https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Tue, 28 Apr 2026 21:37:05 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/reflux-and-sleep#post-2873358 Thu, 21 Feb 2019 15:46:34 +0000 bhbee 2873358@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@periwinklebee: good to know! I’m in the “will try anything” stage of this :silly: </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/reflux-and-sleep#post-2873350 Thu, 21 Feb 2019 14:23:34 +0000 periwinklebee 2873350@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@bhbee: I don't know on the co-sleeping, I guess it could be a number of things. But maybe if they're feeling uncomfortable from reflux, a comforting presence helps. Basically it worked great for LO until he was mobile enough to attempt to climb over me to get to the other boob. Then I'd had enough :silly: He never took &gt; 4 oz bottles at once, but would take a lot of them. Tanking up before bed didn't actually work for us, because then he'd just pee a lot and I think the soaked diaper actually made him more likely to wake up.... but i know it works for some people. He's always been a heavy night wetter. </p> <p>When we've tried elevating the crib mattress, lo managed to just turn himself around and end up with the head down rather than up. but again i know it helps some people... </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/reflux-and-sleep#post-2873344 Thu, 21 Feb 2019 13:44:59 +0000 bhbee 2873344@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@jape14: we have drowsy but awake down (&lt;10m fuss and sometimes none) except after bedtime, then she can be so miserable at night. I know there was advice on another thread to do a big tank up bottle, I hate pumping but maybe we should try that because I really have no idea what she’s getting when. We’re gettibg 2 or usually 3 wake ups in that period and I agree it’s too much. I thought she would consolidate with age and it’s not happening... if she could sleep 10-6 it would be amaaaaaazing. Maybe I should try pumping more and do a bottle at bedtime and if she wakes up at 10-11 and see if that helps any, if I know she’s getting a good feed then. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/reflux-and-sleep#post-2873333 Thu, 21 Feb 2019 13:00:00 +0000 jape14 2873333@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I had two reflux babies who presented really differently and also were different sleepers. In general, I think medication can help sleep because it can help them eat better/more efficiently during the day (especially if you are seeing feeding refusal/fussiness, which I did with both of my kids to varying degrees), thus needing fewer overnight feeds. However, reflux won't help bad habits of nursing to sleep or other sleep associations. </p> <p>DS had silent reflux and his main symptom was refusing feedings/being miserable during eating. Prilosec helped immensely and we sleep trained him right at 4mo. He quickly dropped to one MOTN feeding which he kept until ~8 mo. DD was an epic, epic puker - I had to change my clothes (including underwear!) multiple times a day, fed on a towel, etc - and she was a good sleeper from the start. She ended up medicated for reflux bc she started refusing feedings, not bc of her spit up. Even at the height of her spit up, she stayed on her curve (70th-80th percentile for weight/90th or so for height). We didn't have to do as much sleep training with her bc we put her down drowsy but awake basically from the start. She also kept one MOTN feeding until about 7/8 months.</p> <p>so I would say at 6.5 months, if she isn't refusing feeds during the day and feeding reasonably well (ignoring spit up bc it always looks like more than it is - she is still probably getting a ton, especially if she is a fast/efficient eater), I wouldn't medicate. I would focus on getting in good feedings during the day as much as you can and having a consistent Ferber approach. I personally am fine with a single overnight feed for a while, but I think more than one feeding between 7p and like 5/6a is really not necessary at that age (or in my experience with a sample size of 2 reflux babies - including one bottle refuser). </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/reflux-and-sleep#post-2873318 Thu, 21 Feb 2019 12:20:36 +0000 bhbee 2873318@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@periwinklebee: I was just reading that reflux babies often struggle to feed as much in any one feeding and tend to feed more often and therefore need to night wean later ... it generally lines up with my experience. When younger she was noticeably fussy after each feed. Also I could never get her to nurse completely laying down was unfortunate since it makes night so easy. I feel like we may have missed the boat to make life easier because we were too busy/tired to put it together ... </p> <p>At night I can get her to do only one side and it doesn’t seem that long but I’m not really paying attention. So I’m not really sure. She is 90+ all percentiles and spits up a ton so I often wonder how many ounces she must really take!!