I Love It When Parents Warn You About Issues That Aren't Really Issues

[MarinaVanessa]

So I started a new infant this week and it's going great. I can tell that the baby (6 months old) is held a lot and is used to having his needs met immediately but he's an only child so that's all fine and normal, in one week he's already beginning to transition well and I have seen improvements in his decrease in crying.

The only issue that I was worried about was when they "warned" me during our first interview that he had severe reflux after feedings. From what I was told he would "projectile vomit" the majority of his breast-milk after feedings. So it was something for me to think about but it didn't worry me too much. Baby vomit doesn't scare me.

So one thing that I did notice was that the baby is highly distractable when he's feeding from the bottle so he swallows HUGE amounts of air, I'm assuming that he does this at home as well because he's the type of baby that doesn't want to miss a thing. Since I noticed it right away on Monday I simply stopped half-way through his bottle feeding and patted him to burp him. He'd burb (big loud ones) and then I'd continue his feedings. Well so far no projectile vomit.

DCD asked me this AM how it was going and I mentioned that I hadn't seen any projectile vomiting and actually hadn't had ANY spit-up at all. He made this face ------> and couln't believe it. Apparently at home he does it everyday several times a day pretty much after every feeding. So I mention that I just take a break like you would with a tiny infant and I would burp him and continue to feed him the rest of his breast-milk and burp him again. DCD then made this face :confused:. The idea that a 6mo old infant still needed to be burped apparently had never crossed their minds .

[daycare]

So I started a new infant this week and it's going great. I can tell that the baby (6 months old) is held a lot and is used to having his needs met immediately but he's an only child so that's all fine and normal, in one week he's already beginning to transition well and I have seen improvements in his decrease in crying.

The only issue that I was worried about was when they "warned" me during our first interview that he had severe reflux after feedings. From what I was told he would "projectile vomit" the majority of his breast-milk after feedings. So it was something for me to think about but it didn't worry me too much. Baby vomit doesn't scare me.

So one thing that I did notice was that the baby is highly distractable when he's feeding from the bottle so he swallows HUGE amounts of air, I'm assuming that he does this at home as well because he's the type of baby that doesn't want to miss a thing. Since I noticed it right away on Monday I simply stopped half-way through his bottle feeding and patted him to burp him. He'd burb (big loud ones) and then I'd continue his feedings. Well so far no projectile vomit.

DCD asked me this AM how it was going and I mentioned that I hadn't seen any projectile vomiting and actually hadn't had ANY spit-up at all. He made this face ------> and couln't believe it. Apparently at home he does it everyday several times a day pretty much after every feeding. So I mention that I just take a break like you would with a tiny infant and I would burp him and continue to feed him the rest of his breast-milk and burp him again. DCD then made this face :confused:. The idea that a 6mo old infant still needed to be burped apparently had never crossed their minds .

that was a funny story...... I hope that it works for them at home too'

you are their Hero of the year I am sure........

I love it when I can break kids of habits and help them to the point that it carries on into home life too.......

[daycarediva]

I doubt he even has reflux at all!

[daycare]

I doubt he even has reflux at all!

yeah could be true....maybe they are just feeding him wrong???

I had a family tell me one time how horrible their 2 yr old diaper rash is.... Ok weeks, months go by I never see it but on mondays...

finally I have to ask why does he always come with it on mondays?? after talking, they never change his diaper until he poops or it falls off...................

what really they really thought that was ok??? funny, but not funny

[melilley]

It's kind of funny how we, as caregivers, know things or know how to do things that parents do not. I think providers should be referred to as Dr.s... There has been many times that a parent has said something like what your parent said and I knew things to try and many times it would work or I have said "have you tried---?". I am in no way saying that parents don't know what to do-many do, but some honestly don't think of or know of things to try to resolve the issue. In this profession we have seen and had experiences with all sorts of "issues" and know what to try to make the "issues" better or resolve them. KWIM? I hope this makes sense, it sounded great when I said it in my head...

