Hi, My 4 week old baby Lucas has a milk allergy and reflux as well. While in the NICU he would puke up every last bit of formula. So they changed him to Similac Isomil (soy) and he was still throwing up just not as much. Then they started him on rice cereal in his bottle. 1tsp per 1oz of formula. If that didnt work they were going to start the baby zantac. Then switch to the one your son is on. So far the rice cereal has helped enormously. He has spit ups here and there. There is no rhyme or reason to his spitting up now. After he came home from NICU we even tried to cut back the cereal...but it was throw up city. So we have just continued the cereal. That night be something you want to consider. Lucas still seems a bit gassy. Im going to ask PED about maybe trying mylecon.

Oh and I dont know if you know but sometimes the formula your son is on gets covered by insurance. I even found out that the soy formula for my son is covered if it is Dr. prescribed. It is covered in full for 1 year and is delivered right to my front door.'

I hope you have some luck...cranky fussy babies are no fun.

Reflux definitely isn't fun. Emma is 7 months old and its still a huge issue. We are considering having Nissen Fundoplication done. Its supposedly 90% effective and its worth trying if medication isn't working.

Em is exclusively breastfed, but her mother (I'm her aunt and caretaker) won't restrict her diet to see if its due to allergies. In my case, there is only so much I can do to help. :o(

Have you gotten a sloped changing mat yet? It'll really come in handy. Also, have you talked to your doctor about thickening the formula? I've heard this also helps. If 30 minutes of having him sitting straight up don't work, try to extend that amount of time. Em needs anywhere from 45 mins to 2 hours or else she will projectile vomit. One of the plus sides to having reflux is that she sits up like a champ!

Lastly, keep an eye out for Esophagitis. If your baby vomits a lot, the stomach acid in the vomit can eat away at the Esophagus. If your baby is in pain while trying to eat, have it checked out by the doctor. (You'll notice the baby might refuse food even when crying out of hunger)

Ciora and roxies advice is spot on, everything your doing sounds great too. My daughter suffered terrible with reflux, what worked for her was a comfort/easy digest formula combined with gaviscon. The formula meant her tummy didnt have to work as hard and the gaviscon stopped the burn from the acid. We tried numerous things, enfamil, nutramigen, domperidone, we had huge problems with any formula thicken with rich starch such as enfamil or hungry baby food as it caused massive constipation and effectively backed up her system making the reflux worse. So with solids avoid citrus fruits and tomatoes due to the acid, i know thats early but......
As for laying him flat, Harriet didnt lay flat from the day we found she had reflux until she was 6 months old, we bought a AR Pillow designed by an american mum whos baby choked on reflux during the night, Its a 30 degree angle and baby is strapped safely on to it, harriet slept like a dream and safely to add i slept to knowing that her reflux couldnt throw itself up such an angle.
As for gas, we used to burp her frequently throughout a feed but found that made it worse, the specailist told us the mor latchin and unlatching a baby does the more wind they get, so rather than take the bottle away to burp her we let her tell us when she was ready, if she took her feed in one that was fine, it acctually meant less gas! We used infacol but the thing with that is if you dont give it with every feed without fail then when it isnt given it leaves a portion of the inestines not coated, meaning gas bubbles stick there and are even tricker to get out. Gripe water is age old but helped for Harriet.
Reflux was the pain in my motherly ass for months even to the point where i got her in her pram, walked her to sleep and fed her in her sleep just to food in her, my husband vacumed whilst i ed her as the noise made her concentrate on eating, we have paced the room whilst feeding, honestly anything that we could however stupid it may have seemed!
I wish you look and just try anything, feel free to message me if you need a chat! xx

Oh and what about the kind of bottles you are using. I dont know how well they help, but there are a few brands of bottles that are supposed to help with gas, fussiness, spitting up...etc etc. My SIL used Dr. Browns for her kids who all had reflux but couldnt stand all of the parts that came with them. I tried the Born Free brand. It still has a few parts but not as much as Dr. Browns. I think that in combination with the formula and cereal and then the bottles it has helped big time. And just like Chamelian said with the burping..I find the same thing. Lucas does better when we let him suck for as long as he needs to and then we get at least one good burp out of him.

Yes a god bottle is always hard to find, we used doctor browns but didnt really see a difference to be honest, we use tommee tipee closer to nature now tho and they work for Harriet. Ive just seen a bottle called the adiri, its free flow and shaped to mimic a breast even more than tommee tippee, also play with the teat size, too much gas could be because its too slow a teat so as hes sucking hes getting in lots of ait rather than feed,Harriet was always on a teat size up for her age.

