10 week old still waking every 3 hours at night to eat

[Fiver]

Reflux can sometimes manifest more at night time, so it may be that there's some discomfort from that later in the night.

[*Ali*]

It could be reflux pain maybe. He might be becoming aware of the discomfort as he comes into lighter sleep at the end of each sleep cycle and therefore is never getting back into a deep sleep. At the beginning of the night his drive to sleep will be stronger so he may get into a deep sleep and be ok for several hours but then once he has that 1am waking and feed it starts bothering him.
If the DF from the breast or a bottle? Are you engorged at the 1am feeding? Do you have an overactive letdown that could be causing himto gulp lots of air?

[carolina_bug]

DF is from a bottle.  I'm not engorged, and i do have a strong letdown, which I let into a cloth, then relatch him so he doesn't gag.

His reflux was getting better.  Why is it all of the sudden getting worse?  If that's the case, I think I may lose my mind.  The only thing getting me through these past couple of months was thinking that with each day, we were close to the end of this misery. 

I'm exhausted, miserable and depressed all of the time, and I still have a 2 year old that needs me to.  I don't feel that I'm being a great mom to either of them right now.

He's not on meds because he was doing great until a week ago.  He's fine when he's awake, just the sleeping is an issue, and his bed is elevated at a 30 degree angle.

[~inbalance~]

Just adding some hugs.  I was in the same position after DS2 was born and it was exhausting.  Hope you get it figured out soon.  We just had a terrible week but things are improving agan.  If there is one thing I learned is never to count on things to stay the same!  They may be good, but then they can go bad.  But they always become good again, at some point. 

[ZacsMumme]

Hugs Hun,
Honestly, the nature of reflux is that it can come in peaks and troughs. A range of changes as LO grows can cause flaure ups etc such as a GS, teething, changes in milk/solids intake, trying to crawl and weight gain - which can mean a med review is required as some are very weight sensitive (ie need to be increased with every 500gms-1kg)

For us, but not all refluxers, it peaked at 4 months.untill then we had 6 out of 7 days rubbish. The good days DO start to outweigh the bad, but it takes time.....months

I really think for him, and YOU too that you should see your ped/dr to discuss meds for him, and also to discuss how you are feeling. Reflux is hard, so hard, and can make you feel very anxious, lonely and sad. I really struggled, but felt a lot better once I was feeling more stable too (thanks to my smart dr who pressed me to take edinborough test) worst case you can stop after 2 weeks med trial if you don't feel comfortable, or that the meds are working.

I really think that you will see some improvement on the sleep with this....it looks like discomfort as PP have said, and given you have tried so much already to ease that, I think you may need meds to see progress there

[TeresaB]

hi new to this forum site and read ur posts as this describes me and my son (child number 2- also have 2.5 yo) exactly except we are @ wk 12 and starting to feeling pretty low and desperate. just wondering what worked for u in the end if u can remember? must seem like long time ago now!

[ZacsMumme]

Hi Theresa, hopefully Carolina_bug will pop back but feel free to start a new thread if you like in CRC or one of the sleep or feeding boards x

[carolina_bug]

Hi TeresaB.  I don't know if you're still checking your posts.  I dropped off for a while as life has been crazy, but I'm here to say that it is better.

What ended up working was the medication, and he eventually just grew out of it.  It just stopped.  My husband wanted to try the "natural" way, but I will be honest and say that medication saved my sanity.  It does take a little while for it to build up and start working, and they may have to try a couple of different ones, but it worked for my DS.

Hugs and hopes that it works for yours too.

[francescasb]

My 9wo has just started waking up more regularly overnight (usually every hour from about 3am) as well. I was considering giving him water from a bottle in between his feeds, because the last 4 nights I've ended up nursing him at 3/4/5/6/7am, so that he goes back to sleep quickly and doesn't wake up everyone else in the house!

Would that work, or is it more likely to be a recurrence of his silent reflux at this age? After I feed him, I try and get a burp, but usually nothing comes out, then I put him back to bed and he grunts and wriggles around for a few mins before he goes back to sleep, and then he's awake again an hour later. The hourly feeds have been small ones, so I'm pretty sure he's not extra hungry, which is why I wondered whether he was waking out of habit (and so the water might work)...?

Perhaps I've got it the wrong way round. If it is the reflux, and the antacid the Dr gave us last time didn't seem to make any difference one way or another, should I ask for something else? What were your LOs taking?

Thanks

[*Ali*]

I wouldn't fill him up with water no. At this age all he needs is nutritious breast milk. BF LOs don't need any water until they start solids around 6mo and even then it is just sips to get used to drinking from a cup.

Besides, you don't want to get him in the habit of feeding/sucking to get back to sleep even if it is only water. I would settle him with shh/pat if you are happy it is just habit and he isn't hungry and he finished his feed less than an hour ago.

If it is reflux it could be that he is feeding to stop the burning sensation that is disturbing his sleep. What medication did the dr give you? Infant Gaviscon is a popular first point of call but there are many other meds to try if that doesn't help. Check out this FAQ. Approach to treating and investigating Reflux

Have you tried any non-medical interventions like propping the head of the mattress? There are some more ideas here. tips for calming my refluxing LO

[francescasb]

Yes, we already have the end of the moses basket propped up. It's usually about an hour between feeds, or slightly more, but he isn't feeding very long, so I guess it's more comfort than hunger. I was given Ranitidine. I've put a call into the pediatrician this afternoon to ask about dosage now that he's bigger, and i'll start giving that to him again. I'll also check out the links you added - thanks...

[*Ali*]

Also check hhow old the ranitidine is too since it only lasts a few weeks once the bottle is open so you may need a new one.

[ZacsMumme]

Ranitidine has a 1 mth shelf life from opening. omaprazole suspension is 10-14 days

[francescasb]

oh I didn't know that - thanks... I've been giving him the same bottle he was prescribed when he was about a month old.

The new routine overnight seems to be one long stretch in the evening (4-5 hours), then up every 2 hours either once or twice, and then much more regularly from then on. I'm trying to space the feeds out to at least every 2.5hrs, and I've had a couple of successful attempts to resettle him with the dummy/paci, but it often doesn't work, and then if he makes too much fuss he wakes up his sister in the other room (which is what happened at 5.45 this morning, so then we were all up!!).

It's so frustrating, especially as he often doesn't seem 'gassy' just fussy

[carolina_bug]

Yeah, if you are giving the Ranitidine as directed, you shouldn't have any left past the month expiry date.  It also takes about a month for it to build up and you will start seeing results.  That's what happened for my DS.  We had to call them a week before it expired so they could get the ingredients to mix it and have it ready. 

I forgot to mention that another huge thing that helped my DS was sleeping on his stomach.  I KNOW, that's supposed to be a huge no-no but there are other factors that combined with sleeping on the stomach can result in SIDS.  I was still nervous, so I ordered a small device that you pin on the back of the inside of the diaper and it picks up the smallest motion.  If the motion (breathing) stops, it beeps very loudly.  This gave  me peace of mind and the pressure on his stomach helped him to rest better.

I'm not saying that is what you should do, everyone should do what they think is the right thing to do, but for us, it helped immensely.