[sharlan]

Out of curiosity, is this baby breastfed at home and given formula at daycare?

[cheerfuldom]

yeah thats very likely NOT reflux. but even if it was reflux, one of the main tips given in reflux literature is specifics about feeding.....especially frequent burpings. did they not read anything about how to address reflux? you can google it right now and probably find 100 sites that say to burp frequently throughout the meal. it just makes you wonder what in the world parents are even thinking. you know your kid has an issue, why not figure out how to solve it?! like with the diaper rashes....isnt it common sense to change as soon as a child has pee'ed or pooped? ESPECIALLY when they are struggling with diaper rash? you see your kid uncomfortable and even in pain and you live them in their own mess....i just dont get it.

[LoraJenkins]

LOL....This SO reminds me of my newest DC family. First time parents...child constantly vommits....then I find out they are giving him a bottle of formula every 2 hours. DUH.....overfeeding! Well needless to say withing 2 weeks he was on a 3 1/2- 4 hour feeding schedule and no more vommitting. That was 8 months ago. Now they seem to ask my opinion on EVERYTHING when it comes to the child ....and I mean EVERYTHING. Lol...sometimes I wonder how parents can be so clueless!

[Hazel]

I had this with a new family (young, first baby) and sleeping.
Said, at 4 months old, he only sleeps 20 mins at a time.. Even at night!
Found out that their version of letting him "cry it out" was waiting 10 seconds after he started!
They couldn't understand how he could (after 1 month with me) take 2 hour naps! Still 20 min naps at home! Parents were exhausted!
I finally set it up where I discussed it with them at pick up while another mom was there. She is a pediatric physicians assistant AND a mother of 2.. Normally I don't talk to the families about the other kids, but I tried to discuss self soothing with them once or twice before and I just don't think they understood.... So I mentioned it to my other DCM and she offered to play my back up if baby's mom brought it up again while she was there.. In my defense, the physicians assistant had previously heard dad mention the sleeping issue, so I wasn't gossiping! Lol
Again, baby's mom came in, looked at his daily paper and commented on how she wished he would sleep at home.. I again mentioned self soothing (only ever brought it up bc they wanted to know my secrets!!!). When she said she feels so bad letting him cry, other mom chimed in with a smile saying she completely understood! That with her first, her husband had to block the door with is body to keep her out and let the baby cry! They laughed and baby's mom said we were right, it was best for him AND them and that she would talk to husband about it! It worked, after a few weeks he would only wake 2 times during the night and go right back to sleep!

[SilverSabre25]

Out of curiosity, is this baby breastfed at home and given formula at daycare?

I was actually wondering about this too. IF SO--then I would guess he's allergic to something mom's eating. But, if he's getting bm both places then, yeah...burp 'im!

[MarinaVanessa]

Out of curiosity, is this baby breastfed at home and given formula at daycare?

He is breast-fed at home and also given home-made baby food and the mom supplies me with frozen breast-milk and a bottle along with frozen home-made baby food cubes for daycare. His parent's do give him some formula at home if he "spits-up" too much breast-milk but he apparently does the same thing with the formula (according to them). They also provided me with the same formula in case I ran out of breast-milk but I only needed to use it Friday (yesterday) and he still did not spit up. They breast-feed and bottle feed.

He really just swallows huge amounts of air and he just needs to burp because he fusses and cries sometimes while I'm bottle feeding him so I pat him pretty good and he BURPS super big ones and super loud ones, the kids all laugh and giggle when he does it. Immediately he feels better and I haven't even had a small amount of spit-up at all.

[hgonzalez]

I feel like the new thing to diagnose infants with is 'reflux'. I think 80 percent of the new little ones I have started over the last year have been diagnosed with this. I have had the same experience as you have, you simply have to burp these little ones more often. I do that and also have them sitting or reclining in a seat after feedings for awhile and I don't see anything more than a little spit up.

