Acid Reflux- sweet potato

Hi,
My daughter is 5 months old and has reflux and a milk protein allergy.  After seeing a GI specialist 10 days ago, we switched her to Alimentum and she has been on prilosec for the same period of time.  Initially, she seemed to be better--- eating more and more importantly she seemed more comfortable.  Now, she is back to arching her back while eating, having difficulty burping and general fussiness around food.  The gassiness is interfering with her sleep as well.
We have added a few new things-
1. she started teething
2. we added sweet potato to her oatmeal.  We started on Saturday-- with the blessing of the specialist.  She initially loved it and gobbled it up. Yesterday she would not take any bottles for the rest of the day after the solids and today (thursday) she ate some and then cried.
3. she started rolling over so we stopped swaddling her at night.

We have tried Zantac, soy formula, rice formula-- none of these have worked. She sleeps on an incline, I hold her upright for 30 minutes after a feeding, we burp her after every ounce.

What is causing this flare up and what else can I do to make her feel better?

[houseofgirls]

None of my babies ever had this, so I'm not sure if this is true or not.  But I have heard that the meds they give for the reflux is based on babies weight.  Has she gained weight lately?  Maybe it is time to increase her dose.  Thats the only thing I can come up with off the top of my head.  I do know there is a GERD forum here on medhelp.  Maybe try posting there, I'm sure they can help you even more.  

I hope she feels better soon!

[houseofgirls]

Oh, I see she is 5 months old...maybe she isn't quite ready for the solids.  Those can be hard to digest, which may make the reflux worse.  Maybe try backing off on those a bit too.

[melis76]

I should have added- no her weight has not changed significantly in the past 10 days and the doctor suggested we move ahead with the solids since liquid is so problematic.

[amy0013]

Reflux babies tend to have a more difficult time with solids so maybe you could hold out a few more weeks until you get the formula and medicine figured out.  You don't want to introduce too many factors at the same time or it will be impossible to tell which one caused problems.

My next question...what form of prilosec is she on?  If it's a liquid compound I can almost guaruntee that it isn't being made correctly (it's nearly impossible) and compounds lose their effectiveness in as early as a week (even if you have a month long prescription).  :(  We had my daughter on reflux meds for 4 months and couldn't figure out WHY she was still so unhappy until we realized she was on the wrong dose AND the wrong form of the medicine.  Prevacid solutabs are a great choice (just have to be given 30 minutes before a meal) as well as zegerid (timing of meals doesn't matter).  I highly recommend you post this on a forum that saved my life under the "introduce yourself" section...you will get TONS of great advice from lots of moms who have been through it all.  www. infantreflux . org/forum (no spaces) www. marci-kids. com (no spaces) is a GREAT website to learn about different forms of medication to treat reflux, as well as WHY compounds don't work, etc...It also has an awesome dosing calculator to make sure she is getting enough for her age/weight.  

Oh, also it can take up to two full weeks for the offending milk proteins to leave her body and the alimentum to take full effect.  If she doesn't tolerate Alimentum, there are other options like neocate and elecare too.  

OK, whew...I hope some of that helps.  Feel free to send me a message, but I highly recommend checking out those websites.  It changed my life and the happiness of my daughter!  :)

(Who, by the way, is a very healthy and happy 3 year old who outgrew her reflux and intolerances at 13 months)  :)

[Kash12]

Hi...my son had horrible reflux until we started adding rice cereal to his formula/breast milk. He still spits up but its not bad reflux as before where he used to vomit out all the milk he had. My daughter has lot of gas issues and recently we started her on mashed fruits / veggies. She doesn't like a lot of stuff but she loved her sweet potato. She too gobbled it up but has lot of gas in the night. My mom told me that potato/sweet potatoes do give babies a lot of gas.

For the teething.. I have tested and tried Calc Phos(homeopathic medicine). Its available here under the name of Hylands.

http : // www . hylands . com / products / teething . php (remove spaces)

It doesn't take away the teething issues  completely but does help a LOT.

Hope this helps.