Hello Loves!
You may or may not know that our little Skye dealt with quite a lot during her first month of life. From lip and tongue tie revision (click here to read post), latching issues, to acid reflux. Her poor little body has felt it all.
But let’s go back to the start. Since Skye was a week old she’d been having issues holding her feeds down. Literally her feed would only last three, maybe five minutes before coming back up. The worst thing was that you could tell she was in a lot of pain with this. Even when I was feeding her she would arch her back, wriggle, and cry.
After researching the symptoms of lip and tongue tie it seemed that reflux was on most lists and with her lip and tongue being evidently… tied, I chalked it up to that. It wasn’t until a week after the revision and Skye’s poor little stomach was still bringing up most of her feeds that we took her to the doctors.
Acid Reflux Symptoms
- Spit ups
- Vomiting
- Refusing breast/bottle
- Arching back
- Wet burps
- Hiccups
- Irritated during feeds
- Gagging
- Grunting
- Not sleeping well
Reflux it was, but because she was still gaining weight perfectly, so for our doctor it wasn’t the biggest concern. However she could see in us that this was an issue, so she prescribed her, omeprazole. Being a compound medicine it would take a few days for it to be ready. With me not really not wanting to give Skye medications this early on in her life, it gave me a few days to figure things out and help Skye in a homeopathic way.
After spending a few days researching online and chatting with my naturopath, we found some natural ways to cure infant acid reflux. These wouldn’t be detrimental to Skye in any way so we thought we would give them a try. Off to our local natural store to pick up some goods.
Nat Phos 6X
First thing we tried was Hyland’s Nat Phos 6X, a tissue salt and homeopathic antacid that helps neutralize stomach acids. We gave Skye half a tablet dissolved in some breast milk and fed it in small drips after every feed for about a week. The first day of using this was incredible, she was her happy self. We carried these on for about a week and slowly weaned her off by cutting down her dosage.
Chiroprator
I heard a lot about babies and chiro and the incredible things it does to help realign their little bodies after the intensity of birth. Like helping with colic pain, constipation, breastfeeding, ear infections and of course reflux. I gotta admit our first chiro appointment I was so nervous, I had a vision of them cracking her little bones, but that’s not what happened at all. Our wonderful chiropractor Dr. Keira Collins of Tiger Lily Chiropractic was incredible, she communicated with us the whole way through explaining the points she was pressing (that’s it just pressing) and what they do. The whole appointment lasted about 15 minutes. Right off the bat our first appointment, Skye was a different baby. Before chiro most of her days were spent crying, at times she was inconsolable. Chiro put her straight to sleep, then she pooped haha. I have never been so proud. For the next four weeks we took Skye to chiro, she loves her Dr. Keira and so do we.
Osteopath
What’s the difference between a chiropractor and an osteopath? I had that same question. A chiropractor mainly focuses on the spine and joints whilst an osteopath focuses on the rest of the body including the cranial. Anyway our Osteopath Victoria Duncan from Well Now Health in Barrie did an incredible job with Skye. She explained that Skye’s diaphragm was high, probably from all her puking and that her feeding problems were probably coming from the fact that her neck was jarred (this could have been from her entrance into this world). She was able to do some light massaging and pressure points to alleviate the tension in her little body. This was the icing on the cake we needed. We could see a definite change in Skye’s mood and behaviour. Yes she was still throwing up a bit, but it not longer made her upset when it did happen. She was a lot less fussy. She was… happy.
Diet
This is probably the hardest paragraph for me to write, cutting out dairy. If you don’t know I’ve been a vegetarian for the past 4 years, minus my whole pregnancy… that was a weird craving time, but the only thing keeping me from becoming a vegan is DAIRY! Although I don’t drink milk, I am an absolute freak for cheese. I eat cheese for literally every single meal, so for me to cut that out was a huge thing. But it was needed. I actually ended up experimenting with cutting cheese out after a lady at our local Walmart checkout told me to haha. After about 72 hours we saw a huge difference, her puking had completely stopped. Sure there was the odd spit up and dribble here and there, but that’s perfectly normal. Now I have tested this theory over after I totally slipped up and ate a slice of delicious chocolate covered cake and her throwing up came back in full force. So with hanging head, I’m sad to say dairy is a no no for us.
This wasn’t an easy journey for us, it took time and patience. Please note that we tried all of these options after speaking to our midwife and doctor. Always communicate with your healthcare provider before trying anything.
xoxo Fil
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