant so life was really rough for her until about 3 months or so. I think she was a silent spitter but realtively mild compared to what our boy is going through. Our little guy was born full term and went through the physiologic jaundice just like dd but things looked very different for him when he went from not waking enough to eat TO crying in pain at every feeding, eating tiny amounts and then sounding like he was drowning in his own food. So at 2 weeks of age he was diagnosed with GERD and at about 3 weeks of age he was on alimentum, zantac and not until after he had an abdominal ultrasound to make sure it wasn't pyloric stenosis did he start on reglan. I wasn't too thrilled about the reglan but fact of the matter is that he empties in such a slow manner even with the alimentum that he needs help on that end as well.

oh i need to feed my toddler lunch so i will continue the intro a little later.

Cheers!

I realize that his GERD may not be the worst a child has experienced but it is our own little hell when he is in pain and the vicious cycle starts up again. Even with some of the symptoms under control he needs to be draped on my body to sleep well. I am working literally every hour to help him be more comfortable so that he will have the energy to achieve his developmental milestones. I do watch him like a hawk when it comes to his symptoms and make notes of changes in hopes of nipping the cycle in the bud.

Hi Patty and welcome! I'm glad you found us and I look forward to getting to you and your children better!

Welcome Patty! I look forward to reading the rest of your intro. later. By the way, what are your kids names?

hi again,

oh my i forgot names. my daughter is Alyssa Christine and son is Andrew Tyler. So andrew is scheduled for a barium swallow and the doc increased the dose of the zantac and reglan. he also suggested adding a tsp of rice cereal to 4 oz of formula(ds is on alimentum).

i get that thickening the food will help it to sit but if i remember correctly rice cereal is fortified with iron and iron usually constipates. so would my little guy who already has trouble emptying fast enough not to cause discomfort be more miserable on the other end if i do add rice cereal??

i didn't really get into it with the doc just because i do see the common sense behind the thicker formula having more calories to ensure he is gaining weight at a nice rate AND how it should in theory help keep the food in his stomach. he said he got back from a ped GI conference where they do recommend it as a supplement to help keep the dose of medications down to a minimum.

what do you all think??

Where I come from, we're always told not to add pablum/cereal to a baby's bottle, but here in this forum, I've noticed that a number of people have been told to do it. And yes, IN THEORY thickening a reflux child's food and/or drinks should help keep the food down, but that has never worked for Evan. Thickened things only make him gag and then vomit out everything that we've worked so hard to get in. On the other hand, you won't know if thickening the formula works for Andrew until you try it. Good luck!

Re: the iron fortified rice cereal, it was never a problem for either of my kids.

Hi Patty

I was told as well to put rice cereal in Trent's bottle. Unfortunately, it made him vomit worse, and it also gave him terrible gas.

I ended up switching to putting oatmeal in his bottle, which worked much better. The oatmeal settles in the fridge, so you have to shake it really well.

Amy

It's been so long for me, I don't remember what they had me put in her bottle...some sort of cereal but not sure what. All it did was make her take less b/c it was so thick (even after we made the nipples in the bottles larger) and made what she puked up messier b/c it was full of little bits of cereal stuff...YUCK!

I'd like to know if any one even actually studied the affects of adding cereal to bottles or if they are all going on theory.

As for the iron in it, I tend to think that he wouldn't really get enough cereal to have it affect him but I could be wrong. Could you also give him a stool softener just in case, or if it did cause problems?