I have the same situation with sleeping here. I have a little one that according to her parents 'refuses' to sleep anywhere but on them! She cried a lot at first here, but within two weeks I was able to lie her down awake and have her sleep normal naptimes without a fuss. They can't believe that is even possible. I have tried to coach them on it and I think they take her out of her crib every time she makes a sound (at 7 mos old).

I know the dynamic is different between parent and child vs provider and child, but sometimes I think they don't even want to listen to our advice.

[melilley]

I feel like the new thing to diagnose infants with is 'reflux'. I think 80 percent of the new little ones I have started over the last year have been diagnosed with this. I have had the same experience as you have, you simply have to burp these little ones more often. I do that and also have them sitting or reclining in a seat after feedings for awhile and I don't see anything more than a little spit up.

I have the same situation with sleeping here. I have a little one that according to her parents 'refuses' to sleep anywhere but on them! She cried a lot at first here, but within two weeks I was able to lie her down awake and have her sleep normal naptimes without a fuss. They can't believe that is even possible. I have tried to coach them on it and I think they take her out of her crib every time she makes a sound (at 7 mos old).

I know the dynamic is different between parent and child vs provider and child, but sometimes I think they don't even want to listen to our advice.

I agree with what you said about the reflux. My daughter had reflux when she was a baby. She would actually throw up whole bottles, projectile vomit at that and yes, I did burp her often. Her doc was very concerned and I had to take her in for testing. I had to withhold her bottles for so many hours and then the doc gave her this special liquid and she had to have an x ray to see of the flap (I forget what it is called) closed when she drank, well it didn't so the liquid would just come back up. She ended up on some kind of medication and it did help a little. They said if it didn't subside by one year, she would have to have surgery....now that's reflux... It ended up correcting itself. I guess there could be more mild forms, but when you do what you and others said and just simply burp more often, and the child doesn't spit up at all, well that's the problem.

[MarinaVanessa]

I agree with what you said about the reflux. My daughter had reflux when she was a baby. She would actually throw up whole bottles, projectile vomit at that and yes, I did burp her often. Her doc was very concerned and I had to take her in for testing. I had to withhold her bottles for so many hours and then the doc gave her this special liquid and she had to have an x ray to see of the flap (I forget what it is called) closed when she drank, well it didn't so the liquid would just come back up. She ended up on some kind of medication and it did help a little. They said if it didn't subside by one year, she would have to have surgery....now that's reflux... It ended up correcting itself. I guess there could be more mild forms, but when you do what you and others said and just simply burp more often, and the child doesn't spit up at all, well that's the problem.

See in my case I don't think any of this has happened. They did mention that the baby would spit up all that he drank but when I feed him and burp him he doesn't do this. I'm assuming that if it really was severe reflux that the baby would spit i[ no matter what. Maybe he has minor reflux??? But I remember burping my two other kids at this age still even though they were 6 months and only stopped until they were burping on their own.

This little one (DCB) doesn't seem to know how to get himself to burp and you can hear him swallowing tons of air so I burp him. What your child had totally seems like reflux, from what I know about it even if you burp a baby with severe reflux there is still a chance that you will have projectile vomit but this baby hasn't spit up once with me ... not even the little tiniest bit ::

[melilley]

See in my case I don't think any of this has happened. They did mention that the baby would spit up all that he drank but when I feed him and burp him he doesn't do this. I'm assuming that if it really was severe reflux that the baby would spit i[ no matter what. Maybe he has minor reflux??? But I remember burping my two other kids at this age still even though they were 6 months and only stopped until they were burping on their own.

This little one (DCB) doesn't seem to know how to get himself to burp and you can hear him swallowing tons of air so I burp him. What your child had totally seems like reflux, from what I know about it even if you burp a baby with severe reflux there is still a chance that you will have projectile vomit but this baby hasn't spit up once with me ... not even the little tiniest bit ::

He could have minor reflux, but if he doesn't do it with you, I doubt it. You definitely should burp a baby until they do it on their own. I have an almost 6 mo. old and still burp him. Heck, my 9 year old still asks me to burp her....