Reflux Woes

Paediatric sleep consultant, Erica Hargaden offers her advice on what to do if your baby is diagnosed with reflux.

Q/ My son (8 weeks old) has been diagnosed with reflux, which we are not medicating under the guidance of our GP. We are finding it very difficult to settle him to sleep as he can still be uncomfortable when he lies down. What would you recommend to make this easier for us?

A/ Congratulations on your new baby however reflux can be so tough to deal with. It can make a baby difficult to feed and it certainly can have an impact on sleep. I have a few top tips when it comes to handling reflux in infants that I have recommend to my clients
and have also used with two of my children who were reflux babies.

The first tip is to structure your feeding, rather than demand feeding. This will give your little ones tiny tummy a break between feeds and should help with things settling into a pattern.

Following on from that, once the feed is complete keep your baby upright for a period of time after a feed – this could need to be up to 30 minutes. A bouncer chair can be useful in cases like this, as it will keep your baby in a more upright position if you arebusy with other children.

Coupled with this point practice a feed, play, sleep cycle so that your feeds are not too close to a sleep and the contents of their tummy will have had time to settle before they are settled to sleep.

I advise that you prop up the legs of their cot or Moses basket at the head with two thick books at the head to create a tilt on their sleep space. This will help to keep the contents of their tummy in their tummy and not sneak back up their oesophagus.

For more information on Erica Hargaden click here or email Erica@babogue.ie