Question via Email

[Vickie]

Hi All,

We got a question via email from a mom with a refluxing baby.

Any advice would be great!

Thanks,
Vickie

Can you tell me if you have heard of acid reflux causing stomach cramping or if you have any ideas of what could be causing stomach cramps in a 10 week old-he's been cramping since he was two weeks old and it's not from gas. He's on Prilosec and Enfamil Nutramigen which isn't helping. We tried Zantac and that also did not help. My pediatrician says that colicy babies act like there in pain and he probably just has colic. I can truly see he is in pain (and can never sleep because of it) and don't believe it's just colic.


Thank you,



Becky S

[cary]

Hi,

Sorry to hear about your baby. There's nothing more distressing for a parent than not being able to comfort your baby and understand what the crying is about.

When you say that your baby is cramping, what do you mean specifically? Gassy, uncomfortable, gassy, tense?

Acid reflux causes milk to push back up into the esophagus and along with it some stomach acid. The acid causes pain in the esophagus because it's a fairly flimsy tube of muscle with no lining to protect the inside layer from being "burned with stomach acid". In severe cases you can have erosions forming in the esophagus from repeated damage.

I found that Prilosec did not help my daughter and instead it made her constipated! So we stopped it. My daughter was also colicky and it "unfortunately" took 6 months for her to be relatively happy and to sleep etc. It was truly the worst 6 months of my life, I cried as much as she did and all we could do was try to soothe her as much as possible.

Walking her around with a Snugli helped in the day and at night, my husband and I would take turns having her sleep on our chests and pat her back all night.

Some people on this website have had a lot of luck with chiropracter's. Try everything you can think of and hopefully something will work to help comfort your baby and give you a well deserved rest.

Hang in there and take care,
Cary

[julianna's mom]

Hi
This cramping is sending red flags up to me. You should consider asking for an x-ray or ultrasound. There could really be something wrong. I am not a true believer in colic. I think it is a catch all diagnosis and often prevents real illnesses from being diagnosed. I hope you have found an answer by now. OH-
IS baby stooling normally? How much is he eating? Maybe you should go to a pediatric gastroenterologist. Don't give up.

Sandy