Moms of A/R babies...

My sister's 4 month old daughter has been having a lot of problems with choking since birth. The doctor hasn't been too concerned with it since she has been gaining very well (she is 4 months and weighs over 17 lbs) but my sister has been very worried because the choking incidents are very frequent and she describes them to be severe.

Well today she ended up taking her baby to the Pediatric Urgent Care Clinic in Stony Brook hospital because it got really bad. They basically told her that it seems as if her baby has Acid Reflux and refered her to a pediatric GI to run some additional tests.

My sister is pretty much freaking out. She is all distraught, wondering about whether or not she should put her daughter on meds for AR or see if she can grow out of it. She doesn't want her daughter to have perminant damage from it sicne we know some people that it has happened to because the child was not treated early enough.

She does not spit up often or projectily. The choking is the most severe of the symptoms, although she also has congestion and some of the other symptoms that the doctors asked her about at the clinic.

Basically I am wondering if any of you have babies with AR where they don't spit up all the time. Did the doctors recommend medication even though it wasn't as severe as other cases? Did any of you not medicate to later find out that maybe it should have been done because your babies had perminant damage? Are there any alternative methods that my sister can use to help with the AR aside from meds?

She is also EBF and plans on not starting solids until 6 months. She feels VERY strongly about this.

TIA!
Melissa

Re: Moms of A/R babies...

oh gosh, how scary Choking is my ONE biggest fear ever, from infant to adults, its just a huge fear of mine. I watch my toddlers like a hawk eating anything

Is she just gagging alot, or truly choking, in a sense of no being able to catch her breath?
I really dont have any experience, just wanted to send some hugs, and I hope it gets resolved very soon

Re: Moms of A/R babies...

Jacob has AR and he has hardly ever spit up since birth. He had all the other signs though, arching the back while eating, crying thru the feeds, etc.. but since he was born with something called Laryngomalacia the two go hand in hand. If the baby has laryngomalacia then he also has AR no matter what the amount of spit up. He has been on zantac since about 2 weeks old and is now on it 3x a day and he seems to be sooooooooooo much better...good luck!

Re: Moms of A/R babies...

Posted by anna

oh gosh, how scary Choking is my ONE biggest fear ever, from infant to adults, its just a huge fear of mine. I watch my toddlers like a hawk eating anything

Is she just gagging alot, or truly choking, in a sense of no being able to catch her breath?
I really dont have any experience, just wanted to send some hugs, and I hope it gets resolved very soon

Re: Moms of A/R babies...

A friend of mine went through that with her son. He would choke all the time and regardless of his position. He was fed both breastmilk and formula. My friend's doctor didn't seem to concerned. The baby also did't spit up alot. He will be a year old at the end of this month and actually grew out of that, I want to say he was about 5 months old. I also have an acquintance and her son was colic, has A/R and did the choking thing (funny thing was he would only cry at home, her boss aloud her to bring the baby to work and he was good). He also out grew the choking and he is 6 months old now. She also put him on a strict schedule. He has his bottles at 6am, 9am, 12pm, 3pm, 6pm and 9pm. He is also on Nutramigen. I am not sure if he was on any medication. Then I have my SIL sister whose son was on one of the medications for A/R. He also had choking fits and they were sevre but he didn't spit up much. He turned two on saturday and he is fine. The doctors had told her the choking was from something that was under developed in his esophgus. My SIL put my nephew on Enfamil A/R which has rice starchs in it, so its like putting cereal in the bottles. The forumla is thicker and helped my nephew. He is 6 months old and for about a month has been off that formula and is on the regular one. Hope this helps.

Re: Moms of A/R babies...

Kaite had ar problems since about 3 weeks. She would spit up ALL the time, and would choke every time we put her down on her back.

she started zantac at about 2 months old.
As far as older babies, Katie is still on the zantac, although we have not increased the dose ever and she is much bigger now, the little dose is still working.

We tried to take her off the zantac at 5 1/2 months, and her symptoms came back.