Max was my first son and forage into parenthood. People had told me “new babies just eat and sleep” so that is what I was expecting. Max did NOT just eat and sleep. He alternated between nursing with the suction strength of an industrial vacuum for 45-90 minutes at a time and needing to be held in the absolute perfect position the rest of the time. If I wasn’t nursing or holding him in my arms he wailed with the shriek of a banshee, earsplitting screams that sent the dog out of the house for weeks on end.
And I don’t mean he only needed to nurse and be held during the day, it was around the clock. I slept in the recliner with him for at least the first 4 months. I called him my 8 pounds of fury. Hell hath no fury like my son Max, even now.
Here he was then, quiet but crabby:
He seemed so angry that it was hard to realize at first it was due to discomfort. As with most babies, he didn’t start showing signs of reflux until he was about 3 weeks old when he began projectile vomiting. He vomited every time I tried to put him down, burp him, put him in the carseat or the sling or the Bjorn. As the weeks went on the vomiting increased. The doctor finally put him on Zantac but it did little good. I tried the elimination diet but it didn’t make a difference. We tried starting solids early but that made absolutely no difference.
We never left the house because every time I got him ready and me ready (which is nearly impossible unless you can put a baby down) then he would barf on his clothes. I would change his clothes. Then he would barf on me. Then I would change MY clothes. Then he would barf on his clothes. I would change his clothes. Then he would barf on me. I would change my clothes. I am grateful we had a dog to clean up what hit the floor because that saved me time. Then one or both of us would be out of clothes and in tears so it wasn’t even worth it to leave. Even if I made it as far as putting him in the carseat he would shriek and barf the car trip and be so upset he may not calm down even once we had gotten to where we were going.
Finally around 4 months I took things into my own hands. Rather than experimenting with other prescriptions I began researching alternative remedies. I discarded the baby carriers that he hated anyway and held him perfectly upright and close to me all the time. I learned that the left side is the best side for reflux so we started swaddling him and putting him on his left side to sleep. I made a foam wedge to breastfeed him on. I changed the way I breastfed him by leaving him on the same side until I was absolutely certain it was empty before switching but I did let him nurse as often and as long as he wanted to.
Things got better! Then when he began sitting up on his own around 7 months things got even better!! And when he started crawling around 8 months things really got better!!! He still has the occasional reflux episode (mom, food just came up my throat), even now that he is 4 years old but once we improved his positioning his discomfort disappeared and the spit-ups minimized and once his core muscles developed and he started eating predominantly solid food his spit-ups all but disappeared.
Here he is now, reflux-free but still crabby:
So really the reflux is gone but not much else has changed.