Wake to feed to reduce acid reflux? Is my pediatrician correct?

[kruise]

My EFF baby is 5 weeks old and has severe spit up/acid reflux, but is still gaining weight. She’s been eating about 4 oz every 4 hours during the day, and stretching that out at night to sleep around 6-7 hours straight before waking to feed.

When I brought up the issue to my ped, she wants us to wake her every 2 hours to feed during the day and only feed her 2 oz at a time. This is after our last appointment where she told us to ONLY feed on demand. She is already on gerber soothe probiotic, which hasn’t improved anything. I approached the subject of swapping formulas (currently on Similac 360) and the ped was pretty strongly against changing, particularly to a generic formula. She said generics often make them more fussy, but I’ve yet to see anyone IRL confirm this.

Has anyone had success with the wake to feed method? I’m pretty bummed about it because I have no idea when she is going to actually nap if she has to eat this often. Please tell me something worked for you if you’ve experienced this!

 

[kerryhodgkinson]

@kruise What worked for us was Pepcid and switching to alimentum formula. That’s BS about generic formulas they’re literally made in some of the same factories. My first was the happiest chillest baby on generic formula.

 

[paterfamilia]

@kruise Feeding less more often + not letting belly get empty did actually help us. Feeding less oz but more often feedings helped reduce the chance of it all coming back up, & avoid an empty stomach purpose was to not have her get hungry enough to wanna gulp her bottles too fast which would also cause spit up. My girls reflux was super intense. We also were prescribed pepcid to help the pain + heal but that doesn’t stop spit up. Probiotics did not do a single thing for us either lol. Thickening worked best for overnight feedings, our pedi said to let her sleep during the night & let her wake us but during the day do the less oz but more often/ not too hungry. She never napped for more than 2 hours after 2/3 weeks old so it didn’t really affect much & she got most of her calories in the day so she slept thru the night mostly.

As for formula, generic literally is the same maybe missing 1-2 HMOs. The ingredients are nearly identical so idk what she was talking about lol.

 

[kruise]

@paterfamilia This is super helpful, thank you!! Makes sense about not letting her get too hungry! Might be a dumb question, but what do you mean by thickening for overnight feedings?

 

[paterfamilia]

@kruise Of course!! & no not dumb I had no idea until our pediatrician told me about it, but thickening is to make the formula thicker so it’s heavier in their belly, & moves slower for a more relaxed digestion. A huge problem w reflux is that babies are on an all liquid diet which makes everything worst. Baby oatmeal (like gerber) & gelmix (made for both formula & breastmilk) are probably the most popular thickeners. There is a couple formulas made that way too. I think walmarts generic has one also but w rice specifically for reflux.. my baby had constipation issues so I personally avoided rice for that reason only. I just did the oatmeal I didn’t know about gelmix at the time