How to Help your Baby with Acid Reflux
Reflux happens in babies, more or less often, it is a natural mechanism that usually, ends up with growth. But infant reflux is also related to several small expedients parents can have when feeding his baby.
Here are some tips, grouped by theme:
General feeding tips
- Feed your baby in a calm environment
Feeding time should be a relaxed time, so that everything can go for its best. Feed your baby before he or she becomes frantic. Yourself try to be peaceful during feeding.
- Vertical feeding position
The vertical position facilitates the digestive process and gravity helps foods going down into the tummy. So, the upright position, either for you breastfeeding and for your baby if bottlefeeding is the best . Try to let him keeping a standing position for the following 15 - 30 minutes, not laying him down and neither letting him moving too much. Consequently, it is better to avoid feeding right before bedtime.
- Avoid to jostle or jiggle your baby while the food is settling. Formula fed babies may require longer periods since formula is digested slower than breastmilk.
- Try smaller and more frequent feedings. When and how much a baby is fed can also be important: smaller meals, taken more frequently through out the day are easier to be digested than larger meals.
- Let him to burp often. Frequent burps during and after each feeding helps keeping air out of the stomach. To not put pressure on your baby tummy, avoid burping your baby over your shoulder but let him sit upright, supporting the head with your hand.
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Breastfeeding tips
There are some foods that can pass through your milk, making reflux worse. If you are breastfeeding, you may try to eliminate these foods from your diet and, later on, challenging your diet to see which food is the offender. Dairy products, caffeine, fatty foods, spicy foods, citrus fruits are the most common ones.
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Bottle feeding tips
Breastfeeding is definitely best for a baby: it is more hypoallergenic and easier to digest. If breastfeeding is not chosen or not possible by the mother, formula changes can help some babies, eventually avoiding those that are milk based, that can make reflux worse. Discuss alternatives with your pediatrician.
Before feeding, check the nipple, in order to make sure that the hole is free and of the right size. A larger hole will allow the milk flowing too fast, while a smaller-one will allow your baby gulping air. You can check the nipple right size holding the bottle upside down: just few drops of milk will fall out.
In accordance with your pediatrician, you can try to thicken the formula, adding a small amount of rice cereal. Thickening formula allows to add weight in the food, keeping it down and avoiding from splashing around in the baby's belly. In this case, you may need to enlarge the hole in the nipple to make sure your baby can drink the thickened formula.
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Other tips
- Adjust your baby sleeping position, raising the head of the crib so that his head is elevated of around 30°. Lying flat may aggravate reflux.
A sustained position, also during sleep, is important against the reflux because it helps reducing both reflux episodes and aspiration risks.
- Choose properly your baby's car seats, because in some of them your baby could hunch and slouch over, receiving added pressure on his tummy.
- Avoid tight clothing, particularly around your baby's tummy. Tight clothes can increase pressure on the lower esophageal sphincter, worsening the reflux. Prefer, instead, loose fitting and elastic waists.
- You may let your baby sucking on a pacifier or dummy. Pacifiers can increase saliva production that, with your alkalinity, can help neutralize some acids in the reflux.
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Sources:
The Mayo Clinic
The Infant Reflux Disease
The Pediatric / Adolescent Gastroesophageal Reflux Association