To help with gas, I used Infacol. It helps the gas rise easier and quicker. It really does work!

Tommee Tippee stuff is great. They have sippy cups with a similar design as the bottle and I use it with both of the girls. Em developed nipple confusion and refuses bottles, so I found that to be a great alternative.

My daughter is 2 months and has had a hard time with reflux as well. They just switched her formula to similac Alimentum. She sleeps in her vibrating chair because laying flat she has horrible choking episodes.Her Reflux has just gotten worse over the past 2weeks. Every time she spits up she would cry and the formula would always come out of her nose. She would scream so bad. So they haven't given her medicine as of yet but thinking of taking her back to the dr. I started putting cereal in her bottle like RoxiesMama, 1tsp for every ounce and it has helped tremendously. NO more crazy spitting up episodes and it stopped coming out of her nose. So if this continues to work well I won't take her back to the dr.

My son had reflux and it takes a couple of days on the zantac for it to help. None of my other kids had it either, but he will outgrow it. If the zantac doesn't work, they can also prescribe prilosec or adjust the zantac dosage. Hang in there.

Thank you all for your advice. You guys are great!

My little girl had the same thing. We also used Nutramigen which really worked good. She still sit up a little but it was a lot better then before. Our Dr. also had use give her prevacid 15mg once a day. At first it was hard because we would have to put it in a syringe and add water and give it to her. She caught on well and takes it great. That was at 2 months. She's now 7 months and we give her the meds sometimes. She's doing really well. We also switched her formula to Similac Alimentum which is kinda like the Nutramigen and it worked better. Just in the last month we switched to Enfamil Gentlease and that also worked better. I think they grow out of it in time. It's hard to deal with considering they are in pain. I hoe he get's better soon.

Hi, if you send me a pm with your e-mail, I have a couple of files I can send you on reflux and colic.

all three of my kids had acid reflux..they were on zantac and nutramigen as well. they used to sell something called the Happy Tummy...its like a belly wrap that you warm up and wrap around your babys tummy it has herbs in it to calm the baby...i swore by it it was wonderful for my son. I also had him sleep in his carseat not a bassinet or crip. the incline that he had in the carseat was better than i was able to get elsewhere. if all else fails ask the Dr. to prescribe Reglan. it is very strong for colic and works wonders!! best of luck to you

Sorry to hear about your time. I have not had time to read through the responses so I am sure I am repeating myself. My 14 month old had terrible reflux and I can tell you it does get better! I remember a time when he would not eat, screamed all the time, and puked non-stop! I breastfed him (well, bottle fed after pumping because he refused to breastfeed) so I went on an elimination diet. That helped. Also, I found that zantac only worked for a short time. I switched to a high dose of prevacid. Please read the book: Colic Solved: A Guide to INfant Reflux and check out these two websites - infantreflux.org - excellent support and MARCIKIDS. A University that is devoted to infant acid reflux with lots of info about amount of meds needed. If your baby is uncomfortable you need to push, push, push because I found not much gets done until that happens. Good luck and feel free to message me if you have questions.

My 3 1/2 month old daughter was diagnosed with reflux at 5 weeks old. She constantly spit up and always seemed uncomfortable. Her doctor said to give rice cereal in a bottle of breastmilk twice a day; this did nothing at all. She was then put on Zantac; this just made her spit up even more (and it tasted awful...yes, I tasted it, I want to know what my baby is getting!!). I did everything.....sitting upright 30 mins after meals, putting the bassinett mattress at an incline, burping immediately after eating, avoiding gassy foods (I breastfeed), cereal, meds, belly massages, formula designed for colicky babies (used this maybe 3 times....only result was one unhappy constipated baby).....absolutely nothing worked. Now that her digestive system is maturing, she spits up a lot less....we still hear the little gurgles in her belly and she's still gassy but she's much happier. I honestly think doctors slap a name on something that's a natural occurrance and will end up resolving itself in time. I know it's frustrating right now but it really does get better. My daughter has good days and bad days, but I'm finding that the good days are outnumbering the bad ones.

Also, I put Emily in her swing for naps....there were a few would-be sleepless nights where she slept peacefully there as well. I guess it has just the right amount of incline that she was comfortable and virtually NO spit up at all. I swear that thing was a lifesaver :)

Also, I found that she didn't spit up at all when I'd BF in bed....I know you FF but just the act of feeding in a dark, calm, quiet environment was the key. She'd get her fill, then fall right to sleep....I didn't even need to burp her. This would probably only work for overnight feedings but it may just be enough to get you some much needed sleep :)