getting a reflux baby to take a bottle please help

[mom2ariana]

ariana hasnt eaten since 4 or 5 this morning...she won't take a bottle. she suffers from reflux and everytime i try to feed her (because she cries like she's hungry) she plays with the nipple, gags, fusses, and spits out the formula she ***** in. she's not swallowing anything that i know of. what do i do? i gave her some mylanta and it didn't help. i know she's hungry but she wont eat.

[LosingMyMindInGA]

Have you tried switching to Enfamil AR?  It has the rice starch added in.  It's a lot easier than adding cereal to other formulas and it's specifically designed to help with reflux.  I used it with my last and it worked just as well as the adding cereal thing.  

Another thing.  When you say they did an XRAY...was it just a standard xray?  You may want to inquire about them doing an upper GI.  In case you don' t know what that is...they give the baby a substance called barium to drink (not harmful) and they use an xray type machine to watch the barium as it goes through the digestive system to see if there is any obstructions or other things.  My oldest had one at about 4-5 weeks old.  Turns out the flap that closes the end of the esophogus wasn't fully formed yet...additionally the sphincter muscle between her stomach and intestine was spasming making it hard for her to keep food down.  They were able to give her meds to help relax the spasms and help with stomach acid.  Just an idea!

[Melka76]

My DD had reflux along with colic - we used the nutramagin (sp) and tried everything but there were times she was just not in the mood.... if she is not crying and she is well hydrated maybe the ceral did fill her belly up  a little and just needs some time to digest... I hope she starts back on the track you were on it seems to work well for you.... if you are having this heat like I am in PA (106 degrees at the high school down the street yesterday) - I noticed that Olivia was slowing down a bit on the eating front as well... Granted we were making it three hours instead of 2 - but it was noticeable to me.. ( an extra hour of sleep!!!)

[elisha123]

in the end your have to do what you feel is right for her because i know every reflux baby can be differnt and you will know what she needs. but maybe cutting back might be it, she will be fussy tho after the maybe 1-2 like you said thats why it might be better to feed her a half of what you feed at 4 hours every 2 hours an see if that will help. cerreal can be really hard on such a tiny tummy. hope some of this helps

[mom2ariana]

i think she might have been backed up like you said BTS1022..cause she had a big dirty diaper this morning around 9 and then again had a huge one around 8 tonight. she normally doesn't poop that much in one day.

[mom2ariana]

yeah we did try soy formula and she was so much worse on it..not going back to that at all.
and thank you elisha123 for the suggestion on cutting back; ive heard that from a few people like my mom and the doctor we saw today saying she was full and to cut back but thats hard for me to do because she was doing so great on it. she was pooping better and all that too.
she seems to be all right right now though. she had a bottle a few hours ago and took it all (finally) after 15 hours of not eating. it was just normal formula though with no cereal and of course she was fussy an hour and half later.
im just not sure what to do. im torn between cutting back on the cereal and her not doing as well as she was doing on it or keeping with doing the same thing we've been doing.
perhaps if she has another episode like this i will cut back? she just was doing so much better than she has in a longggg time.
i know its normal to want to eat constantly and that is why at first we suspected growth spurt...but it went on about a month before we put her on the reflux meds..that was her main symptom..wanting to eat CONSTANTLY. shes never been that fussy unless she's hungry (or was wanting something to soothe her throat)

[BTS1022]

Soy milk can and usually does cause reflux to be more severe, when normal people have heart burn they tell you to drink some milk to soothe it. I believe they have already tried soy milk which did in fact exacerbate the reflux, so I wouldn't make any changes there.