</p> <p>Her age is the funny thing ... she’s already 6.5m and pedi thought it might not be worth treating at this point anyway but given it also may be affecting her rolling/crawling work I wonder. </p> <p>It’s interesting co sleep has been our main end point at night too ... the only way to get longer chunks. Same during the day, I can get a super long chunk on the rare occasions I can lie down also. Do you think it’s just the mommy anesthetic effect?</p> <p>Oh one more question ... did you try elevating the mattress and did it help any? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/reflux-and-sleep#post-2873313 Thu, 21 Feb 2019 12:10:43 +0000 bhbee 2873313@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Ajsmommy: oh that’s interesting is congestion a symptom? Because when I nurse after her laying down I can always hear it. I blamed older sibling germs but this makes more sense since it never goes away! (Probably some of both)</p> <p>She actually just had her 6m visit and I have discussed with my pedi several times but we haven’t treated it ... now that I think sleep may be involved I may change my mind!! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/reflux-and-sleep#post-2873299 Thu, 21 Feb 2019 10:32:42 +0000 periwinklebee 2873299@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>This was one of my son's reflux symptoms, though it was more extreme. He wouldn't sleep for more than 10-15 minutes at a time, and wouldn't sleep in a crib or bassinet at all. We had to co sleep as there was no other alternative. When we got him on rantidine, he slept much better. But he still nursed a lot at night and didn't sleep through the night until almost a year. No idea if that was in any way related. </p> <p>His reflux was initially silent but later he started spitting up a lot. I want to say that 7 months was a turning point, and the spitting up had pretty much ended by 9 months. We stopped the reflux meds around 6.5 months and didn't notice a difference in sleep at that point. </p> <p>Are you sure it's just comfort nursing? I didn't think LO could be taking much overnight because he was drinking a lot during the daytime, and then when I went away for the first time I realized he was taking around 14 ounces between 12 and 5 am. Do you have a pump? Could you have your husband bottle feed for one night to assess how much she's taking? I found what LO took by bottle lined up very closely with what I pumped. If it's a lot, I would start by gradually cutting that back by limiting time on the boob. It will make sleep training less painful. But if you're sure she's not eating much, then I agree it makes sense to look into other causes... </p> <p>I hope you get more sleep soon :heart: </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/reflux-and-sleep#post-2873295 Thu, 21 Feb 2019 10:22:35 +0000 Ajsmommy 2873295@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>It took me months to realize DS had silent reflux and the final sign I read or heard was that he would seem congested (stuffy nose) as the night went on but not be stuffy at all during the day.</p> <p>The signs for me were: constant moving while sleeping, never seemed comfortable, would make lots of grunting and angry noises while sleeping, would wake up screaming, short cat naps, no long stretches of sleep, up every 2-3 hours... he didn't spit up often but when he did it was explosive. </p> <p>Since he didn't spit up much we didn't think it was reflux until I started putting more of the pieces together and the congestion thing really made me realize. As soon as I took him in and told the ped all of it together they prescribed him meds and we did see a difference pretty quickly. Still not the greatest sleeper but we were able to get longer stretches at night!! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/reflux-and-sleep#post-2873287 Thu, 21 Feb 2019 09:45:04 +0000 bhbee 2873287@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My exhausted brain is just realizing there is a connection here ... curious what this looked like for you?</p> <p>We’ve wondered for a while if my youngest has a reflux issue. It’s not major I think ... we’ve never treated it because she doesn’t seem miserable and is a chunk. But she spits up a ton still at 6m (and is an excellent sitter which was supposed to help but didn’t - she’s been sitting up 1.5 months now), hates being on her tummy (and has never rolled probably related to that), and I just realized her crappy sleep could be connected. It’s not a horrible extreme but we’ve never gotten close to STTN - she wakes every 3-4hr and wants to comfort nurse or sometimes is just really sad. </p> <p>We’ve been fairly successful with daytime sleep training (and initial bedtime) but at night she is just screeching and sad and we haven’t followed through yet. I’m so exhausted at this point and trying to think through whether we tough out some really awful CIO (I know it can work, we did it for my last one) or whether something else may help if there is reflux. Or who knows could be teething or a phase or anything really. So just looking for patterns others may have seen. </p>