5 Tips for Reducing Newborn Reflux

Dealing with gases is a natural thing when you have a newborn. They have no control over passing gas or letting out burps. This isn’t a problem unless it causes extreme discomfort to your child. Unfortunately, many newborns do find some gases uncomfortable and excessive gases or reflux can create crying spells that last for hours.

The wonderful news is you can try a few things to help reduce newborn reflux. While none of these tips are 100% accurate at fully getting rid of newborn reflux, they can certainly help relieve some of the discomfort that makes your infant so upset.

Signs That Your Child May Have Reflux

Before treating newborn reflux, you’ll want to make sure that’s really the issue. Here are a few things to look for in order to confirm that this is truly the issue at hand:

• Your child cries excessively for no apparent reason.
• They do not eat well during meals.
• Your child has difficulty sleeping and tosses/turns a lot while sleeping.
• Spits up or vomits more often than usual.
• Your child may also be more irritable than usual.

Relieving Newborn Reflux

As mentioned a little earlier, we’re going to present you with tips to help relieve the symptoms of newborn reflux. Keep in mind that there is no sure-fire way to fully rid your baby of gases and reflux, but alleviating the discomfort is very possible.

Feedings - Giving your baby more frequent feedings in smaller quantities is a simple way that you can reduce newborn reflux. Large meals are more prone to causing reflux, so it’s better to keep it small and more regular.

Post-Meal Sitting – Doctors recommend having your child sit upright for 20 to 30 minutes after every meal. Avoid laying them down or rocking your child right after feeding – this could increase the chances of reflux.

Nipple Sizes – The nipple size on the bottle you use to feed your child can play a huge role in newborn reflux. A nipple size that is too large or too small may cause your child to swallow air while feeding. This can lead to more reflux in your child.

Thickener – If your child has a lot of reflux, you could try thickening the breast milk or formula. A simple way to thicken the breast milk or formula is to add infant rice cereal. Just add a tiny amount and see how your child takes it. You can eventually add more as your child becomes more receptive to it.

Burping – It’s important to burp your child regularly in order to prevent air build-ups in your child’s stomach. You should interrupt feedings in order to burp your child. Do not wait until they are completely done feeding before burping them.

Hopefully these tips will allow you to reduce the amount of reflux that your child has and will in turn, relieve some of the discomfort associated with newborn reflux. A great product worth looking into is the Babocush, which helps reduce the symptoms of newborn reflux.