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reflux vs constipation

Andrea - posted on 01/11/2010 ( 4 moms have responded )

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Hi. My 15 week old suffers from bad reflux and has been put on ranitidine twice daily. The doctor also recommended 1 tb of rice cereal twice daily and some formula mixed with breast milk. The thinking behind this is that it will add weight to his stomach and won't be as easy to regurgitate.
This seems to be working as he is puking and gagging less but he seems to be more and more constipated going sometimes 5 days without a bowel movement.

Breastmilk is easier for him to digest but when I just breastfeed him his reflux is very bad-sometimes to the point where he stops breathing and milk comes out his nose.

Does anyone have advice for a balance between his reflux treatment and constipation?

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Marcie - posted on 01/13/2010

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Andrea we had the same problem. My son is 16 weeks and he is on Ranitidine also. We tried putting rice in the bottle and our son became too constipated. We had to discontinue doing that. So now he just spits up. What I have noticed is that he spits up more when he needs to poop. After he poops he doesn't reflux as much. My son also used to reflux through his nose, but that has stopped. It is really hard. The Ranitidine isn't going to stop the reflux but it does cut down on the acid that comes up. So when he does spit up it won't hurt his esophagus to much. I think in both our cases our children are just going to keep spitting up and we are just going to have to wait until they outgrow it.

Jennifer - posted on 01/13/2010

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My daughter was diagnosed w/ reflux at 3weeks old, milk would come out of her nose too and you could hear her choking all the time. They put her on Zantac and it did not help so we switched to Axid, works much better. We also switched her milk to Alamentum from Similac, the protein is broken down so they digest it better and also we thicken her bottles w/ cereal as per the doctors orders...we use a tsp per ounce of milk...This worked wonders for her, we also had to do the same thing w/ our son. Between all 3 it helps...Have you tried the Earth's Best whole grain rice cereal? It's what we use, it may help w/ the constipation, but to warn you it does make the milk thicker than regular rice cereal.

Sarah - posted on 01/11/2010

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Are you sure he's constipated? its normal for mainly breastfed babies to go up to a week sometimes without a bowel movement. If his poos are hard (not soft and mushy - sorry for the detail) then he's constipated, but if not then its normal. My baby is 16 weeks old and also has bad reflux, i don't give her cereal but our doctor put us on losec twice a day. It doesn't add any weight to her feeds, but it lets her throat heal (from the acid burn from her vomit) and it makes her more comfortable. Formula won't make her constipated as long as your making it up according to the directions (you can also get formula thickener which makes it harder to be vomited back up) but the cereal might.

Ksenia - posted on 01/11/2010

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Hi, have you tried Zantac? It worked like a charm for my baby (although the reflax was not as bad ur baby). Also, i give a tummy massage when my girl is constipated.

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